Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.8-2.28.p2

3.8-2.28.p2

iti tṛtīyo'dhyāyaḥ

He asked them through these verses: / (1) As is a large tree, so indeed is a man. (This is) true. His hair is its leaves, his skin its outer bark.

It is from his skin that blood flows, and from the bark sap. Therefore when a man is wounded, blood flows, as sap from a tree that is injured.

His flesh is its inner bark, and his nerves its innermost layer of bark; it is tough. His bones lie under, as does its wood; his marrow is comparable to its pith.

If a tree, after it is felled, springs again from its root in a newer form, from what root does man spring forth after he is cut off by death?

Do not say, 'From the seed,' (for) it is produced in a living man. A tree springs also from the seed; after it is dead it certainly springs again (from the seed as well).

If a tree is pulled out with its root, it no more sprouts. From what root does a mortal spring forth after he is cut off by death?

If you think he is ever born, I say, no, he is again born. Now who should again bring him forth?—Knowledge, Bliss, Brahman, the supreme goal of the distributor of wealth as well as of him who has realised Brahman and lives in It.