Gita Chapters Fifteen And Sixteen

Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen describe the virtues, the glories and transcendental characteristics of God as the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. They highlight the purpose and value of knowing about God and the method to realize God by overcoming the overwhelming influence of the Gunas.
Verses 15.1 – 15.15
The person with the knowledge of the banyan tree with its roots upward and its branches down and leaves as the Vedic hymns, is the knower of the Vedas. The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three Gunas/ properties of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down bound to the actions of human society undertaken to achieve some fruits or results. The real form of this tree cannot be comprehended as none can identify its ends, its beginning or its foundation is. With determination one could cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment and never seek to restore the already cut parts of the tree, and then surrender to God from whom everything has been sourced and in whom everything is contained since time immemorial. When the person free from illusion, prestige, and association, in full knowledge of the eternal, free of material lust and duality of happiness and distress, surrenders to God reaches and remains in God abode that does not require sun and moon to provide illumination. The living entities in this conditioned material world are God’s eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the senses and the mind. A living entity carries its own conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Each living entity obtains a specific set of senses aligned to its specific nature of mind. The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit one body and the particular combination of the Gunas of material nature inherent in a particular body. He enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But the endeavoring transcendentalist established in self-realization, can understand all this clearly. The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire, the energy of the planets in orbit, the juice in vegetables, the fire of digestion in every living body, the air of life, memory, memory recall, knowledge and forgetfulness – all are sourced in God. God is seated in everyone's heart. God is to be known and the methods to know God described in the Vedas and Vedanta are sourced from God.
Verses 15. 16 – 15.20
There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is infallible. Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, God Himself, who has created, entered into these worlds and is maintaining them... But God is transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible. Whoever knows God as the Supreme Personality without doubt, is the knower of everything, and therefore is engaged in full devotional service. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection.
Verses 16.1 –16. 16
The transcendent characteristics of godly persons are absence of fear, purification of existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity, simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion, freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty, steady determination, vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and freedom from the ego of honor. In contrast, arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance are the characteristics of qualities of demoniac natured persons. The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities result in bondage. The demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done: there is little or no cleanliness, improper behavior and absence of truth is in them. According to them, this world is unreal; there is no foundation and no God in control: the world is for satisfying sex desire and lust. The demoniac are lost to their dominant Guna and have no intelligence: they engage in unbeneficial, horrible activities that are essentially destructive. The demoniac shows insatiable lust, pride and false prestige. They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. The demoniac person is continuously pursue wealth accumulation and engages in destruction of enemies to lord over as many things, places ad people as possible. Demonic person is focused on a self -image of the sole enjoyer, the perfect, powerful and happy as also the richest, surrounded by aristocratic relatives and with great pride in making sacrifices and giving away in charity. Perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, the demonic suffers strong attachment to sensual enjoyment and activities aimed at fulfilling desires and wishes. A demonic person is self-complacent and impudent, deluded by wealth and strong sense of prestige. Afflicted by ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demonic person may even become envious of God. The demonic characteristics snowball and force a person to get more deeply bonded to such materialistic existence further and further away from ultimate peace and happiness. Lust, anger and greed freely operate to progressively degrade the living entity from the peace of the eternal soul. The person free of lust, greed and anger is capable of performing actions conducive to self-realization and make progress to reach the supreme destination of God.
The person unable to follow the codes of behavior and conduct prescribed in the scriptures and unhesitatingly fall prey to temptations arising from the strong force of Gunas of material nature is also unable to acquire knowledge of the transcendental Self or permanent happiness as contrasted to transient sensual enjoyment and disappointment, or the eternal peace of being in God. The task is to understand the activities that are recommended as duty and not recommended as duties duty by the scriptures and practice them to achieve progress on the path of real freedom and Truth