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Chapter-8
Akshar-Brahma
Yog
1: Arjuna inquired: O my Lord, O
Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is the self? What
are fruitive activities? What is the material
manifestation? And what are the demigods? Please explain
this to me.
2: Who is the Lord of sacrifice, and how does He
live in the body, O Madhusudana? And how can those
engaged in devotional service know You at the time of
death?
3: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The
indestructible, transcendental living entity is called
Brahman, and his eternal nature is called adhyatma, the
self. Action pertaining to the development of the
material bodies of the living entities is called karma,
or fruitive activities.
4: O best of the embodied beings, the physical
nature, which is constantly changing, is called
adhibhuta [the material manifestation]. The universal
form of the Lord, which includes all the demigods, like
those of the sun and moon, is called adhidaiva. And I,
the Supreme Lord, represented as the Supersoul in the
heart of every embodied being, am called adhiyajna [the
Lord of sacrifice].
5: And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his
body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of
this there is no doubt.
6: Whatever state of being one remembers when he
quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will
attain without fail.
7: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me
in the form of Krsna and at the same time carry out your
prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities
dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on
Me, you will attain Me without doubt.
8: He who meditates on Me as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in
remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Partha,
is sure to reach Me.
9: One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as
the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest,
who is the controller, who is the smaller than the
smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is
beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable,
and who is always a person. He is luminous like the son,
and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.
10 : One who, at the time of death, fixes his life
air between the eyebrows and, by the strength of yoga,
with an undeviating mind, engages himself in remembering
the Supreme Lord in full devotion, will certainly attain
to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
11: Persons who are learned in the Vedas, who utter
omkara and who are great sages in the renounced order
enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one
practices celibacy. I shall now briefly explain to you
this process by which one may attain salvation.
12: The yogic situation is that of detachment from
all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the
senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air
at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga.
13: After being situated in this yoga practice and
vibrating the sacred syllable om, the supreme
combinations of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and quits his body, he will
certainly reach the spiritual planets.
14: For one who always remembers Me without
deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Prtha, because
of his constant engagements in devotional service.
15: After attaining Me, the great souls, who are
yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world,
which is full of miseries, because they have attained
the highest perfection.
16: From the highest planet in the material world
down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein
repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains
to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.
17: By human calculation, a thousand ages taken
together from the duration of Brahma’s one day. And such
also is the duration of his night.
18: At the beginning of Brahma’s day, all living
entities become manifest from the unmanifest state, and
thereafter, when the night falls, they are merged into
the unmanifest again.
19: Again and again, when Brahma’s day arrives, all
living entities come into being, and with the arrival of
Brahma’s night they are helplessly annihilated.
20: Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which
is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and
unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never
annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that
part remains as it is.
21: That which the Vedantists describe as
unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the
supreme destination, that place from which, having
attained it, one never returns-that is My supreme abode.
22: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is
greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion.
Although He is present in His abode, He is
all-prevading, and everything is situated within Him.
23: O best of the Bharatas, I shall now explain to
you the different times at which, passing away from this
world, the yogi does or does not come back.
24: Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that
Supreme by passing away from the world during the
influence of the fiery god, in the light, at an
auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of
the waxing moon, or during the six months when the sun
travels in the north.
25: The mystic who passes away from this world
during the smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning
moon, or the six months when the sun passes to the south
reaches the moon planet but again comes back.
26: According to Vedic opinion, there are two ways
of passing from this world-one in light and one in
darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come
back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns.
27: Although the devotees know these two paths, O
Arjuna, they are never bewildered. Therefore be always
fixed in devotion.
28: A person who accepts the path of devotional
service is not bereft of the results derived from
studying the Vedas, performing austere sacrifices,
giving charity or pursuing philosophical and fruitive
activities. Simply by performing devotional service, he
attains all these, and at the end he reaches the supreme
eternal abode.
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