Wager of Ambrosia

Chapter 6

The Tree of Cosmic Existence

The fifteenth chapter of the Gita begins with a description of the astounding tree of cosmic existence, having its roots in the infinite above and its thousand branches plunging and spreading here around. But it is not possible for us to know the true nature of this strange Ashwattha tree, with its foundation fixed in the timeless Eternal; it is an ever-widening movement carrying the ancient urge to act and grow, in activity to give shape and form to the manifestive Spirit and in growth to bring and establish more and more of its Light, Knowledge, Truth, Love, Beauty, Joy in the workings of a ceaseless process. The whole secret of this tree, with its roots in heaven and its branches and its thick green foliage in the world of men, is in the triple personality of the Supreme, his three poises or statuses of consciousness, the outward-going or the externalising, the passive or retiring from action, and the trans-creational that holds together birth and non-birth and all that is in them and beyond them. In the language of the Gita we have Kshara, Akshara and Uttama Purusha in the greatness of what is and what shall be as the expressed Truth of the Absolute. Such is the unimpaired basis of the formulation worked out by it.

It is therefore necessary to see the problem of phenomenal creation in the context of this fundamental postulate; in it alone can our dilemma arising out of discordant perceptions find its complete resolution. The Gita handles it in terms of cyclic movements of the dynamic Self, Kshara, witnessed and supported by the quiescent immutable Self of Silence, Akshara, potent in its aspects of manifold becoming; transcending and yet holding all this vast becoming there is ever present the supreme Lord, Purushottama, indivisible, without beginning and without end, from whom arise these countless universes and in whom they live or into whom they merge when they fulfill his will which has brought them into birth.

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This is the great doctrine, the esoteric Shastra taught by the Teacher on the battlefield of life to his fond friend and dear disciple; he has been gradually prepared to receive this occult-spiritual knowledge which alone can unravel the mystery of this existence. It is a sure means to overcome the travails of this earthly life, a path that leads the seeker-soul away from all conflicts and clashes and takes him to the truth of divinity in creation. In it all his understanding and action and feeling find their perfection; he then lives always working out his swabhava, his characteristic nature, in the ideality of the eternal Dharma. Thus indeed he comes to know the meaning and marvel of the great Ashwattha tree.

Arjuna was given the psychological basis to arrive at a point at which he would be in a position to free himself from what is mundane and binding. The description of the Kshara Purusha may appear to take him away from all world-action, fleeting and blameworthy as it is. If what is, is nothing but a semblance, an appearance, then the only way available would be to get out of it. The spirit working in these short-lived insubstantialities cannot offer any redemption to man bound to the inferior play of the lower Nature. But there is also the immutable Being, itself without activity though supporting activity. This Akshara Purusha leads us away from creation, this phenomenal becoming, to the condition of self-existence in its immobile impersonality. If so, the injunction of the Gita “to fight and conquer” would appear to come as a contradiction for the warrior on the battlefield of life. The Gita, however, reconciles these two opposing tendencies in its formulation of the Uttama Purusha who simultaneously holds these both together in his nature of luminous manifestive activity. Arjuna is enjoined to recognise this and act in the dharma of his soul.

The introductory verses of Jnaneshwar apropos of the world-tree run as follows: “One who is in possession of knowledge is the master of his being and has the merit of performing a hundred sacrifices

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to get the abundant wealth of heaven. Or, he is someone who has taken birth a hundred times to do the work of the Eternal, the work by which the Eternal himself acquires his status of being the Eternal; for, there is no other method. Or, the way the light of innumerable suns becomes available only to one who has a seeing eye, in that manner does the soul which is in possession of knowledge attain liberation.” Having thus asserted the supremacy of knowledge, the Preceptor shows the path of enlightened detachment by which the ardent seeker of truth gets rid of the things and happenings of this transient and sorrowful world. In the present context, the Path of Relinquishment, nivritti, seems preferable to the Path of Affirmation, pravritti, as a necessity for the entangled creature to free himself from the bondage of this mortality. Viewed exclusively from this angle the world-tree takes a distinct form of phenomenality of the Kshara Purusha, mutable as if without the support of the Immutable behind and above him. Thus alone would perhaps prosper the worldliness of the world.

