15.1 Krishna, the messenger, conveyed the word of God: They speak of an imperishable aśvattha tree, with roots above and branches below, whose leaves are the hymns; he who knows it knows the scripture.

15.2 Its branches spread below and above, nourished by the qualities, its buds the objects of sense; and below, its roots stretch out, binding men to action in the world of men.

15.3 Its true form is not perceived here, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its foundation. Cutting down this firmly rooted tree of worldly attachment with the strong axe of detachment,

15.4 one must seek that state from which, once reached, there is no turning back, saying: I take refuge in the One, the First, from whom the ancient stream of creation came forth.

15.5 Free from pride and delusion, having conquered the evil of attachment, ever devoted to the soul's purpose, desires turned away, freed from the pairs of pleasure and pain, the undeluded reach that eternal state.

15.6 Neither sun nor moon nor fire illumines it; having reached it, they do not return to loss: that is My supreme abode.

15.7 The soul in the world of living beings is My creation, eternal by My will; it draws to itself the mind and the senses that rest in matter.

15.8 When the soul takes a body and when it leaves it, it carries these with it, as the wind carries scents from their source.

15.9 Presiding over ear and eye, touch, taste and smell, and the mind, it experiences the objects of sense.

15.10 The deluded do not see it as it departs, or as it remains and experiences, joined to the qualities; those with the eye of knowledge see.

15.11 Those who strive with discipline see it within themselves; but those who strive without purifying themselves, the thoughtless, do not see it.

15.12 The light that is in the sun and illumines the whole world, that which is in the moon and in fire – know that it is My gift.

15.13 By My power I uphold all beings, entering the earth with My life-giving force; I nourish all plants, becoming through My command the sap of life.

15.14 I have placed the fire of digestion within the bodies of living beings, and, joined with the breaths, it digests the fourfold food by My decree.

15.15 I am near to the heart of every being; from Me come memory, knowledge and their loss; I am He who is to be known through all the scriptures; I am the Author of their end, and the Knower of the scriptures.

15.16 There are two kinds of beings in this world, the perishable and the imperishable; all creatures are perishable, and the steadfast soul is called imperishable.

15.17 But other than these is the Highest Person, called the Supreme Self, the Eternal Lord, who sustains the three worlds and encompasses them.

15.18 Since I am beyond the perishable and higher even than the imperishable, I am proclaimed in the world and in the scriptures as the Supreme Person.

15.19 He who, free from delusion, knows Me thus as the Supreme Person, knows all, and worships Me with all his being, O Bharata.

15.20 Thus this most secret teaching has been revealed by Me, O sinless one; knowing it, a man becomes wise and his work is fulfilled, O Bharata.