Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Its roots go upward, its branches hang down; the four Vedas are its foliage.
Only the one who stays awake in the love of the Highest reaches this tree with ease.
The verse invokes the ancient image of the inverted tree — roots in heaven, branches in the world — a cosmic tree whose leaves are the scriptures. It is a picture of reality itself, rooted in the unseen and branching into the visible. And it is reached not by climbing (effort, learning) but by staying awake in love — the wakeful, loving heart finds "with ease" what striving cannot grasp. Reality's tree is climbed by love, from the top down.
What have you reached more by loving attention than by hard striving?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI