Chapter 8
Attaining the Supreme
- arjun kahilen:
- brahma kimbā adhyātma ki karma puruṣottama
- adhibhūta adhidaiva kaha tāra krama
Text 1: Arjuna inquired: O my Lord, O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is the self? What are fruitive activities? What is this material manifestation? And what are the demigods? Please explain this to me.
- adhiyajña kivā sei he madhusūdan
- kibhāve tomāke pāy prayāṇa yakhan
Text 2: Who is the Lord of sacrifice, and how does He live in the body, O Madhusūdana? And how can those engaged in devotional service know You at the time of death?
- śrī-bhagavān kahilen:
- akṣay vināś nāi ataev brahma
- āmi bhagavān sejanya parama-brahma
- paramātmā ār ye bhagavān
- sei ye parama-tattva sei brahma-jñān
- karma se kāraṇ jaḍa śarīra visarga
- bhūtombhava yār nām śuna tār varga
Text 3: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called adhyātma, the self. Action pertaining to the development of the material bodies of the living entities is called karma, or fruitive activities.
- padārtha ye adhibhūta kṣara bhāva nām
- virāṭa puruṣa sei adhidaiva nām
- antaryāmī āmi sei adhiyajña nām
- yata dehī āche tār hṛde mor dhām
Text 4: O best of the embodied beings, the physical nature, which is constantly changing, is called adhibhūta (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 adhiyajña (the Lord of sacrifice).
- ataev antakāle āmāre smariyā
- yebā cali yāy ei śarīra chāḍiyā
- se pāy āmāra bhāv amara se hay
- niścaya-i kahinu ei nāhita saṁśay
Text 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.
- ye yei smaraṇa kare jīva anta kāle
- ye-bhāve se tyāje nija jaḍa kalevare
- sei sei bhāva yukta tatta lābha kare
- he kounteya! thāki sadā sei bhāva ghare
Text 6: Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.
- ataeva tumi sadā āmāke smaribe
- kāyamana buddhi sab āmāke arpibe
- sebhābe thākile more pāibe niścay
- āmāte arpita man yadi asaṁśay
Text 7: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the forrn of Kṛṣṇa 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.
- kaṭhina nahe ta' ei abhyāsa karile
- manke anyatra sadā nāhi yete dile
- he pārtha se-bhāve cinti parama puruṣe
- niścaya-i pāibe tumi deha avaśeṣe
Text 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 Pārtha, is sure to reach me.
- parama puruṣa dhyān śunaha tāhāra jñān,
- sarvajña tini se sanātana
- niyantā se ati sūkṣma, vidhātā se antarīkṣa,
- agocara jaḍa buddhi mana
- ye jan smaraṇa kare, nitya sei puruṣere
- ādityera nyāy svaprakāśa
- prakṛtir parapāre, ye jāne se vidhātāre
- svarāṭ tini cid vilāsa
Text 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 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 sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.
- acal manete yevā, prayāṇa-kālete kivā,
- bhakti-yukta haye yoga-vale
- bhrur madhye rākhi prāṇ, yadi hay se smaraṇ
- divya puruṣa tāhāre mile
Text 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.
- veda-jñānī ye akṣar, lābhe hay tatpar
- yāhāte praviṣṭa hay yatigaṇ
- vītarāg brahmacārī, sadā ācaraṇa kari,
- se tathya bali śuna vivaraṇ
Text 11: Persons who are learned the in Vedas, who utter the oṁkāra 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.
- samasta indriya dvār, ruddha hayeche yār,
- viṣayete anāsakti nām
- manke nirodh kari, hṛdayete sthir kari,
- yei jan hayeche niṣkām
- prāṇke bhrur mājhe, yogya sei yogī-sāje,
- samartha yog dhāraṇe sei
Text 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.
- oṁkāra akṣara brahma, uccāraṇe yei brahma,
- āmāke smaraṇa kare yei
- se yāy śarīra chāḍi, vaikuṇṭha vihārī hari,
- samān lokete hay vās
- sei se paramā gati, śrīhari caraṇe rati,
- dhanya tār paramārtha āś
Text 13: After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable oṁ, the supreme combination of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and quits his body, he will certainly reach the spiritual planets.
