Arjuna asked: O supreme Lord, what is Brahman (supreme Reality)? What is spiritual presence? What is cosmic activity? What is said to be the material manifestation? What is described as the divine manifestation?

Arjuna assimilates Krishna's exposure, and yearns to know further. Where was his scorching grief, and where now is his undaunted quest for spiritual wisdom! Responding to what Krishna hints at, he seeks clarification on the concepts introduced in the last chapter. Perhaps Arjuna did not know how great the domain is. Now that he had an opportunity to know about it well, he felt he should not be reluctant or shy in seeking to know more. How even the most aggrieved mind could soar to such heights of wisdom! A great revelation for all times! This is how direct exposure from a Knower works on a humble mind. This is the benefit of satsanga.

What is the adhiyajña (Lord of sacrifices) here in this body, O slayer of Madhu (Krishna)? Even at the time of one's death, how are You to be known by the self-disciplined seekers?

Yajña refers to sacrifice, in which something is always offered, which is received by whomever it is offered to. Fire occupied an indispensable place in sacrifice for this reason, as it consumed everything offered, giving the offerer the satisfaction that his offering has been accepted and used by the recipient. In this sense, Arjuna wishes to know who indeed is the one in the living body, to be called adhi-yajña, the Lord of sacrifices. This shows how rational is every concept, pursuit and assessment in the field of spirituality. Nothing is said, heard or accepted, unless it conforms to the dictates of sustained reason. Does it not make our spiritual science acceptable, nay compulsive, to the modern human? The world as well as our life being filled with diversity, it is very hard for one to preserve unflinching devotion to the Lord. Therefore, Arjuna seeks to know how one can preserve the thought of God at the time of death.

Lord Krishna said: The Imperishable is called the supreme Brahman. Its own sensitive, vibrant expression is adhyātma. Karma is the creative energy unleashing the elements (visargaḥ) with their respective properties.

Brahman is the Imperishable, the source and substratum of all existence and expression. Brahman alone has become the Universe of infinite variety. When Brahman manifests its sensitivity and vibrancy, generating feelings, awareness and allied factors, it is called adhyātma, the spiritual presence called the Self. This happens only when apart from the inert pañca-bhūtas, sentience manifests and gives rise to reaction to external stimuli, growth and the like. Creation then becomes two-fold - mobile and immobile. Among the mobile, human has the best experiential and knowledge potential. He alone can probe into the inner, subject domain, and gain fulfilment!

O best among the embodied (Arjuna), adhibhūta points to the ceaseless transformation of objective existence. Adhi-daiva is the puruṣa. And adhi-yajña is the 'I' the resident Self in the body.

Existence is divided into subjective and objective. Of these, the objective, material one is adhi-bhūta. The adhi-daiva represents the super-human or Providential aspect displayed throughout. Material manifestation alone will not make creation. The whole creational display is the handiwork of the splendid cosmic intelligence, which is capable of designing and executing anything any time at will. Adhi-bhūta and adhi-daiva are thus explained. What about adhi-yajña? In the whole of creation, only in the living beings we find the offering of materials like food, clothing, etc. are used by those to whom these are given. Living beings alone have hunger and its appeasement by food. Real adhi-yajña is thus the jeeva, the Soul, in the body. It is for this reason that anna-dāna becomes so sublime, benevolent and rewarding. It is rated as superior to ritualistic Yajñas.

Remembering Me alone in the end, whoever exits from the body and proceeds, attains My state. There is no doubt in this.

Arjuna raised seven questions in the beginning of the chapter (8.1,2). And this is the answer to the last of them. People have a strong urge to leave the body thinking of God. But how will this be possible? In answer, Krishna says that all thoughts should always be around God or Self. That will safeguard one's departure and whatever would follow it. Thinking about God during the end is itself sufficient for shaping the outcome thereafter. Such devotees will become like Krishna, in essence, or join Krishna's spiritual state. There is no doubt about this at all. How can Krishna give such an assurance? Mind, a product of Nature, has its own law, like any other material law or force. Mind's law is that "as it thinks, so it becomes." To change the character or quality of the mind, you have to change the thoughts. Then the outcome also changes accordingly. This transpires irresistibly, as in the case of any other law or process of Nature.

O Kaunteya (Arjuna), whatever one thinks or fondly contemplates upon while shedding the body, that itself he attains, governed by the law of wholesome identity.

