Eknath Easwaran's Commentary
We are all familiar with the unflattering expression, “He can’t see the forest for the trees.” Similarly, it can be said that most of us don’t see the tree for the leaves, that we fail to see the Tree of Life because we are fascinated by the leaves. We are so obsessed by the leaves – the millions of little fragments that grow on the tree – that we are not aware of the tree at all. We do not see that without the tree the leaves do not have any life, that it is the sap, coming from the very life of the tree, that flows into the leaves and supports them.
In our modern world, most of the emphasis is on separateness, on the leaf rather than the tree. Daily we receive the message, “Find your joy in your own way; live your life in your own way; find your fulfillment in your own way.” This drive for personal satisfaction is based on a cruel fiction: that the leaf can prosper without the living tree. In reality, none of us are separate; we are all part of the same creation, drawing our strength, happiness, and fulfillment from the cosmic tree.