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Arjuna said:
1. What is that “Brahman”? What is “in relation to the self”? What is “action”, Supreme Person? And what are labelled “in relation to beings” and “in relation to the divine”?
2. Here, in this body, who is “in relation to the sacrifice”? And in what way, Destroyer of Madhu? And how, in the hour of death, can you be known by the self-controlled?
The Lord said:
3. Supreme Brahman is the imperishable; in relation to the self it is said to be inherent nature. The creative power which brings about the existence of creatures is called action.
4. In relation to beings it is the transitory state, in relation to the divine, the spirit; in relation to sacrifice it is I myself here in the body, best of embodied beings.
5. And whoever dies, remembering me alone at the moment of death, attains to may state once he is liberated from the body – there can be no doubt about that.
6. Indeed, whatever state he calls to mind as he abandons his body at its end, he inevitably attains it, Son of Kunti, transmuted to that state.
7. Therefore think of me at all times and fight. With your intelligence and mind fixed in me, you will certainly come to me.
8. With his thought disciplined by the practice of yoga, concentrating on the divine supreme person and not straying towards anything else, a man goes to him, Partha.
9-10. Whoever, disciplined with the power of yoga and with devotion, having correctly installed his vital breath between his eyebrows, meditates, with an unwavering mind at the time of death, on the primordial seer, the ruler who is subtler than the subtle, the supporter of everything, unimaginable in form, the colour of the sun beyond darkness, goes to that divine supreme person.
11. Now I shall tell you briefly about that state which those who know the Veda call the imperishable, which strivers who are free from passion enter, and desiring which they lead a celibate life.
12. Having shut all the body’s doors and confined his mind in his heart, having installed his vital breath in his head, a man is fixed in yogic concentration.
13. The man who, abandoning the body, dies pronouncing the one-syllabled Bahman, “On”, while thinking on me, attains the highest goal.
14. For the perpetually disciplined yogin who continuously thinks on me, and whose mind is never anywhere else, I am easy to reach, Partha.
15. Having reached me, great souls do not suffer that impermanent receptable of suffering, rebirth; they have attained the highest perfection.
16. Up to Brahma’s realm, Arjuna, the worlds come round again and again; but once I have been reached, Son of Kunti, rebirth is finished.
17. Those men know day and night who know that a day of Brahma lasts for a thousand ages, just as a Brahma night ends after a thousand ages.
18. As day dawns everything manifest emerges from the unmanifest; as night falls it merges back into that same designated unmanifest.
19. This troop of beings, having come into being again and again, ineluctably merges back at nightfall; and at dawn it emerges again, Partha.
20. But there is another state of being beyond this unmanifest, an eternal unmanifest which, when all creatures are destroyed, is not itself destroyed.
21. The unmanifest called “imperishable” – that, they say, is the highest goal. Once attained, there is no coming back from it – that is my supreme domain.
22. It is the supreme person, Partha, to be attained by exclusive devotion; beings exist within it; this whole universe is displayed on it.
23. I shall tell you, Bull of the Bharatas, those times at which yogins, passing from this life, return, or go not to return.
24. Men who know Brahman, departing by fire, by light, by day, in the bright lunar fortnight, and during the six months of the sun’s northern path go to Brahman.
25. The yogin who has attained the moon’s light by smoke, by night, in the dark lunar fortnight, and during the six months of the sun’s southern path returns.
26. For the universe these light and dark paths are considered eternal: via one a man goes not to return, via the other he returns again.
27. Arjuna, the yogin who knows these two paths is not in the least confused; you should, therefore, at all times be yogically disciplined.
28. With regard to the Vedas, to sacrifices, to ascetic practices, and to gifts the recompense of merit is fixed: the yogin who knows goes beyond all that and attains to the supreme, original state.