With this preparatory groundwork Jnaneshwar expounds in great detail, and with high élan, the fundamental propositions emanating from the first shloka of this chapter, the discourse running into some hundred owis. The terse rather the dense and yet luminous expression of the original is rendered here into a language that is lyrically sweet and enchanting without becoming metaphysically irrelevant; in the process, in that joyous expansive mood, least does it suffer distortion. Not only do we have the substance of spiritual philosophy in its trueness; there is throughout the authenticity of overhead poetry with its genuine power of revelation coming from beyond the mental consciousness. Let us have a quick look at this Ashwattha tree depicted by the Yogi-Poet.

(The Gita: 15.1)

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With its original source above, its branches stretching below, the Ashwattha is said to be eternal and imperishable; the  leaves of it are the hymns of the Veda; he who knows it is the Veda-knower. (The Message of the Gita, p. 213)

You have taken the path,—expatiates Jnaneshwar on the Teacher’s words spoken to Arjuna,—leading to the house of the supreme Being; but then what comes immediately as an obstacle in your way is a certain illusory sense of this universe. You begin to take its apparent character, the semblance, this mundane life and these futile rounds of birth as the whole meaning and substance of existence. But it is not really so. Instead, here grows and flourishes the Great Tree, mahataru, planted by that Being himself. However, you should not make the mistake that this tree is just like any other common tree with its roots drawing nourishment from the soil, and branches shooting upward. Its origin is in the Above and what is amazing about it is that it spreads and spreads downward. No words can describe this marvel. All that we might simply say is that an axe cannot hew this cosmic tree, nor can fire burn it. Does not the sun shine at a great height in heaven and yet scatter abroad in all directions the network of its rays? The way the Flood at the end of a cosmic cycle, pralaya, inundates everything, so has this tree occupied the entire creation. If you are looking for a fruit to have its taste, or a flower to smell its fragrance, then you will find none there; for, indeed, whatever is, is this tree alone. The sky has become the cause for the rich and thriving expanse of its foliage, and the wind blows because of it, and the triple process of creation-sustenance-dissolution arises and abides in it. Such an Up-rooted tree, strong and majestic, thick and sprawling widely, has appeared here now in its universal form and it is from this tree that we desire to gather all merits.

But why at all do the well-versed in spiritual lore call this tree the Ashwattha? Actually, as far as the Eternal is concerned, it has no beginning and no middle and no end; there are no divisions in it, no

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boundaries, no directions marked for it in space and time, it being beyond them. But by the fact that it is above this tree, urdhva, we recognise it to be so, self-existent in its delight of awareness. Imagine a stringed instrument,—and it is but the original sound that is really present in it even before the string is plucked; imagine a flower,—and it is but its fragrance before the flower blooms. It is the self of bliss even long before the sense of enjoyment is born out of it. It has no here and there, and no spot specific to it, and no event tells anything about it; it has no front and no back and, remaining invisible, it can yet see though it doesn’t seem to have an eye. By its attributes and qualities, its descriptive and discriminative faculties, with several names and several forms is it known to us, even as in its manynesses it grows and expands in the sky. It is neither the knower nor the known, but only the knowledge; it has occupied the whole creation by being there as an all-pervading subtle presence. It is neither cause nor effect, duality nor non-duality, but it is comprehending and apprehending consciousness,—such is that Eternal. Out of that Eternal, the supreme Brahman, has come into existence by its conceptively creative power, by its mysterious Maya, this astounding tree itself, known as Ashwattha. In that Maya is the reality of this enormous tree holding a cosmic purpose in the Will of the Eternal.

Speaking about this Ashwattha tree Tilak in his remarkable Gita Rahasya brings out several references from the ancient scriptures. We may mention en passant that Tilak wrote his commentary on the Gita when he was given “compulsory rest” in Mandalay Jail from 1908 to 1914. There is an inspired directness and clarity in his style, indicating a wide-ranging mind and a will that affirms itself in life. Referring to the inverted tree of the first shloka of the fifteenth chapter, he says: “It is a description of the Eternal Tree, Brahma Vriksha, which otherwise is known as the World Tree, Samsar Vriksha. Samsar here means the world as is visible to us, the phenomenal world or the creation we can perceive and cognise, and not just the trivial rounds of our daily life. Sankhya calls it the multifold wideness of the active

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Prakriti and Vedanta the sprawling expanse of God’s Maya. Anugita names it Brahma Vriksha and Brahmavana or Brahmaranya. The way an imposing sky-embracing tree grows from a tiny seed, so appears out of the unmanifest Supreme Lord this tree in the nature of a visible creation. This metaphor or conception about the tree is present not only in Vedic literature, but also in other old writings of Europe. Ancient India calls it Vishva or Cosmic Tree. In the Rig Veda (I.24.7) there is a description about a radiant tree in the World of Varuna; while the source of its rays is above, the rays emanating from it spread here down below. In the Thousand Names of Vishnu the Tree of Varuna is one of the names of Vishnu. Under this tree (Supalash Vriksha) Yama and our forefathers sat together to share a drink (X.135.1); two birds of beautiful plumage dwell on it (I.164.22); this is the same tree whose leaves rustle as the Winds blow (V.54.12). In the Atharva Veda this Ashwattha tree is located in the third celestial world, the World of Varuna. Once Agni, in the guise of a horse, Ashwa, stayed under this tree for a year and hence it is called Ashwattha... . In the Katha Upanishad we have the eternal Ashwattha tree whose root is above but whose branches are downward. The Gita has undoubtedly lifted up this image and brought out its true significance in several details while incorporating it in its revelatory discourse... .”

Tracing the origin of the World-Maya in Brahman, Jnaneshwar proceeds to describe it in relation to the phenomenal creation. We can neither say that she exists, nor can we maintain that she exists not; she is neither sat nor asat, and thought cannot figure her out, or give to her a name by defining her in any way. She is so, primordially ever there, without any beginning, Energy of the Supreme in the act of creation. As it is wrong to speak of the children of a barren woman, so is she known to us—known only in ignorance and appearing unreal in knowledge. Indeed, there is no illusory Maya in Brahma Jnana, in the Knowledge of the Eternal. Elaborating further on the nature of this mysterious Maya, Jnaneshwar gives a number of examples. She is a chest of drawers containing innumerable doctrines and principles

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and propositions; she upbears this mundane existence which is just like a drifting and inconstant unsteady cloud in the wideness of the sky; only because of her, everything here looks like the folds of a piece of cloth.

So, in the immediate view, what we have here is, after all, just the growth and vigorous blossoming of Prakriti, Prakriti Vistar, the imaginative-creative display and functioning, the daily trivia, the rut of household affairs and matters of Maya, Maya Prapancha. Such is she established in Brahman the Spirit, working in its potency. She is a tiny seed from which issues forth, as the Vedantist says, this world-tree. Hers is the theme for human action in the theatre of human life. She is a lamp of contradictive and misleading light that does not give true knowledge. Coming out of the Eternal and yet as if throwing a shadow on the Eternal is she; she seems to make even that Eternal forget itself. Jnaneshwar explains this with the help of a vivid example. Think of a person who has fallen asleep and in that sleep experiences a dream: A beautiful young woman is seen sharing his bed; after a while, as she gets up in that dream, she embraces him and excites his passions which he carries with him even when he is awake. In this way we can understand the infatuation of the Eternal that it becomes self-oblivious under her sway. Therefore whatever is here is all ignorance, avidya. In the Pure Existent is now carried on the play of this strange inexplicable Maya. We witness her as lower Nature or Apara Prakriti, cut off from the supreme Source. It even gives us a strong sense of abiding illusion. Non-cognisance of that supreme Origin in this wide functioning of hers is at the root of this world-tree’s appearance as non-Brahmic.

Jnaneshwar then proceeds to link up her works with the Sankhya description of this vast material creation. It essentially follows the Puranic tradition of the gross physical universe as a product of the eightfold Nature, ashtadha prakriti, emanating from and working in the power of Maya. Out of the Consciousness-Force, chidvritti, shoot

