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
- eka-ayanaḥ
- the body of an ordinary living being is fully dependent on the material elements
- asau
- that
- dvi-phalaḥ
- in this body we are subject to material happiness and distress, which result from karma
- tri-mūlaḥ
- having three roots, the three modes of nature (goodness, passion and ignorance), upon which the body is created
- catuḥ-rasaḥ
- four rasas, or tastes*
- pañca-vidhaḥ
- consisting of five senses for acquiring knowledge (the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and touch)
- ṣaṭ-ātmā
- six circumstances (lamentation, illusion, old age, death, hunger and thirst)
- sapta-tvak
- having seven coverings (skin, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and semen)
- aṣṭa-viṭapaḥ
- eight branches (the five gross elements — earth, water, fire, air and ether — and also the mind, intelligence and ego)
- nava-akṣaḥ
- nine holes
- daśa-chadī
- ten kinds of life air, resembling the leaves of a tree
- dvi-khagaḥ
- two birds (the individual soul and the Supersoul)
- hi
- indeed
- ādi-vṛkṣaḥ
- this is the original tree or construction of the material body, whether individual or universal
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.