Akshara Brahma Yoga

Arjuna said: What is Brahman? What is the Self within? What is action? What is said to belong to the physical plane, and what to the divine plane?

Who is the Lord of sacrifice here in this body, and how? And how are you to be known at the time of death by those who are self-controlled?

Krishna said: The supreme Brahman is the imperishable. Its own nature is what pertains to the Self. The creative act that brings beings into existence is called action.

The physical plane is the perishable nature. The divine plane is the Person. And I myself am the Lord of sacrifice here in this body, best of the embodied.

And at the time of death, whoever departs, giving up the body while remembering me alone, attains my state. Of this there is no doubt.

Whatever state a person remembers when giving up the body at the end, that is the state attained, having always dwelt on it.

Therefore remember me at all times, and fight. With your mind and discernment fixed on me, you will surely attain me alone.

With a mind made steady by the practice of yoga, not straying to anything else, one who meditates reaches the supreme, divine Person.

One who meditates on the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler, subtler than the subtle, the support of all, of inconceivable form, shining like the sun, beyond the darkness:

At the time of death, with an unwavering mind, filled with devotion and the power of yoga, fixing the life-breath fully between the eyebrows, he reaches that supreme, divine Person.

That imperishable goal which the knowers of the Vedas declare, which those free from attachment, striving, enter, and seeking which they practice celibacy: that goal I will explain to you in brief.

Closing all the gates, confining the mind in the heart, and fixing one's own life-breath in the head, he settles into the practice of yoga.

Whoever leaves the body while uttering the single syllable Om, which is Brahman, and holding me in remembrance, attains the supreme goal.

I am easily attained by the yogi who always remembers me, steadily and with an undivided mind, thinking of nothing else. For such a one, ever devoted, I am within easy reach.

Having reached me, the great souls who have attained the highest perfection are not born again. They do not return to this impermanent abode of sorrow.

All the worlds, up to the world of Brahma, are subject to return. But after reaching me, there is no rebirth.

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

When day comes, all manifested things emerge from the unmanifest. When night comes, they dissolve into that same unmanifest.

This same multitude of beings is born again and again. It dissolves helplessly when night comes, and comes to life again when day arrives.

But beyond that unmanifest is another, eternal and unmanifest. It does not perish when all beings perish.

This unmanifest is called the imperishable, and it is named the supreme goal. Those who reach it do not return. That is my supreme abode.

That supreme Person, in whom all beings dwell and by whom all this is pervaded, is reached through devotion to him alone.

Now I will tell you of the times at which yogis depart and do not return, and also the times at which they depart and return.

Fire, light, daytime, the bright fortnight, the six months of the sun's northern course: departing by this path, those who know Brahman go to Brahman.

Smoke, night, the dark fortnight of the moon, the six months of the sun's southern course: by this path the yogi reaches 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 and does not return; by the other a person returns again.

Knowing these two paths, Arjuna, no yogi is deluded. So at all times be steadfast in yoga.

Knowing this, the yogi goes beyond all the fruits of merit declared for the study of the Vedas, for sacrifices, for austerities, and for charity. And the yogi reaches the supreme, primeval abode.