Krishna explains the proposition more lucidly. Whatever form or idea one thinks about in the end assiduously, while shedding his body, that very identity follows him irresistibly; meaning, he attains it. There are three states for us, wakefulness, sleep and dream, on which our life and living subsist. Each is dependent on another and is mutual to it. Amongst these, wakeful experiences alone are subject to common rational study and analysis. Bhāva, attitudinal association, determines the growth and transformation of the mind. The bhāva one fosters, especially at the time of death, is crucial in determining the state and outcome one begets thereafter. In fact, we have awareness and its effects only till the body breathes its last. So, what happens to anyone after death is more a surmise than any experience or realization. And doubts are bound to prevail therein.

Therefore, remember Me (the Supreme) all the time and fight. If the mind and intelligence are dedicatedly resting in Me, you will undoubtedly attain Me.

What matters in spirituality is the assiduous application of the mind to the value and ideal one cherishes and aspires to actualize. Thus, the role of the mind and its thought process is the one to be focussed on. That will lead, shape and decide upon the end result of one's effort. It is pointless as well as risky to delay or postpone our spiritual effort and sādhanā to the last phase of life. Having shunned spiritual thought and association throughout and suddenly to take it up towards the end of one's tenure on earth is unfruitful. It may prove counter-productive. Krishna, therefore, says that a studious devotee should think of and dwell on God at all times. Remember God and do your action; in Arjuna's case, fight, says Krishna. For, the one who has tied his mind and heart to God will definitely attain God. How simple but great a formula!

By the force of constant thinking and reflection, one attains the supreme divine Purusha, provided such thinking remains exclusive and the mind takes to it assiduously.

Spiritual attainment is absolutely inner and personal. It has no physical distinguishing mark. The practice as well as its effect is by, in and for the mind itself. One has to be steadfast in his pursuit. To enter into the mind, gain a hold on it, and institute a new thought process may not be easy. But it can be done provided the seeker is studious and discreet. The practice is first to set right the thinking process, then to intensify it, and thereafter to wholesomely lead the mind to its Source. At that time the choice-contemplation assumes power and potential to manifest what it yearns for. In dream the mind alone becomes the many objects, nay the world itself, which the dreamer experiences and courses through. Likewise, in wakefulness too, the mind takes the form of what it has been thinking and chasing. This is but the law of the mind and its becoming.

He who remembers the all-knowing, the most ancient, the governor, subtler than even the subtlest particle, sustainer of all, transcendental, luminous like the sun, but reigning beyond darkness; he, even at the time of departure, with unwavering mind, imbued with devotion, integrated and strengthened by spiritual pursuit, fixing his prāṇa well between the eye-brows, attains that supreme divine Lord.

Krishna provides tips for true spiritual reflection and contemplation. The only way to access the invisible supreme Presence is to contemplate upon Its qualities. The all-knowing Supreme was present even in the earliest times. Subtler than the atom, it permeates and sustains all. It is not accessible to thoughts. It is the inner brilliance that reveals even darkness. It is in the nature of sentience. Eyes closed, when one cannot see light, it cognizes the emergence and subsidence of thoughts, emotions, etc. It is thus the inner splendour, revealing all inner presences and products. Light is visual brilliance. This is inner spiritual effulgence. As one has the option and scope to employ the senses and interact with the objects, so he has the intrinsic power to withdraw from the senses and dive into the inner nectar. Kṛṣṇa depicts how this rare feat can be done, even at the last moment of one’s life. One must have the strength of devotion and the power of spirituality. Only then the mind will turn towards God, leaving all other cravings, fears and doubts as to what will follow him in the end. Kṛṣṇa adds that he should focus in between the eyebrows, to help his ‘centration’. All this done, if he contemplates on supreme Divinity, he will reach that Abode.

I shall briefly tell you that state which Vedic Knowers hold as Indestructible, which those transcending desires enter, and seeking which people observe life-long celibacy.

Krishna explains the supreme abode the seeker has to aim at and reach. Almost all devotees and seekers generally do not have a clear idea about God, Soul and the Supreme abode. Krishna wants this gap to be properly filled. So, as a prelude, he says he will explain it to Arjuna as well as for all the rest. Vedas, the primordial source of spiritual wisdom and revelation, describe the supreme Abode. Seekers observe various austerities to purify themselves and attain this supreme goal of life. So too, many adopt life-long celibacy to empower themselves to reach it. On hearing a description of this kind, there will hardly be anyone who will not feel greatly inspired to strive for attaining such an abode as soon as possible, especially in this very lifetime!

