Akṣara Brahma Yoga

The Supreme Lord said: The imperishable, transcendent being is called Brahman. Its dwelling in each individual body is called Adhyatma. The creative force that brings forth the existence of beings is called Karma.

The physical manifestation is the perishable nature of beings. The cosmic person is the divine. And the Lord of all sacrifices is I Myself, dwelling here in this body, O best of embodied beings.

And whoever, at the time of death, leaves the body remembering Me alone, attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.

Whatever state of being one remembers when leaving the body at death, that state one will attain without fail, O son of Kunti, being always absorbed in that thought.

Therefore, at all times remember Me and fight. With your mind and intellect surrendered to Me, you shall surely come to Me alone, without doubt.

With the mind engaged in the yoga of constant practice, not deviating to anything else, one attains the Supreme Divine Person, O Partha, by meditating on Him.

One who meditates on the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Controller, smaller than the smallest, the Sustainer of all, of inconceivable form, luminous like the sun, and beyond all darkness -

At the time of death, with an unmoving mind, endowed with devotion and the power of yoga, fixing the life force between the eyebrows, one attains that Supreme Divine Person.

That which the knowers of the Vedas call the Imperishable, which the self-controlled and passion-free ascetics enter, and desiring which they practice celibacy - that goal I shall briefly explain to you.

Closing all the gates of the body, confining the mind in the heart, and fixing the life force in the head, established in yogic concentration -

Uttering the single syllable Om, which is Brahman, and remembering Me, whoever departs leaving the body, attains the supreme goal.

For one who always remembers Me without deviation, I am easily attainable, O Partha, for that ever-united yogi.

Having attained Me, the great souls are never again subject to rebirth, which is the abode of misery and is impermanent. They have reached the highest perfection.

All worlds, from the realm of Brahma downward, are subject to return, O Arjuna. But having attained Me, O son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.

Those who know that the day of Brahma extends for a thousand yugas, and that his night also extends for a thousand yugas - they are the knowers of day and night.

At the coming of day, all manifest beings emerge from the unmanifest; at the coming of night, they dissolve into that same unmanifest.

This same multitude of beings, coming into existence again and again, dissolves helplessly at the coming of night, O Partha, and manifests again at the coming of day.

But beyond this unmanifest, there is yet another unmanifest Eternal Being, who does not perish when all beings perish.

That which is called the Unmanifest and Imperishable is said to be the supreme goal. Those who attain it never return. That is My supreme abode.

That Supreme Person, in whom all beings reside and by whom all this is pervaded, is attainable only through exclusive devotion, O Partha.

I shall now describe to you, O best of the Bharatas, the times at which yogis depart never to return, and also the times at which they depart to return.

Fire, light, daytime, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern solstice - departing by this path, the knowers of Brahman attain Brahman.

Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, the six months of the southern solstice - by this path the yogi attains the lunar light and returns.

These two paths - the bright and the dark - are considered eternal for the world. By one, a person goes to non-return; by the other, one returns again.

No yogi who knows these two paths is ever deluded, O Partha. Therefore, at all times be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna.

The yogi who knows all this surpasses whatever merit is promised in the Vedas, in sacrifices, in austerities, and in charities, and attains the supreme, primeval abode.