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out, like twigs and branches of this cosmic tree, the three subjective principles and five objective faculties. Primordial matter as Prakriti is unmanifest, eternal, exists both as cause and effect, is undifferentiated and as the source of all categories gives rise to this creation. There are twenty-four categories or tanmatras defining, in a way, the aspects of the Qualified Eternal, saguna brahma; these evolutes are made of five gross elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether), five subtle elements (smell, taste, colour, touch, sound), four internal senses (mind, understanding, ego, reason), five senses of perception (hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell) and five organs of action (tongue, hands, feet, organs of generation and defecation). But Prakriti by herself cannot proceed in her works without the agency of Purusha activating her. Purusha as Kala or Time therefore becomes the twenty-fifth evolute. The Creator by his own Energy or Maya abides, unaffected, in living beings as the Purusha, the Inner Controller, and outside them as the dynamic force of effectuation that is Kala. The nature of this Kala is seen as a constant change occurring in the cosmic tree called Ashwattha. Tracing the etymology of the word ashwattha, Jnaneshwar says that shwa means tomorrow and therefore ashwattha means that which does not stay the same until tomorrow. Yet it is imperishable, does not disappear in Time. Its perpetuity is the aspect of immortality in the mortal world. It is always there. Its steadfast constant and unceasing motion presents itself in the nature of stillness; its stability lies in the eternal recurrence of movement. A spinning-top appears stationary while whirling rapidly on its axis; so does this world-tree. Jnaneshwar gives half-a-dozen examples to illustrate the point with the intention of bringing out the changing if not evanescent feature of this phenomenal existence.

The general drift of these verses of Jnaneshwar is towards the exclusive approach of the man of knowledge, Jnani. His Maya-Yoga essentially highlights the ephemeral or fleeting character of the Ashwattha tree, upadhicheni pade kshanikatva is what this world is, which is in quite sharp contrast to the featureless and impersonal

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immutable Self of Silence. The Lord of this constantly changing formation of Maya, Kshara Purusha himself, thus seems to acquire the character of impermanence. This is a natural consequence of the acceptance of the Path of Relinquishment, Nivritti Marg.

In order to get out of this phenomenality it is necessary to use the strong sword of detachment; asanga shastrena dhridena chhitva is the injunction of the Gita. While this is perfectly valid in the pragmatism of the process, and without it there cannot be any real spiritual progress, it must be considered only as the initial step, as a functional aspect in the recognition of parameters of the present existence. We must withdraw and sever ourselves from what is false. But there is another complementary sequence also, promoting action, Pravritti Marg which indeed should change this nature. And could that not be the real intention behind the process?

Jnaneshwar, however, following Nivritti Marg, is practically subscribing to the Shankarite Theory of Maya as an illusory power and not as a conceptively creative force in world-manifestation. Not that this interpretation is altogether indefensible. Nor is such a spiritual experience entirely invalid. The first few shlokas of this chapter of the Gita can very easily lend themselves to such a possible point of view or explanation of this cosmic tree of existence.

The branches of this cosmic tree extend both below and above (below in the material, above in the supraphysical planes), they grow by the gunas of Nature; the sensible objects are its foliage, downward here into the world of men it plunges its roots of attachment and desire with the consequences of an endlessly developing action. The real form of it cannot be perceived by us in this material world of man’s embodiment, nor its beginning nor its end, nor its foundation; having cut down this firmly rooted Ashwattha by the strong sword of detachment, one should seek that highest goal whence, once having reached it, there is no

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compulsion of return to mortal life; I turn (says the Vedantic verse) to seek that original soul alone from whom proceeds the original sempiternal urge to action. To be free from the bewilderment of this lower Maya, without egoism, the great fault of attachment conquered, jitasangadosha, all desires stilled, the duality of joy and grief cast away, always to be fixed in a pure spiritual consciousness, these are the steps of the way to that supreme Infinite.

(The Message of the Gita, p. 214, edited by Anilbaran Roy, based on Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita)

But, at a later stage, the Gita speaks of the three Purushas, synthesising the Kshara and Akshara in the Uttama. In fact, transference of the attributes of the drifting and unsteady phenomenal Nature, the play of inferior Maya, to the ever-existent Kshara Purusha who presides over the works of this Nature, is not acceptable to the Aurobindonian experience and philosophy of the spirit. That which belongs to Nature, and for whatever reason or purpose it be there, cannot be considered directly as a part of the Being. We have to fully understand and appreciate the working of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind Maya. Jnaneshwar,—or for that matter the ancient esoteric seer and thinker,—was not really concerned with the physical universe and hence always a hiatus remained between the material and the spiritual. However, we should also remember that the scriptural poetry is never a metaphysical treatise and we have to understand its shades and nuances in their full richness. The language of the poet which is always a suggestive language does not necessarily bind him to any specific system of philosophy and it is his Word of Revelation alone which we must accept.

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