Restraining all sensory openings, fixing the mind in the heart, centering the prāṇa (vital forces) in the topmost point of the head, remaining stable in yogic concentration;... ...fervently reciting the letter OM (the monosyllable representing Brahman), remembering Me, whoever sheds his body, attains the Supreme.

Step by step, Kṛṣṇa takes the seeker to the spiritual ladder of redemption, the ultimate release one can experience and enjoy during his embodiment on earth. Though the senses of perception and action together are ten, each of them is employed and directed by the mind alone. So, by deliberate thought and will, one can restrain all the ten alike at one stroke. Kṛṣṇa wants the seeker to have such all-fold restraint. For this, make the mind rest in the heart itself, by stopping its outgoing tendencies. There is enough freedom and scope for it. Exercise these without doubt or vacillation, says Kṛṣṇa. Draw the full prāṇa to the centre of the head, from where every breath is directed. This will enable a complete stilling of the senses and the mind. Then the seeker should centrate his senses, mind, intelligence and ego, on the Self, the source of all sentience and actions. This inner absorption is the essence of spirituality. Your mind is the contact and connection with the world. Connected to the mind, the senses bring external perceptions. When solely engrossed in reciting OM, the mind is absorbed without distraction. OM is the sound representing Brahman. By chanting OM exclusively – for which remembering the Teacher is a great help – the seeker becomes ever ready for spiritual departure from the world, any time. The world is but a perceptional display of senses. But for the senses, it would not be there. When mind remains absorbed in itself, and when senses do not sense or comprehend, what or where can one go or enter? Nothing reigns except his own within, where the optional thought or mantra he would be chanting. Whatever does the chanting, that itself is what the seeker seeks and wishes to possess! All else is gone. He attains the great, grand fruition, fulfilment, the Grandeur and Magnificence called Release, Redemption, Liberation!

Whoever exclusively remembers Me constantly, to that ever-united yogi, I am easily available.

Krishna earlier said (8.6-10), only by long, ceaseless and intense effort one can attain the supreme Abode, which Vedic Knowers uphold as splendid and sublime. It is the unfailing supreme gain the exclusive seekers aspire for. Nonetheless, he prescribes restraint of senses, mind and prāṇa coupled with incessant chanting of OM even at the time of death as sufficient means to attain it. Now he says, the Supreme is easily attainable by ceaseless remembrance, which is solely a mind effort. Mind is the sole focus of human life for any gain, ascent or descent alike. When the mind remains centred in the Supreme by means of unbroken remembrance, it becomes qualitative and powerful to regulate and sublimate the senses, intelligence and ego. It will also gain necessary purity and concentration, as a natural culmination. Attaining the Supreme is virtually the ability to fix the mind totally on the Supreme. Such exclusive fixation is the means as well as the ideal of spiritual life!

Attaining Me, the high-souled ones beget such spiritual perfection (siddhi) that they no more fall a victim to perishability, the pitiable fate of misery.

Attaining the Supreme, as in the case of Krishna, makes one high-souled. Such high-souled people embody the highest perfection of human life. Human life is meant not for indulging in sensory comforts and gains, a domain meant for sub-humans. The rational human should turn his attention to the subject realm of existence, as different from the object realm. Inner resources development must be his first priority. This is what spirituality represents and signifies. The supreme attainment Krishna describes elevates one to the highest perfection. Once you attain this, there is no question of falling again to this ephemeral world laden with various miseries and torments, which delude and victimize the Vedic ritualists. Alas, they crave for the titillating imaginary heavens, not knowing that they have to return from there to be victimized again by the human or still lower births and consequences.

All the worlds, O Arjuna, from Brahma-loka downwards, are terminable and repetitive. (None of them has anything final or absolute to offer.) If, on the other hand, one gets to Me, he will no more have any re-birth. (It ensures absolute redemption.)

Krishna further defines the highest perfection the spiritual seeker attains. First section of Vedas, dealing with praises and rituals, speaks greatly of a variety of worlds, superior to earth, the human world. Brahmā, the Creator, and his world, the highest imaginable, top the list! Krishna categorically denounces all these, on the ground that they are subject to termination, like the terrestrial world itself. However much one may imagine and yearn for them, hearing the alluring descriptions of Vedas, it is a fact that one gets there on the strength of the merit the rituals he has performed for a short while have given him. It has a beginning and an end, as the entitling rituals themselves have. So, life in heavens is endful, and the fall thereupon is calamitous. The fate to follow is repetitive. How can one's discretion allow such a downfall?

