Advaita Vedānta

The non-dual reading takes the supreme goal to be Brahman without parts or limits, the one self-luminous reality, and reads Krishna's 'my abode' as a way of speaking that does not imply any real difference between him and that goal. One source explains the possessive 'my' as a figurative genitive, like the phrase 'the head of Rahu', where Rahu is nothing other than the head itself; so 'my supreme abode' means 'I myself am the supreme goal'. On this view the abode is freedom from the three limits and from all conditioning, beyond every produced thing such as the creator's realm, and liberation comes by realizing this one self. The 'imperishable' here is the partless Brahman, and reaching it is simply knowing what one already is.

Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri

Viśiṣṭādvaita

This qualified-non-dual reading carefully distinguishes three 'places of governance'. Insentient matter is one; the soul still joined to matter is a second; and the liberated soul, freed from all contact with unconscious matter and abiding in its own true form, is the supreme place of governance. The 'imperishable' and 'unmanifest' here name precisely this liberated self in its own form, no longer bounded by matter, and 'of the form of no-return'. Reading 'dhama' as light, this source takes the light to mean knowledge: the soul bound to matter has bounded knowledge, while the liberated own-form has unbounded knowledge, and that unbounded state is the supreme abode. Importantly, this source then says the goal here described is still distinct from the supreme Person himself, setting up the next verse where the Person is reached by undivided devotion.

Rāmānujācārya

Bhedabheda

This difference-and-non-difference reading identifies the unmanifest, imperishable reality straightforwardly as the Supreme Self that the Veda calls by these names. It grounds this in the scriptural text that from the Imperishable the whole universe here comes into being, so the goal is the source from which all things proceed. Having named the supreme abode as his own, this source moves directly to the means: the goal is the supreme Person, reached by devotion that turns to no other, within whom all beings abide and by whom everything is pervaded.

Śrī Bhāskara

Dvaita

This dualist gloss is concerned with how the word 'unmanifest' rightly applies to the Self that was meant earlier. It argues that the sense carried over from the verses on 'coming to Me' is referred back here by the phrase 'having reached which they do not return', so the same goal is in view throughout. It insists that 'unmanifest' is not merely fitted to the Lord by reasoning, but actually denotes him as its proper word. It then asks how something called 'unmanifest' can be spoken of as the Lord's own seat, and answers that the word 'dhama' (abode) is what makes this fitting.

Śrī Jayatīrtha

Śuddhādvaita

This pure-non-dual reading first rules out wrong candidates for 'avyakta': it cannot mean the individual soul or primal matter, because of those no real non-return is possible; if the soul were the goal it would be eternally free already, and then scripture's commands and all spiritual practice would be pointless. So the unmanifest-imperishable is the supreme goal that the seekers of knowledge attain, described as the realm of light, the Vaikuntha-world, the truth-knowledge-endless Brahman, the eternal radiance and abode of the supreme Person. One source frames this verse as the deliberate setup for the next: the unmanifest, imperishable goal of the knowledge-and-yoga path is named here only so that the still higher attainment of the devotee, the supreme Person himself, can be placed in relation to it. This source adds the crucial limit: that abode is reached by means and by knowledge, but the Lord himself is had only by motiveless devotion.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Bhakti

The devotional reading identifies the imperishable supreme abode personally as the Lord in his own form, often named here as Narayana, citing the scripture that Narayana alone existed when none else did. These sources read 'dhama' as the Lord's own eternal essential nature or radiance, and one explains the possessive by the figure of 'Rahu's head', so that 'my abode' means the Lord himself is the goal, while still holding the personal 'I myself am the supreme goal'. One source treats the genitive 'my' as denoting consciousness, like 'the own form of the self'. The longest of these sources dwells warmly on what non-return feels like: like a dry log thrown into fire becoming fire, sugarcane turned to sugar, iron turned to gold by the touchstone, or milk become ghee, the soul that reaches this abode is so transformed it can never revert to its old bound state; and it adds that while the Vedas cannot reach even the edge of this dwelling, the Supreme nonetheless comes out to meet the wholehearted devotee, for whom the royal road to this abode is devotion.

Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar

Modern

The modern readings treat the verse as a plain teaching of one supreme reality and the unity of all paths to it. One calls it the highest Brahman, unmanifest because the senses cannot perceive it, imperishable and all-pervading, the true non-dual state free of all limiting adjuncts, with realization of the self as the only release from samsara. Another, in a non-sectarian devotional key, makes the verse the great gathering-point of the chapter: the many names Krishna has used (in 7.28 and following, and across 8.3 to 8.20) for the reality to be attained are here brought to one, and the verse teaches that the goal of worship with form, without form, with and without qualities is finally one and the same supreme reality; the kinds of worship differ by people's taste, faith and fitness, but in the final result there is no difference at all.

Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas