Purushottama Yoga
Krishna offers a striking image: an eternal ashvattha (sacred fig) tree, its roots stretching upward and its branches spreading downward, its leaves the hymns of the Vedas — a symbol of the material world with its source in the transcendent. He tells Arjuna this tree's true extent cannot be grasped from within it, and that it must be cut down with the sharp axe of detachment, after which one should seek the origin from which, once reached, there is no return. Krishna then describes his own presence sustaining all life: he is the light within the sun and moon, the vitality that enters the earth and supports all beings, the digestive fire within every creature, and the one seated within every heart from whom memory, knowledge and their loss all come. The chapter reaches its title's culmination with the description of the Purushottama, the 'Supreme Person' — beyond both the perishable material world and the imperishable individual soul, the highest reality that, once known, brings complete understanding of everything.
“They speak of an eternal ashvattha tree, its roots above and its branches below, whose leaves are the hymns of the Vedas; one who knows this tree is a knower of the Vedas.”
“This tree's true form is not perceived here, nor its end, nor its origin, nor its foundation.”
“Having cut down this deeply-rooted tree with the strong axe of detachment, one should then seek that place from which, once reached, none return.”
“An eternal fragment of my own self becomes, in the world of the living, an individual soul, drawing to itself the mind and five senses that rest in nature.”
“I am seated in the hearts of all; from me come memory, knowledge, and their loss. I am that which is to be known through all the Vedas; I alone am the author of Vedanta, and the knower of the Vedas.”
“But beyond these two — the perishable and the imperishable — there is another, the Highest Self, called the Supreme Person, who, entering the three worlds, sustains them as their imperishable Lord.”
Chapter summaries composed for MyBrahman; verse translations from the public-domain Kashinath Trimbak Telang translation (1882, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 8) where directly checkable, and/or widely-attested traditional renderings of famous verses, cited by standard chapter.verse numbering.