Those people who know the Creator Brahmā’s day as extending to a thousand yugas and his night also as ending after another thousand yugas, alone know the real day and night.

Time is incalculably long. It is the one that displays the world, in conjunction with place and objects. Human life coming within these is gauged by day and night, their multiples, which lead to parārdhas (the number of mortal days corresponding to half the life-time of Brahmā), concepts very hard to grasp. Brahmā’s life meets its end after 72,000 kalpās, or 311 trillion human years. Then another Brahmā follows and the hierarchy continues. Nothing is permanent. Such reflections expose the transient nature of existence, making it not worth seeking. How fleeting then is our life with its delights! These delights are like the sumptuous meal served to one being taken to the gallows!

As the day dawns, all beings emerge from the unmanifest. And when the night comes, they dissolve into the same unmanifest.

Day and night have wider relevance and application. Related to the Creator, they imply longevity of material existence; but in human life, they explain the process of creation and dissolution. They show how time, place and objects manifest and also cease to be. The unmanifest causes the manifest. Our own sleep and wakeful states reveal the mystery. Despite its gross, solid nature, the manifest springs during the day from the unmanifest within the individual, and at night sinks into the unmanifest within him. This rising and setting occurring every day is a direct experience of all, like zero giving rise to all numbers, which, when multiplied by it (zero), dissolve into zero! Wakeful display, and its obliteration, the sleep, need no further proof at all. As creation and dissolution cannot be subject to our direct observation, one can only infer them, for which our wakeful and sleep states become ample ground; their primary purpose is to reveal the mystery!

This entire collection of beings, O Arjuna, is helplessly born again and again, and gets dissolved as night sets in, and then again irresistibly surges forth as the day dawns.

Krishna, standing in the midst of the battlefield, is addressing Arjuna, whom he drove there to fight the unprecedented war. Any battle is an array of progressive deaths, extinctions of fighters on both sides, something hard to assimilate for the human heart. Arjuna had to enlarge his vision to empower his mind to assimilate these. Overall knowledge of the complexity of life and nature will alone enable one in this regard. It is the inevitable course of building anyone’s mind and emotions to withstand life’s intriguing facets and their impacts. Leave alone Brahmā’s dissolution or extinction. This collection of beings on the earth, says Krishna, emerges again and again at daybreak and dissolves completely as night sets in. Day and night are but concepts, names. They verily imply the repeated emergence and extinction of beings. Human day and night signify the same process. Kurukshetra war evidences this sequence alone.

Above that unmanifest reigns the superior eternal Unmanifest, which does not vanish while all beings go on perishing.

In spirituality, direct personal experience is the first and last ground for all findings. How well does Krishna speak and describe matters, which are experiential to one and all. From the unmanifest rises the manifest, as instanced by our sleep and wakefulness. Both are mutual and transitory. Evidently the two subsist on and are caused by something besides. We ascribe wakefulness and sleep alike to the ‘I’. ‘I’ is the waker; ‘I’ is the sleeper too. Due to that ‘I’ alone, can wakefulness and sleep be. All three states, including dream, are predicates of the ‘I’. When wakefulness transits, what survives to bring sleep, and vice versa? The states alone transit, but not ‘I’, their ground. This is how we say ‘I am wakeful, I slept, and I dreamt’. The “I” is obviously above the three. Every day when wakefulness recedes, subsequently sleep also, ‘I’ endures intact. This is every one’s direct experience and verdict. Visible creation is a display of wakefulness alone!

That supreme, absolute abode of Mine is said to be the Unmanifest and Imperishable. That is the highest destination, reaching which the yogis do not ever return to worldliness.

The aim of the battlefield dialogue was to redress Arjuna’s grief and give him clarity about what he should do. But Arjuna had also sought śreyas, the supreme felicity. Thus the exposition had to be not merely to redress grief, but also to expose the supreme Truth the human is expected to know and attain. The factor superior to both the manifest and unmanifest, is said to be the Imperishable, the supreme Abode for humans, on reaching which there is no return to transitoriness again, unlike the case with all other abodes including Brahma-loka (8.16). Krishna emphasizes again and again that the rewards Vedic rituals promise, however sanctifying they are held to be, are nowhere near what he discloses as the supreme attainment. The seeker should not miss that the supreme Abode is the Self within one’s own body. All his attention should be unmistakably focussed towards this supreme Abode.

