With roots, which upward rise and with branches which
descend, the Ashvattha (the eternal banyan tree) is said to be indestructible.
Its leaves are Vedic hymns. He who knoweth the tree, he knoweth the Vedas. (Chapter
XV – Verse 1)
Sadhu Vaswani Explains the Verse
- Krishna pictures Prakriti (cosmos, the world) as the Ashvattha tree.
- The word ‘Ashvattha’ means ‘not stable,’ ‘in a flux.’
The Ashvattha was in popular belief, a tree growing with its
roots spread above, its branches below. Is not the world such a tree?
The ashvattha is the banyan tree. Is not the world the
eternal banyan? It proceeds from avyakta maya – but above it is God. But only
men of vairagya (detachment) will see the world tree in God and know that its
root rises upward in the eternal.
Of this cosmic or world-tree, the tree of prakriti, the
roots rise upward, i.e., are above the ground or the visible world. The root is
high above in the avyakta, the unmanifest the root is maya.
The tree has leaves: they were the Vedic mantras, hymns. The
leaves give shade and shelter. So in life’s journey, in this world, men may
find shade and shelter in the Vedic hymns, in the great thoughts and mantras of
the Rishis and the sages.