śrīmadbhagavadgītā mūlam - aṣṭamo'dhyāyaḥ

Arjuna said: What is that BRAHMAN? What is the ADHYATMA ? What is action ? O best among men, what is declared to be the ADHIBHUTA? And what is ADHIDAIVA said to be?

Who, and how, is ADHIYAJNA here in this body, O destroyer of Madhu? And how, at the time of death, are you to be known by the self-controlled?

The Blessed Lord said: 3. BRAHMAN is Imperishable, the Supreme; His essential nature is called Self-knowledge, the creative force that causes beings to spring forth into manifestation is called work.

ADHIBHUTA (or elements) constitutes My perishable nature, and the Indweller (or the essence) is the ADHIDAIVATA; I alone am the ADHIYAJNA here, in this body, O best of the embodied.

And whosoever, leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone, at the time of his 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 he goes, O Kaunteya (O son of Kunti), because of his constant thought of that being.

Therefore, at all times, remember Me, and fight, with mind and intellect fixed (or absorbed) in Me; you shall doubtless come to Me alone.

With the mind not moving towards any other thing, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and constantly meditating on the Supreme PURUSHA, the Resplendent, O Partha, he goes (to Him).

Whosoever, meditates upon the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler (of the whole world), minuter than the atom, the Supporter of all, of Form inconceivable, Effulgent like the Sun and beyond the darkness (of ignorance)...

At the time of death, with an unshaken mind full of devotion, by the power of YOGA fixing the whole PRANA (breath) between the two eyebrows, he (the seeker) reaches the Supreme Resplendent PURUSHA.

That which is declared Imperishable by the VEDA -knowers; That into which, the self-controlled and desire-freed enter; That desiring which BRAHMCHARYA is practised --- That Goal I will declare to thee in brief.

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

Uttering the one-syllabled OM --- the (symbol of) BRAHMAN --- and remembering Me, he who departs, leaving the body, attains the Supreme Goal.

I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast YOGI who constantly remembers Me daily, not thinking of anything else, O Partha.

Having attained Me, these MAHATMAS (great souls) do not again take birth, which is the house of pain and is non-eternal, they having reached the Highest Perfection, MOKSHA.

Worlds upto the world-of -BRAHMAJI are subject to rebirth O Arjuna; but he who reaches Me O Kaunteya has no birth.

Those people who know (the length of) the day- of-BRAHMA which ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons), and the night which (also) ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons), they know day-and-night.

From the unmanifested all the manifested proceed at the coming of the day; at the coming of night they dissolve verily in that alone which is called the unmanifest.

This same multiple of beings are being born again and again, and are dissolved (into the unmanifest); helplessly, O Partha, at the coming of night and they come forth again at the coming of day.

But verily there exists, higher than that unmanifest (AVYAKTA), another Unmanifested, which is Eternal, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.

That which is called the Unmanifest and the Imperishable, that, they say is the Highest Goal (path). They who reach It never again return. That is My highest abode (state).

That Highest PURUSHA, O Partha, is attainable by unswerving devotion to Him alone, within whom all beings dwell, by whom all this is pervaded.

Now at what time (path) departing, YOGINS go, never to return, as also to return, that time (path), I will tell you, O Chief of Bharatas.

Fire, light, day-time, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern solstice; following this path, men who know BRAHMAN go to BRAHMAN.

Smoke, night-time, the dark fortnight, also six months of the southern solstice, attaining by these to the Moon, the lunar light, the YOGI returns.

The Path of Light and the Path of Darkness available for the world are verily thought to be both eternal; by the one, the Path of Light a man goes to return not; by the other, the Path of Darkness he returns again.

Knowing these paths, O Partha, no YOGIN is deluded; therefore, at all times be steadfast in YOGA, O Arjuna.

Whether fruit of merit is declared (in the scriptures) as springing up from study of the VEDAS, from performance of sacrifices, from practice of austerities, and from charity --- beyond all these goes the YOGIN, who having known this (the two paths ) attains to the Supreme, Primeval (Essence). Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the eighth discourse entitled "The Yoga of the Imperishable Absolute."