Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 15, Verse 2: Krishna to Arjuna — Puruṣottama-Yoga
Its branches spread upward and downward, fed by the three gunas, with sense-objects as their tender shoots; and below, in the human world, secondary roots take hold, tangled in karma, driving birth after birth.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The branches of this ashvattha (samsara-tree) — the world-appearances — stretch downward through animal births and upward through Brahmaloka, fattened by the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) which are the material cause (upadana-karana) of all embodiment, with sense-objects (vishaya) as their tender shoots. These are not independent realities but superimpositions upon the one Brahman, mistaken for substance just as a shoot is mistaken for the tree itself. Below, in the human world specifically, subsidiary roots proliferate — the volitional impressions (vasana) born of desire and aversion from past experience — and these roots are karma-anubandhin (bound to further karma), perpetuating the cycle precisely because the human realm alone confers the adhikara (competence) for karma and thus for its cessation through jnana.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
Upward to the realm of Brahma and downward to the human threshold, the branches of this samsara-tree spread — all jivas (individual souls) who are the body of Bhagavan, diversified by gunas into their respective births. In the human world the subsidiary roots take hold — and these roots are nothing other than karma itself, karma-anubandhin, meaning that the karmas performed in human birth are the very seeds that determine whether one rises to deva-janma or falls to pashu-janma. The human world is the pivot: it is here, by karma performed as kainkarya (loving service) to Bhagavan, that the soul may redirect its trajectory entirely, choosing ascent toward Bhagavat-prapatti rather than cycling through the gunas.
- Madhvadvaita
The tree extends both down and up because Bhagavan Hari, the true root (mula), pervades both the manifest (vyakta) and unmanifest (avyakta) realms — the Bhallaveya-shakha text confirms: 'Brahma is its distinct root, prakriti its co-root, the sattva-di (sattva and the rest) are its intermediate root.' The gunas produce the appearance of enjoyment in sense-objects (vishaya-pravala), but these are pratiti-matra (appearance only), not real pleasure. In the human world, the subsidiary roots are karma-anubandhin — Bhagavan Hari himself grants fruit in accordance with karma, being the inner regulator (antaryamin), and jivas remain eternally distinct (nitya-bhinna) from him even while utterly dependent. The tree 'does not stand still, does not stand still' — this is the Bhallaveya-shakha's own refrain for the instability of all conditioned existence.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
The branches extending above and below represent the virtuous (sukritinah) and the sinful (duskritinah) among souls — they are nourished by the gunas as water nourishes a tree, and sense-pleasures (vishaya) are their blossoms (pravala), alluring but ephemeral. All of this is Krishna's own lila-prasada (grace through divine play): the subsidiary roots (vasana) proliferating in the human world, karma-anubandhin, binding souls to further births above and below, are themselves expressions of his inscrutable will. The human birth (manushya-loka) is the arena of karma-adhikara (entitlement to action), and for the devotee on Pushti-marga this means recognizing that every action, however caught in the gunas, can become an offering back to the very source from which this whole tree flows.
- Śrīdharabhakti
Sridhara's bhashya is present. The branches stretch above (to deva-yoni) for those of meritorious deeds (sukritinah) and below (to pashu-yoni) for the sinful (duskritinah), all nourished by the gunas as water feeds a tree, with sense-objects (vishaya) as their shoots and the operations of the sense-faculties as the sub-branches that connect them. The primary root (mukhya-mula) is Ishvara alone — one, singular — while the subsidiary roots (avantara-mula) are the vasanas born of enjoyment in each realm: when karma is exhausted one returns to the human world, and there those vasanas impel fresh karma of the same character, because it is here alone that karma-adhikara (the competence to act and thereby modify one's trajectory) operates. The human world is thus both the site of bondage and the sole site of liberation.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusudana reads the verse as adding a further specification (avayava-sambandha) to the samsara-tree already described: the bad actor (kapuya-carana, dushkritinah) descends into animal births while the righteous (ramaniya-carana, sukritinah) ascend through deva-yoni — both are 'branches' of this one tree, thickened by the gunas as by irrigation water, with sense-objects (vishaya) as their leaf-buds (pallava) by virtue of the contact between the sense-faculties (indriya-vritti) and their objects. The subsidiary roots (avantara-mula) — the vasanas of desire and aversion generated by enjoyment — are karma-anubandhin, perpetually generating fresh dharma-adharma activity, and they spread both above and below; but their site of generation is the human world, the adhikrita (qualified) body of Brahmin-etc., because human karma-adhikara is well established (prasiddha). The primary root remains Brahman alone — no contradiction arises.