The Yoga of the Supreme Person. Chapter 15 opens with the Gīta's most striking cosmological image — the inverted Aśvattha tree of Saṃsāra — and then introduces a tripartite ontology: the Kṣara (perishable), the Akṣara (imperishable), and the Puruṣottama (the Supreme Person who transcends and pervades both). BG 15.15: Kṛṣṇa is seated in the hearts of all beings as memory, knowledge, and their removal.
Sanskrit name: Puruṣottama-yoga
Verses: 20
Speaker: Kṛṣṇa (throughout)
Key verses: 15.1–15.4, 15.15, 15.16–15.18
Chapter Summary
Chapter 15 is the Gīta's most concise metaphysical synthesis. The Aśvattha tree simile (BG 15.1–15.4) images all of Saṃsāra as an inverted tree whose roots are above (in Brahman) and whose branches spread downward into the phenomenal world. To be liberated is to cut this tree down with the axe of non-attachment and find the original ground. The chapter then introduces the tripartite ontology — Kṣara (all beings in the phenomenal world), Akṣara (the unchanging Puruṣa of the liberated), and Puruṣottama (the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa, who stands beyond and pervades both). BG 15.15 establishes Kṛṣṇa as the inner support of all beings' cognition — memory, knowledge, and their removal all flow from him.
Name:Puruṣottama-yoga — the yoga of the Supreme Person. Puruṣa = person, consciousness, the cosmic person; uttama = highest, supreme, best. Puruṣottama = the Supreme Person — beyond both the perishable and the imperishable, yet pervasively present in both.
Chapter 15 images all of Saṃsāra as an inverted tree whose roots are in the eternal and whose branches spread down into the phenomenal world, then introduces Kṛṣṇa as the Puruṣottama — the Supreme Person who is higher than both the perishable world and the eternal principle of liberation — present in every heart as the source of memory, knowledge, and their removal.
"They speak of the imperishable Aśvattha tree with its roots above and branches below —"
छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित्
chandāṃsi yasya parṇāni yas taṃ veda sa veda-vit
"— whose leaves are the Vedic metres. One who knows it knows the Vedas." (15.1)
The Aśvattha (sacred fig, Ficus religiosa) is the sacred tree of the Indian tradition — the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, the Vibhūti of BG 10.26. Here it images Saṃsāra itself: inverted, with its roots in the eternal above and its branches spreading downward into the phenomenal world. The Vedic metres as its leaves: the teachings of the tradition are the foliage of this tree of Saṃsāra. BG 15.2 elaborates: the branches extend both downward and upward, nourished by the Guṇas; sense objects are its shoots; its roots spread further downward into the human world as the bonds of action.
BG 15.3–15.4 — Cutting the tree with the axe of non-attachment
"Its form is not thus perceived here — neither its end, beginning, nor its foundation. Having cut this deep-rooted Aśvattha with the mighty axe of non-attachment (asaṅga-śastreṇa dṛḍhena) — thereafter one should seek that place, having reached which one does not return — 'I take refuge in that primal Puruṣa from whom this ancient activity flowed forth'" (BG 15.3–15.4). The practical instruction: the tree of Saṃsāra cannot be mapped or comprehended from within — it has no visible end, beginning, or foundation. The only path is to cut it entirely with the axe of radical non-attachment, and seek the source.
The three levels of being — BG 15.16–15.18
Kṣara
the perishable
All beings in the phenomenal world — all that is subject to change, decay, and death. The entire mutable, transient domain of conditioned existence. BG 15.16: "dvāv imau puruṣau loke kṣaraś cākṣara eva ca / kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni" — the perishable consists of all beings.
Akṣara
the imperishable
The unchanging, the unmoved — "kūṭa-stho 'kṣara ucyate" — that which stands as the summit, unmoving. Interpreted as the liberated Ātman or the unmanifest Brahman — the stable ground beyond all change. Higher than the Kṣara.
Puruṣottama
the Supreme Person
Kṛṣṇa himself — beyond both Kṣara and Akṣara, pervading and sustaining the three worlds. BG 15.18: "yasmāt kṣaram atīto 'ham akṣarād api cottamaḥ / ato 'smi loke vede ca prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥ" — Because I transcend the perishable and am higher even than the imperishable, I am celebrated in the world and in the Vedas as Puruṣottama.
BG 15.16–15.18. Gambhirananda (trans.), pp. 627–632.
"— from Me come memory, knowledge, and their removal."
वेदैश्च सर्वैरहमेव वेद्यो
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
"By all the Vedas I alone am to be known —"
वेदान्तकृद्वेदविदेव चाहम्
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
"— I am the author of the Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas."
