Chapter 8 — Akshara Brahma Yoga

Swami Sivananda did not comment on this sloka

Who and how is Adhiyajna here in this body, O destroyer of Madhu (Krishna)? And how at the time of death, art Thou to be known by the self-controlled?

The Blessed Lord said Brahman is the Imperishable, the Supreme; Its essential nature is called Self-knowledge; the offering (to the gods) which causes existence and manifestation of beings and which also sustains them is called action.

Adhibhuta (knowledge of the elements) pertains to My perishable Nature and the Purusha or the Soul is the Adhidaiva; I alone am the Adhiyajna here in this body, O best among the embodied (men).

And whosoever, leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone, at the time of death, he attains My Being: there is no doubt about this.

Whosoever at the end leaves the body, thinking of any being, to that being only does he go, O son of Kunti (Arjuna), because of his constant thought of that being.

Therefore at all times remember Me only and fight. With mind and intellect fixed (or absorbed) in Me, thou shalt doubtessly come to Me alone.

With the mind not moving towards any other thing, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and constantly meditating, one goes to the Supreme Person, the Resplendent, O Arjuna.

Whosoever meditates on the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler (of the whole world), minuter than an atom, the supporter of all, of inconceivable form, effulgent like the sun and beyond the darkness of ignorance.

At the time of death, with unshaken mind, endowed with devotio, by the power of Yoga, fixing the whole life-breath in the middle of the two eyrows, he reaches that resplendent Supreme Person.

That which is declared Imperishable by those who know the Vedas, that which the self-controlled (ascetics or Sannyasins) and passion-free enter, that desiring which celibacy is practised that goal I will declare to thee in brief.

Having closed all the gates, confined the mind in the heart and fixed the life-breath in the head, engaged in the practice of concentration.

Uttering the one-syllabled Om the Brahman and remembering Me, he who departs, leaving the body, attains to the Supreme Goal.

I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast Yogi who constantly and daily remembers Me (for a long time), not thinking of anything else (with a single mind or one-pointed mind), O Partha (Arjuna).

Having attained Me these great souls do not again take birth (here) which is the place of pain and is non-eternal: they have reached the highest perfection (liberation).

(All) the worlds including the world of Brahma are subject to return again, O Arjuna; but he who reaches Me, O son of Kunti, has no rirth.

Those people who know the day of Brahma which is of a duration of a thousand Yugas (ages) and the night which is also of a thousand Yugas duration, they know day and night.

From the Unmanifested all the manifested (worlds) proceed at the coming of the 'day'; at the coming of the 'night' they dissolve verily into ï1thatï1 alone which is called the Unmanifested.

This same multitude of beings, being born again and again, is dissolved, helplessly, O Arjuna (into the Unmanifested) at the coming of the night and comes forth at the coming of the day.

But verily there exists, higher than this Unmanifested, another unmanifested Eternal, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.

What is called the Unmanifested and the Imperishable, That they say is the highest goal. They who reach It do not return (to this Samsara). That is My highest abode (place or state).

That highest Purusha, O Arjuna, is attainable by unswerving devotion to Him alone within Whom all beings dwell and by Whom all this is pervaded.

Now I will tell thee, O chief of Bharatas, the times departing at which the Yogis will return or not return.

Fire, light daytime, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern path of the sun (the northern solstice) departing then (by these) men who know Brahman go to Brahman.

Attaining to the lunar light by smoke, night time, the dark fortnight also, the six months of the southern path of the sun (the southern solstice), the Yogi returns.

The bright and the dark paths of the world are verily thought to be eternal; by the one (the bright path) a man goes not to return and by the other (the dark path) he returns.

Knowing these paths, O Arjuna, no Yogi is deluded; therefore at all times be steadfast in Yoga.

Whatever fruit of merit is declared (in the scriptures) to accrue from (the study of) the Vedas, (the performance of) sacrifices, (the practice of) austerities, and gifts beyond all this goes the Yogi, having known this; and he attains to the Supreme Primeval (first or ancient) Abode.