15th Chapter: Verses 8, 9, 10

In the 15th chapter, the whole world is compared to the Ashvattha tree – the tree of life. Its roots are above and the branches are below. Roots represent the origin or the source which is the Atman. From this Atman, the empirical world, which is represented by the branches and leaves, evolves and moves downward. Only the Atman is eternal – the empirical world is non-eternal.

The branches and leaves represent the continuous flow of samsara (empirical world) through human desires, actions and results. One can get out of the entanglement of samsara with the strong weapon of non-attachment.

The Atman, as the source, is the root. Without it, the tree collapses. So, in the midst of our daily activities, we should remember the Atman, the source of everything.

The purpose of this metaphor is to emphasize that the phenomenal world is unreal in the absolute sense. It is real only in the relative sense. Vedanta defines something as real if (1) it remains without change in the past, present and future (2) It is beyond time, space and causation and (3) it remains without change in waking, dream and deep sleep states.

In an ocean, waves come and go, but the ocean remains the same. The waves are not unreal, but they are not permanent. They go back to the ocean and they are non-different from the ocean. Atman is like the ocean (permanent) and the phenomenal world is like the wave (impermanent and non-different from Atman).

The idea that everything in the empirical world is impermanent translates into a matured outlook and level-headedness. We don’t have to get anxious when bad news comes our way because we won’t assign permanence to that impermanent event. The 15th chapter attempts to translate what we intellectually know into spiritual common sense.

Gita ends with the verse: “Wherever the ideals of action and contemplation are present, there will be victory, prosperity, success and stability of life.” It emphasizes that we should do our actions with the efficiency of a king but combine it with the calmness and far-sightedness of a sage.

In Gita, there is an evolution of the karma ideal from the 1st to the 18th chapter. Gita starts with Arjuna’s predicament towards a duty that he is expected to do, but that is unpleasant to him. Such conflict is only faced by an evolved soul. Conflict doesn’t exist for people in two categories: (1) Who become like Buddha (2) Who are spiritually no different than an animal.

Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that he is in self-delusion. If he runs away from his duties, his duties will chase him. In strong language, he calls him a hypocrite. He says that a person who is not willing to do his duty and takes refuge in higher philosophy as a pretext for not doing his duty - he's a hypocrite.

Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna the ladder of evolution in Karma-Yoga. The first instruction is: do your work, whatever may be that work. It is better to do the work with a selfish motive than to remain inactive. At the next level, we begin to do the duty with spiritual values such as unselfishness, looking beyond tangible rewards. At the highest level, it becomes natural for us to do the duty with unselfishness. In the highest state, whatever we do, we do as an offering to God or for the good of others, with a sense of sanctity and sacredness – we are then able to combine action and contemplation in our life.

When we do our work this way, we can put our whole mind to the work and our energy and concentration is not dissipated worrying about results.

Karma theory is not fatalism. It is the opposite of fatalism. It says that we can modify our future by doing good actions. The divine is present in all of us. By doing good actions, we can manifest this divinity.

The degree of manifestation of this eternal reality depends on the purity of the person’s mind. Swami Vivekananda said that the difference between an amoeba and a Buddha is only of degrees, not of kind. Buddha is like the clean mirror, in whom the presence of the lord manifests in His full effulgence.

The central thesis of Swami Vivekananda’s teaching is: “For the good of the world and for one’s own spiritual enlightenment.” We should learn Sri Ramakrishna teachings through Swami Vivekananda. Whatever Swami Vivekananda taught came from Sri Ramakrishna.

The 8th verse discusses transmigration of the soul. It says: “When this body is destroyed, the soul within is not destroyed. It leaves the body behind and acquires a new body taking with it the senses and the mind, just like the wind carries the scent away with it.”

We are born with the baggage of past samskaras (tendencies) – we cannot disown them. We collect these tendencies in our Antahkarana through actions involving the senses and the mind. When the body is cremated, the physical senses are gone, but the Antahkarana is retained. It accompanies the soul when it takes a new body.

The 9th and 10th verses say: “In this body, there are physical senses. There is a perceiver who uses these senses to perceive sense objects. Those who are deluded equate that perceiver to the body-mind complex. Those who are enlightened see him as separate and as the real perceiver.”