This verse is one of the Gīta's most intimate theological statements. Three claims operate together: (1) Kṛṣṇa is seated in the heart of every being — he is the indwelling presence, the inner controller (antaryāmin); (2) memory (smṛti), knowledge (jñāna), and their removal (apohanam) all flow from him — every act of cognition and its cessation has him as the ultimate source; (3) he is what all the Vedas point to — the Vedānta (end/culmination of the Vedas) is his creation, and he is its knower. The Vedic tradition is, from within, pointing at the one who is seated in all hearts.
BG 15.6 — the supreme abode
BG 15.6: na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ / yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṃ mama — "Neither the sun illuminates it, nor the moon, nor fire. Having reached it, one does not return. That is My supreme abode." This verse describes the ultimate destination — not within the cosmos (which requires the sun, moon, and fire for its illumination) but the source of all light. The supreme abode is self-luminous because it is Brahman itself — the ground of consciousness that makes all other light possible. Reaching it, one does not return to the cycle of birth and death (na nivartante).
The inverted Aśvattha tree of BG 15.1 has its primary source in Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.3.1: ūrdhva-mūlo 'vāk-śākha eṣo 'śvatthaḥ sanātanaḥ / tad eva śukraṃ tad brahma tad evāmṛtam ucyate — "This eternal Aśvattha has its root above and branches below. That alone is the pure, that is Brahman, that alone is called the immortal." The BG inherits this image and develops it into an action-instruction: the tree is to be cut down with the axe of non-attachment (BG 15.3–15.4). The Upaniṣad contemplates the image; the Gīta converts it into a practical instruction for liberation. The tree's roots being above signals that the ultimate ground of Saṃsāra is not below (in the phenomenal world) but above — in Brahman, in the eternal, in the Puruṣottama.
KaṭhU 2.3.1. Olivelle trans. (OUP, 1996). BG 15.1–15.4. Gambhirananda (trans.), pp. 619–622; Zaehner (OUP, 1969), pp. 360–363.
Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita on the tripartite ontology
The Kṣara-Akṣara-Puruṣottama distinction (BG 15.16–15.18) is one of the most contested in the entire Gīta commentary tradition. Śaṅkara: the Akṣara is the unmanifest Māyā-śakti (the power of Brahman from which the phenomenal world arises); the Puruṣottama is Nirguṇa Brahman, beyond both the phenomenal world (Kṣara) and the unmanifest power (Akṣara). BG 15.18 — "I transcend the Akṣara" — means that the ultimate Brahman transcends even the unmanifest ground of Saṃsāra.
Rāmānuja reads the Akṣara as referring to the individual liberated selves (jīvātmans in liberation — kūṭa-stha, standing as the summit, unmoved). The Puruṣottama (Viṣṇu/Kṛṣṇa) is higher even than the liberated selves — the three levels are: (1) conditioned individual selves in Saṃsāra (Kṣara), (2) liberated individual selves (Akṣara), (3) Viṣṇu, who is the Lord of both (Puruṣottama).
BG 15.16–15.18. Gambhirananda (Śaṅkara, pp. 627–632); Thibaut, SBE Vol.48 (Rāmānuja on 15.16–15.18); Zaehner (pp. 364–368).
Primary Sources for Chapter 15
BG Chapter 15 complete (20 verses) — Gambhirananda trans. (Advaita Ashrama, 2006), pp. 619–635. Śaṅkara on BG 15.1–15.4 (inverted tree); 15.6 (supreme abode); 15.15 (Kṛṣṇa in all hearts); 15.16–15.18 (tripartite ontology). Thibaut, SBE Vol.48 (Rāmānuja on 15.16–15.18). Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.3.1 (Olivelle, OUP, 1996) — source of the inverted tree. Zaehner (OUP, 1969), pp. 360–372.
Identification of the Akṣara (Śaṅkara: unmanifest Māyā-śakti; Rāmānuja: liberated individual selves); identification of Puruṣottama (Śaṅkara: Nirguṇa Brahman; Rāmānuja: Viṣṇu as Lord of both Kṣara and Akṣara)
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Cite as
"BG Chapter 15 — Sanātana Dharma Codex", thecodex.expert/sanatana-dharma/texts/bhagavad-gita/chapter-15/, last updated May 2026.
Sources used on this page
Tier 1 — Primary text + commentary: Bhagavad Gīta 15.1–15.20 with Śaṅkara's Gītābhāṣya · trans. Swami Gambhirananda (Advaita Ashrama, 2006), pp. 619–635
Tier 1 — Commentary: Rāmānuja, Gītābhāṣya on BG 15.16–15.18 · trans. George Thibaut (SBE Vol. 48, Oxford, 1904)
Tier 1 — Parallel source: Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.3.1 · trans. Patrick Olivelle (Oxford University Press, 1996)
Tier 2 — Academic: R. C. Zaehner (trans. and notes), The Bhagavad-Gītā (Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 360–372