In Chap­ter XV of the Bha­gavad Gita, Lord Krish­na presents the alle­go­ry of the Aswattha tree, sym­bol­iz­ing mate­r­i­al life, to impart wis­dom on detach­ment and spir­i­tu­al lib­er­a­tion. He describes how the Aswattha tree, known as the Banyan tree, stands with its roots upwards and branch­es down, mir­ror­ing the inver­sion of spir­i­tu­al real­i­ty in phys­i­cal exis­tence. This tree’s leaves sym­bol­ize the hymns of the Vedas, whis­per­ing truths of the uni­verse to those who under­stand its nature.

Krish­na explains that the branch­es, which stretch towards heav­en and earth, rep­re­sent human actions born from the three qual­i­ties (gunas) of nature, lead­ing to the cycle of cause and effect in the earth­ly and heav­en­ly realms. The tree’s con­tin­u­ous growth, dri­ven by the sun’s warmth and air, par­al­lels human desires under the influ­ence of sen­so­ry expe­ri­ences. Its roots, anchor­ing it to the ground, sig­ni­fy actions in the mate­r­i­al world bind­ing the soul with ever-tight­en­ing chains.

To tran­scend this cycle of rebirth and attach­ment, Krish­na advis­es wield­ing the axe of detach­ment to sev­er the roots of igno­rance and desire, there­by lay­ing low the Aswattha tree of sense-life. This act sym­bol­izes break­ing free from the cycle of sam­sara (rein­car­na­tion) to attain eter­nal bliss and uni­ty with the Divine.

Krish­na fur­ther declares that those who under­stand the true essence of the Aswattha tree, acknowl­edg­ing its ori­gin, form, and the ulti­mate end, will seek refuge in the Supreme Being. By doing so, they will tran­scend tem­po­ral plea­sures and suf­fer­ings, mov­ing beyond the reach of earth­ly tem­pests to a realm where no sun, moon, or world­ly light pre­vails, but where divine radi­ance exists. In this eter­nal abode, souls bask in the ulti­mate peace and sanc­ti­ty, hav­ing returned to the ori­gin from which they once emerged.

This dis­course illus­trates the jour­ney of the soul from igno­rance to enlight­en­ment, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of detach­ment, dis­cern­ment, and devo­tion to the divine for lib­er­a­tion from the cycle of birth and death. Through this alle­go­ry, Krish­na guides aspi­rants towards spir­i­tu­al lib­er­a­tion, urg­ing them to pur­sue a path that leads away from the tran­sient to the ever­last­ing real­i­ty.