EIGHTH CHAPTER

Arjuna said:

1. What is that Brahman, what is Adhyatma, what is Karma, O best of Purushas? What is called Adhibhuta, and what Adhidaiva?

2. Who, and in what way, is Adhiyajna here in this body, O destroyer of Madhu? And how art Thou known at the time of death, by the self-controlled?

The Blessed Lord said:

3. The Imperishable is the Supreme Brahman. Its dwelling in each individual body is called Adhyatma; the offering in sacrifice which causes the genesis and support of beings, is called Karma.

4. The perishable adjunct is the Adhibhuta, and the Indweller is the Adhidaivata; I alone am the Adhiyajna here in this body, O best of the embodied.

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

6. Remembering whatever object, at the end, he leaves the body, that alone is reached by him, O son of Kunti, (because) of his constant thought of that object.

7. Therefore, at all times, constantly remember Me, and fight. With mind and intellect absorbed, in Me, thou shalt doubtless come to Me.

8. With the mind not moving towards anything else, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and dwelling on the Supreme, Resplendent Purusha, O son of Pritha, one goes to Him.

9-10. The Omniscient, the Ancient, the Overruler, minuter than an atom, the Sustainer of all, of form inconceivable, self-luminous like the sun, and beyond the darkness of Maya--he who meditates on Him thus, at the time of death, full of devotion, with the mind unmoving, and

also by the power of Yoga, fixing the whole Prana betwixt the eye-brows, he goes to that Supreme, Resplendent Purusha.

11. What the knowers of the Veda speak of as Imperishable, what the self-controlled (Sannyasins), freed from attachment enter, and to gain which goal they

live the life of a Brahmacharin, that I shall declare unto thee in brief.

12-13. Controlling all the senses, confining the mind in the heart, drawing the Prana into the head, occupied in the practice of concentration, uttering the one-syllabled "Om"--the Brahman, and meditating on Me;--he who so departs, leaving the body, attains the Supreme Goal.

14. I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast Yogin who remembers Me constantly and daily, with a single mind, O son of Pritha.

15. Reaching the highest perfection, and having attained Me, the great-souled ones are no more subject to re-birth--which is the home of pain, and ephemeral.

16. All the worlds, O Arjuna, including the realm of Brahma, are subject to return, but after attaining Me, O son of Kunti, there is no re-birth.

17. They who know (the true measure of) day and night, know the day of Brahma, which ends in a thousand Yugas, and the night which (also) ends in a thousand Yugas.