(72) Corresponding to that root grow up branches The tops of the perfect trees reach the heavens, The roots firm, and the branches in the sky. Since then the tree of love has grown up to heaven, How shall it not also grow in the heart of the Prince? A wave washes away the remembrance of the sin from his heart, Since in each heart there is a window to other hearts, They are not, separated and shut off like two bodies. Thus, even though two lamp-dishes be not joined, No lover ever seeks union with his beloved,

(13) Because God's method is to work by slow degrees, Why did the formation of Adam take forty days? Not hurrying on like you, O raw one, Who claim to be a Shaikh whilst yet only a child! You run up like a gourd higher than all plants, But where is your power of resistance or combat? You have leant on trees or on walls, And so mounted up like a gourd, O little dog rose; Even though your prop may be a lofty cypress, O gourd, your bright green hue soon turns yellow. For it is not a natural but an artificial color."

(13) From this root there grow and ripen the fruits of birth, of the life-span, of all that is tasted in life.

(3) Then he [i.e. Yajnavalkya] questioned them with these verses: — As a tree of the forest, Just so, surely, is man. His hairs are leaves. His skin the outer bark. From his skin blood, Sap from the bark flows forth. From him when pierced there comes forth A stream, as from the tree when struck. His pieces of flesh are under-layers of wood. The fibre is muscle-like, strong. The bones are the wood within. The marrow is made resembling pith. A tree, when it is felled, grows up From the root, more new again; A mortal, when cut down by death — From what root does he grow up? Say not 'from semen/ For that is produced from the living, As the tree, forsooth, springing from seed, Clearly arises without having died. If with its roots they should pull up The tree, it would not come into being again. A mortal, when cut down by death — From what root does he grow up? When born, indeed, he is not born [again]. Who would again beget him? Brahma is knowledge, is bliss, The final goal of the giver of offerings, Of him, too, who stands still and knows It. J For a similar comparison in Hebrew literature see Job 14, 7-10.

(51) Moses and I are Thy nurslings both alike, Some of these branches Thou plantest in the ground, Can branch strive against axe? Not so. Can branch elude the power of the axe? Nay, O Lord of the power that dwells in Thy axe, In mercy make these crooked things straight!" The dissension of this husband and wife is a parable; This husband and wife are the reason and the flesh, And in this earthly house this linked pair The wife is ever seeking dainties for domestic needs,

(66) Do they not all grow out of the Earth? Do they not stand one by another? Does the one grudge the beauteous Form of the other?

(3) Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees ⌈⌈seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.

(92) And then from all the Qualities which are in the Body, there grows a Bud or Head, and there is a new Body in the Bud or Head, and is formed or figured answerable or like to the first Root in the Earth, only now it gets another more subtle Form.