Chapter 15Verse 4 of 20

Bhagavad Gita 15.4

ततः पदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यं यस्मिन्गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः । तमेव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी ॥

tataḥ padaṁ tat parimārgitavyaṁ yasmin gatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ | tam eva cādyaṁ puruṣaṁ prapadye yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī ||

Translation

Then that place must be sought, going whither they return no more, saying: I seek refuge in that primal Person from whom the ancient outflow has come.

After the cut, a direction. Search is for a station where return-traffic ends, where no second descent is queued. Posture for that search is supplied as a single sentence to carry: I take shelter in that first Person from whom this entire outflow began. Notice the verse hands over a phrase, not a technique. Phrase aims attention up the stem instead of out toward the leaves. Old translators call this the seed-mantra of the chapter. Beginner version is even simpler. Each time the canopy starts looking too big to manage, point back to the root the canopy was always growing from.

Reflection

What phrase pointing upstream could I carry through this afternoon?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Fifteen

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