Srimad Bhagavatam — Dashama Skandha, Shloka 27
The Lord’s Advent: Yoga-māyā’s Mission, Saṅkarṣaṇa’s Transfer, and the Demigods’ Prayers
एकायनोऽसौ द्विफलस्त्रिमूल-श्चतूरस: पञ्चविध: षडात्मा । सप्तत्वगष्टविटपो नवाक्षोदशच्छदी द्विखगो ह्यादिवृक्ष: ॥ २७ ॥
ekāyano ’sau dvi-phalas tri-mūlaś catū-rasaḥ pañca-vidhaḥ ṣaḍ-ātmā sapta-tvag aṣṭa-viṭapo navākṣo daśa-cchadī dvi-khago hy ādi-vṛkṣaḥ
The body [the total body and the individual body are of the same composition] may figuratively be called “the original tree.” From this tree, which fully depends on the ground of material nature, come two kinds of fruit — the enjoyment of happiness and the suffering of distress. The cause of the tree, forming its three roots, is association with the three modes of material nature — goodness, passion and ignorance. The fruits of bodily happiness have four tastes — religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation — which are experienced through five senses for acquiring knowledge in the midst of six circumstances: lamentation, illusion, old age, death, hunger and thirst. The seven layers of bark covering the tree are skin, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and semen, and the eight branches of the tree are the five gross and three subtle elements — earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. The tree of the body has nine hollows — the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the rectum and the genitals — and ten leaves, the ten airs passing through the body. In this tree of the body there are two birds: one is the individual soul, and the other is the Supersoul.
This material world is composed of five principal elements — earth, water, fire, air and ether — all of which are emanations from Kṛṣṇa. Although materialistic scientists may accept these five primary elements as the cause of the material manifestation, these elements in their gross and subtle states are produced by Kṛṣṇa, whose marginal potency also produces the living entities working within this material world. The Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā clearly states that the entire cosmic manifestation is a combination of two of Kṛṣṇa’s energies — the superior energy and the inferior energy. The living entities are the superior energy, and the inanimate material elements are His inferior energy. In the dormant stage, everything rests in Kṛṣṇa.
FAQs
This verse describes the material world as an original tree with symbolic parts—roots, branches, bark, leaves, and two birds—indicating the structured, entangling nature of saṁsāra and the presence of both the individual soul and the Supreme within it.
They use a well-known Vedic metaphor to show that the Lord is the ultimate basis and overseer of the entire material arrangement, and that only by taking shelter of Him can one cut through entanglement.
See worldly pleasures as ‘two fruits’ that bind the mind, and consciously choose devotion—hearing, chanting, and remembering Krishna—as the way to rise above repeated anxiety and attachment.