factor of attitude

There is a Fig Tree
(tree of life, never ending universe)
In ancient story,
The giant Aswattha,
The everlasting,
Rooted in heaven
(Logos, the first cause),
Its branches earthward
(toward material realms):
Each of its leaves
Is a song of Vedas,
And he who knows it
Knows all the Vedas.

Downward and upward
Its branches bending
(circle of karmas, life and death)
Are fed by gunas (qualities of nature),
The buds it puts forth
Are the things of the senses,
Roots it has also
Reaching downward
Into this world,
The roots of man’s action.

What its form is,
Its end and beginning,
Its very nature,
Can never be known here.