Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb 15
manifestation is compared with a tree because a tree is ultimately cut off
in due course of time. A tree is called urksa. Vrksa means that thing which
will be ultimately cut off. Therefore, this tree of the material manifestation
cannot be accepted as the Ultimate Truth. The influence of time is on the
material manifestation, but Krsna’s body is eternal. He existed before the
material manifestation, He is existing while the material manifestation is
continuing, and when it will be dissolved, He will continue to exist.

The Katha Upanisad also cites this example of the tree of material
manifestation standing on the ground of material nature. This tree has two
kinds of fruits, distress and happiness. Those who are living on the tree of
the body are just like two birds. One bird is the localized aspect of Krsna
known as the Paramatma, and the other bird is the living entity. The living
entity is eating the fruits of this material manifestation. Sometimes he eats
the fruit of happiness, and sometimes he eats the fruit of distress. But the
other bird is not interested in eating the fruit of distress or happiness
because he is self-satisfied. The Katha Upanisad states that one bird on the
tree of the body is eating the fruits, and the other bird is simply witnessing.
The roots of this tree extend in three directions. That means the root of ©
the tree is the three modes of material nature: goodness, passion and
ignorance. Just as the tree’s root expands, so, by association of the modes
of material nature (goodness, passion and ignorance), one expands his
duration of material existence. The taste of the fruits are of four kinds:
religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and ultimately,
liberation. According to the different associations in the three modes of
material nature, the living entities are tasting different kinds of religiosity,
different kinds of economic development, different kinds of sense gratifi-
cation and different kinds of liberation. Practically all material work is
performed in ignerance, but because there are three qualities, semetimes the
quality of ignorance is covered with goodness or passion. The taste of these
material fruits is accepted through five senses. The five sense organs
through which knowledge is acquired are subjected to six kinds of whips:
lamentation, illusion, infirmity, death, hunger and thirst. This material
body, or the material manifestation, is covered by seven layers: skin,
muscle, flesh, marrow, bone, fat and semina. The branches of the tree are
eight: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and ego. There are
nine gates in this body: the two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, one mouth,
one genital, one rectum. And there are ten kinds of internal air passing
within the body: prana, apana, udana, vyana, samana, etc. The two birds
seated in this tree, as explained above, are the living entity and the localized
Supreme Personality of Godhead.