- ye yogī ananya citta, āmāke smaraye nitya,
- dṛḍhatār saha avirām
- tāhāra sulabha āmi, he pārtha jānaha tumi,
- nitya yoge tāhāra viśrām
Text 14: For one who always remembers Me without deviation, I am very easy to obtain, O son of Pṛthā, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.
- āmāke lābh kare se mahātmā hay
- nahe tār punarjanma yethā duḥkhālay
- aśāśvata saṁsārete nahe tāra sthiti
- paramā gatite tār siddha avasthiti
Text 15: After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.
- caturdaśa bhuvanete yata lok hay
- brahmalok paryanta se nitya keha nay
- se sab lokete sthān gamanā-gaman
- sakala lokete āche janama-maraṇ
- bhaktira āśray yevā āmāke ye pāy
- kevala tāhāra mātra punarjanma nay
Text 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 Kuntī, never takes birth again.
- manuṣer sahasra ye caturyug yāy
- brahmāra se ekadin kariyā gaṇay
- seirūp ekarātri brahmāra gaṇana
- rātri-dina brahmāra ye karaha manana
Text 17: By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form the duration of Brahmā's one day. And such also is the duration of his night.
- sei rātri abasāne avyakta haite
- vyakta hay e trilok brahmāra dinete
- ābāra se rātri-kāle haibe pralay
- avyakta haite janma avyakte milāy
Text 18: At the beginning of Brahmā's day, all living entities become manifest from the unmanifest state, and thereafter, when the night falls, they are merged into the unmanifest again.
- carācara yāhā kichu sei udbhav pralay
- punaḥ punaḥ janma ār punaḥ punaḥ kṣay
Text 19: Again and again, when Brahmā's day arrives, all living entities come into being. And with the arrival of Brahmā's night they are helplessly annihilated.
- tāhāra upare yei bhāvera nirṇay
- sanātan sei dhām akṣaya avyay
- sakala sṛṣṭira nāṣ e jagate hay
- sanātana dhām nahe haibe pralay
Text 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.
- sei se avyakta nām 'akṣara' tāhār
- jīvera se gati nām paramā yāhār
- se gati haile lābh nā āse phiriyā
- āmāra se nitya dhām saṁsāra jiniyā
Text 21: That which the Vedāntists 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.
- parama-puruṣa sei nitya dhāme vās
- he pārtha! ananya bhakti tāhāra prayāsa
- tṅāhār-i antarete hay samasta jagata
- antaryāmī se puruṣa sarvatra vistṛta
Text 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-pervading, and everything is situated within Him.
- ye kālete anāvṛtti yogīra sambhav
- balitechi śuna tāhā bharata ṛṣabh
Text 23: O best of the Bhāratas, I shall now explain to you the different times at which, passing away from this world, the yogī does or does not come back.
- brahmavit puruṣa ye jyoti śubhadine
- uttarāyaṇa kālete karile prayāṇe
- brahma-lābh haya tār anāvṛtti gati
- karmīra jñānīra sei sādhāraṇa mati
Text 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.
- tārā iṣṭāpūrti karme rātri kṛṣṇa-pakṣe
- dhūm vā dakṣiṇāyana candra jyoti lakṣe
- mārga sei āśrayete punarāgaman
- karma-yogī nāhi kare brahma-nirūpaṇ
Text 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.
- ataev dui mārga śukla kṛṣṇa nām
- śāśvata ye dui path hai vartamān
- śukla-mārge yār gati tār anāvṛtti
- kṛṣṇa-mārge yār gati se āvṛtti
Text 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.
- kintu pārtha bhakta mor dui mārga jāni
- mohaprāpta nāhi hay bhakti-yog māni
- ataev he arjun! more nitya smara
- bhakti-yog-yukta hao kabhu nā pāsara
Text 27: Although the devotees know these two paths, O Arjuna, they are never bewildered. Therefore be always fixed in devotion.
- vedādi śāstrete yāhā, yajña tapa dān tāhā,
- puṇya-phal yāhā se pradiṣṭa
- se yog ye avalambe, pāy tāhā avilambe,
- samyaka bujhiyā nija iṣṭa
Text 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.
- bhaktivedānta kahe śrī-gītāra gān
- śune yadi śuddha bhakta kṛṣṇagata-prāṇ
Thus Bhaktivedānta sings the song of Śrī Gītā, with the hope that hearing this, Kṛṣṇa conscious pure devotees will be pleased.