अक्षरब्रह्मयोग

Arjuna said: O Supreme Person, what is that Brahman? What is the Self (adhyatma)? What is action? What is called adhibhuta, and what is said to be adhidaiva?

O Madhusudana, who is the adhiyajna here, and how does He dwell in this body? And how, at the time of death, are You to be known by the self-controlled?

The Blessed Lord said: The supreme imperishable is Brahman; one's own essential nature is called the Self (adhyatma); and the creative force that brings beings into existence is called action (karma).

The perishable manifestation is adhibhuta; the cosmic spirit is adhidaiva; and I alone, dwelling within, am the adhiyajna in this body, O best of the embodied.

One who, at the hour of death, remembering Me alone, leaves the body — he attains My being; of this there is no doubt.

Whatever state one remembers when leaving the body at the end, that alone one attains, O son of Kunti — having been ever absorbed in that state.

Therefore, at all times remember Me and fight; with mind and intellect dedicated to Me, you shall surely come to Me.

With the mind disciplined by constant practice and not wandering to anything else, meditating on Him, one reaches the supreme divine Person, O Partha.

One who remembers the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler of all, subtler than the subtle, the Sustainer of all, of inconceivable form, shining like the sun and beyond all darkness — such a devotee, at death, fixing the life-breath between the eyebrows by the power of yoga, with an unwavering mind, attains that supreme divine Person.

That goal which the knowers of the Vedas call the Imperishable, which the passionless ascetics enter, and seeking which men practise celibacy — that supreme state I shall declare to you briefly.

Closing all the gates of the senses, confining the mind in the heart, fixing the life-breath in the head, established in yogic concentration — one who departs uttering the single syllable Om, the Brahman, and remembering Me, attains the supreme goal.

For one who constantly remembers Me with undivided mind, O Partha, I am easily attained — for that ever-steadfast yogi.

Having attained Me, the great souls, who have reached the highest perfection, are not reborn into this impermanent abode of sorrow.

All worlds, up to the realm of Brahma, are subject to return, O Arjuna; but on reaching Me, O son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.

Those who know that a day of Brahma lasts a thousand ages, and his night also a thousand ages — they are the knowers of day and night.

At the coming of Brahma's day, all manifest beings arise from the unmanifest; and at the coming of night, they dissolve into that same unmanifest.

This same multitude of beings, arising again and again, helplessly dissolves at the fall of night and is reborn at the break of day, O Partha.

But beyond this unmanifest there is another eternal unmanifest Being, which does not perish even when all beings perish.

That unmanifest, called the Imperishable, is declared the supreme goal; attaining which, none return — that is My supreme abode.

That supreme Person, O Partha, within whom all beings dwell and by whom all this is pervaded, is attainable only by undivided devotion.

I shall now tell you, O best of the Bharatas, the times at which yogis depart to return or not to return.

Fire, light, day, the bright fortnight, the six months of the sun's northward course — departing then, the knowers of Brahman go to Brahman.

Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, the six months of the sun's southward course — departing then, the yogi attains the lunar light and returns.

These two paths of the world — the bright and the dark — are held to be eternal; by one a person goes not to return, by the other he returns again.

Knowing these two paths, O Partha, no yogi is deluded; therefore, at all times, be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna.

The yogi who knows this surpasses all the merit promised for the study of the Vedas, for sacrifices, austerities and charity, and attains the supreme primal abode.