Chapter 8 · Verse 10·Spoken by Krishna
प्रयाणकाले मनसाऽचलेन भक्त्या युक्तो योगबलेन चैव। भ्रुवोर्मध्ये प्राणमावेश्य सम्यक् स तं परं पुरुषमुपैति दिव्यम्
prayāṇa-kāle manasāchalena bhaktyā yukto yoga-balena chaiva bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśhya samyak sa taṁ paraṁ puruṣham upaiti divyam
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.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
his verse names the inner state in which a yogi should leave the body at the moment of death. The phrase 'prayana-kale' means the hour of departure, the final moment of dying. At that hour the person should hold the mind 'achala', unmoving, free of wandering and turned away from outer objects, so it does not drift from its single object. Several commentators stress that death is exactly the time when this steadiness is hardest and most needed, because the mind is naturally agitated and afflicted as the body breaks up; so the verse is asking for an extra, concentrated effort precisely then.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas
Two distinct supports make this death-time steadiness possible. The first is 'bhakti', devotion, understood as supreme love directed toward the supreme Lord and turned away from all other objects; the second is 'yoga-bala', the power of yoga. Most commentators explain yoga-bala as the steadiness that comes from accumulated 'samskaras', the mental impressions built up by long practice of absorption, which overpower the impressions of the outgoing, scattered mind. In other words, the calm of the dying moment is not improvised; it is the ripened fruit of devotion plus long inner discipline.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
The verse also gives a concrete yogic technique for the moment of death. The yogi first masters and gathers the mind and breath in the lotus of the heart; then he draws the vital breath, the 'prana', upward through the central channel, the 'sushumna', along a graded path the teacher has taught, and fixes it firmly between the eyebrows, at the point called the ajna-chakra. Doing this attentively and without lapse, departing through the crown opening (the brahma-randhra), is how the breath and mind are held one-pointed at the end.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The one who dies in this state attains 'tam param purusham divyam', that supreme, divine Person. Commentators identify this Person with the being described in the previous verse by the words 'kavi' (the seer), 'purana' (the ancient), 'anushasita' (the ruler) and the rest, and call him radiant or shining in nature. Reaching him is the goal of the whole practice, so the breath-technique and the devotion are not ends in themselves but the means by which the contemplation begun in the previous verse is carried, stable and unbroken, all the way to its object at the moment of death.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
Divergence
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators are careful that the verse joins two different things in one stanza, and they insist devotion, not the breath-technique, is the operative cause. Raising the prana to the meeting-point between the brows is yogic and only a contributory aid; by yoga alone the goal is not reached, which is why the verse adds 'bhaktya yukto'. Without the bond of love placed on the Lord, the raising of the prana would yield only a 'nearness of state', a form-likeness or proximity (samipya, samakara); with the bond of love that nearness becomes a true reaching of the supreme Person. One of these voices describes the goal in terms of relationship: the recollection follows upon the Lord's own act of remembrance, and the attainment is nearness to the Purushottama, the divine and play-bearing one, in the disposition of servanthood.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Dvaita
These commentators read the verse as marking a distinction between two kinds of practitioner, not a single uniform rule. Release comes to those who are complete in knowledge, devotion and dispassion even without breath-conquest; but for those skilled in breath-conquest and the rest, release can come somehow by the strength of that discipline even if their knowledge is slightly incomplete, and it can come somewhat earlier, because their minds are already subdued. So the breath-fixing 'between the brows' is taken as not common to all aspirants but as the special path of the breath-conquering yogi, marked by the word 'especially'. They support this with cited scripture (the Bhagavata, the Moksha-dharma, and a Vyasa-yoga text), and one of them carefully glosses the goal: to 'enter' the Lord here means to be perfumed or made firm in Him, the 'splendour' being what is named Narayana, the everlasting Brahman attained by such yogins.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Advaita Vedānta
This commentator adds two points of his own. First, on the journey after death he describes an ascent: the prana, lifted by the high channel like an arrow shot, breaks the shell of the cosmic egg and moves on; equipped with divine conditioning and honored by the deities of the 'archiradi' path (the path of light), the yogi is carried higher and higher, joined by a non-human guiding Person, and taken to the desired abode where he sees himself. Second, he resolves the identity of the supreme Person in a non-dual key: in the Vedantic view there is no Puranic hierarchy of separate Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra worlds; all are included in the single Hiranyagarbha-loka called Satya-loka, and the attained Person is named accordingly.
Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Modern
This commentator gives bhakti a distinctive psychological reading: bhakti here means 'priyata', dearness or loving attraction, and it is only when this dearness arises that the mind becomes unmoving on its own. Such dearness, he says, comes of itself; it does not come by the working of mind and intellect. He also identifies the supreme Person of the previous verse as the 'saguna-nirakara' paramatma, the Lord with qualities but without form, on whom the devotee's mind becomes still; and he names the exit as leaving the body through the 'tenth gate'.
Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If reaching God at death requires mastering an intricate breath-raising technique through the chakras, what hope is there for an ordinary devotee who has only love and no yogic training?
The breath-technique is real, but most commentators are clear that it is not the operative cause; devotion is. Raising the prana between the brows is described as a contributory aid, and by yoga alone the goal is not reached, which is exactly why the verse insists 'bhaktya yukto', joined with devotion. Without the bond of love placed on the Lord, the yogic raising of the breath would yield only a nearness of state, a likeness or proximity; it is love that turns that nearness into a true reaching of the supreme Person.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Some commentators state plainly that the breath-fixing is the special path of one kind of practitioner, not a universal requirement. Release comes to those who are complete in knowledge, devotion and dispassion even without breath-conquest; the yogic discipline of breath is the route of the breath-conqueror, marked off as 'especially' his, while the devotee's completeness in love and knowledge is itself a sufficient path.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
And the steadiness the verse asks for is itself the natural fruit of love rather than a separate technical feat. When dearness toward the Lord arises, the mind becomes unmoving of its own accord, and that dearness comes of itself rather than by the strained work of mind and intellect. So the ordinary devotee's hope is not misplaced: the love you cultivate is precisely what makes the mind still at the end.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Notice where the steadiness of mind actually comes from. The verse asks for an 'unmoving' mind at the hardest possible moment, and it is tempting to think you must force it still by effort. But the deeper teaching here is that the mind grows still only when love, 'priyata', genuine dearness toward the Lord, has already taken root. When the heart is truly drawn to him, the mind settles by itself, not by being squeezed into stillness by will. And this dearness, we are told, comes of itself; it does not arrive by the calculating work of mind and intellect. So the practice is less about wrestling your attention into place and more about letting that love be cultivated and welcomed now, in ordinary days, so that when the final hour comes the mind has somewhere it already longs to rest.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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