Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

The Bhagavad Gita, the Lord’s song, is a dialogue between Lord Sri Krishna and Pandava Prince Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

The fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita may be the shortest, with only twenty verses, but it still manages to summarise the entire vision of Vedanta in its verses. Titled ‘Purushottama Yoga’, it discusses the nature of Pure Awareness with all its implications.

This chapter mystically describes the nature of the world with the metaphor of an upside-down ashvattha tree, which can be cut down by the axe of steady and firm non-attachment. Having thus laid the foundation, the Lord next enumerates the nature of the individual soul or jiva. Continuing the thread of thought, the nature of God or Ishvara is then expounded upon.

Having unravelled each individual constituent, the Lord goes on to tie all ends together by explaining the relationship between the three. In this way, the fifteenth chapter systematically explains some of the simple yet profound questions that philosophy seeks to answer.

This album contains discourses by Swami Advayananda, recorded in August 2022, during the Vedanta Sadhaka Course held in Adi Sankara Nilayam.