The Lord said: "There is a Banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.
The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three levels of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This three also has roots going down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society.
The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment. So doing, one must seek that place from which, having once gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything has begun and in whom everything is abiding since time immemorial.
One who is free form illusion, false prestige, and false association, who understands the eternal who is done with material lust and is freed from the duality of happiness and distress, and who knows how to surrender unto the Supreme Person, attains to that eternal kingdom.
That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, or by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world.
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with six senses, which include the mind.
The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.
The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, tongue, and nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set sense objects.
The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this. | |