That supreme Purusha, within whom reside all the beings, by whom all this is pervaded, is attainable by exclusive, unflinching devotion.

Krishna carefully describes the supreme Abode referred to in the previous verse as the supreme Purusha. An abode is a place or seat, whereas Purusha is a personal entity, who abides in our body, a nine-gated city (5.13). Obviously it is He, the Soul, who resides in our body. The Soul is the source and sustenance of everything. Associated with the body, which hosts the senses that cause an assortment of sensations, it is called Purusha who thinks, speaks and acts. The Indweller is the supreme powerful presence. To attain that pedestal, the journey is inner, and destination the supreme Self denoted by ‘I’, the singular Consciousness. Krishna refers to the Supreme not in the neuter gender but in the masculine sentient presence, to help large number of seekers grasp and cling to it easily. But truly it is neither masculine nor feminine, but is the source of both.

I shall now speak, O Arjuna, about the period of time, departing in which the yogis will return to this worldliness, and also that departing wherein they will not return.

Krishna leads the dialogue to a critical note by discussing a strong belief and cultural association about when should one’s body fall to deserve the most desired outcome. Of the two halves of the year, one is held to be relieving and elevating, while the other is deluding and enervating. People in general accept this belief and are governed by it. None is inclined to think about what is said, to find out what is the real aim of presenting and fostering such a belief. Vedanta warrants rational study, analysis and evaluation of every proposition. The belief is so widespread and strong that some special rituals are performed if one drops his body in the unfavourable period, avoiding all thoughts of their relevance and utility. The dialogue thus marks a very important mission to probe the psychological realm of the human and identify and correct beliefs and adherences, which in this case appear to border superstition.

Uttarāyaṇa, associated and identified generally with six months of the year, in fact, is like fire, brilliance, day and whiteness (bespeaking the course of wisdom and ascent). Departing in that period, the Knowers attain Brahman.

Earth’s revolution around the sun, brings the year, while sun’s apparent north-south movement brings uttara and dakṣiṇa ayanas. The journey north is said to be holy, elevating, while the other not so. Holy acts are done in Uttarāyaṇa. Death in it is held as holy. Even Bheeshmā chose to shed his body in Uttarāyaṇa. Krishna poses a question: Is this true? Or, is there a greater meaning and relevance in the matter, as in so many of our practices and customs? Fire, brilliance and day are luminous, revealing the presence of things, and white reflects light. Sculptures instil viveka, discrimination, to reveal the imperishable Soul in the body. Like light, when viveka reveals the unborn and undying Soul, one is elevated from all shackles of bondage and attains freedom. This is Uttarāyaṇa, the path that elevates, leads to enlightenment.

Dakṣiṇāyana, associated generally with the rest of six months of the year, implies smoke, night and black, (representing ignorance, delusion and downfall). Yogis given to this path and relying upon lunar brilliance, come back again and again.

Due to ignorance and delusion people do not reflect upon the Soul within the body. Their plight is cyclic. They go up, they think, but only to come back. The cycle continues, like circumambulation, pradakṣiṇa. Moon cannot shine by itself. Its lustre is sun’s reflection. Rituals and ceremonies are likewise inert, with no power to enlighten and deliver the performer. Their effect is what you bestow, namely ignorance and delusion. Do not relate the effect to any other agency. Blindly following them without introspection is to continue the cycle. Uttara and dakṣiṇā ayanas (paths), are thus our own creations, not what the sun causes. People are given to gross identifications, pitched on the two halves of the year, when the sun visibly moves northward and southward, regarding them as elevating and enervating!

These bright and dark paths of the world are regarded as eternal. One takes the seeker to the Supreme and the other brings back the votary again and again to where he started.

Krishna conclusively says that these white and black paths, Uttarāyaṇa and Dakṣiṇāyana, are eternal. They are not related to the sun or its seeming courses, which are not, however, uniform in the world, as in the case of day and night. Sun lights only half the earth at a time. Day here is night there. The northward and southward courses also are not accurately the same in both hemispheres. Spirituality presents uniform, eternal truths, values and propositions. The two paths, spirituality posits, are of knowledge and of ignorance, of discrimination and of delusion. Discriminate the imperishable inner presence, the Soul. Outlive concepts like getting born, dying, getting to heavens, etc. Regard the life here on earth as an experience and occasion to elevate yourself from the clutches of the ephemeral to the embrace of the Eternal, and realize the outcome here and now.

Knowing the meaning and relevance of the two paths properly, the yogi does not get deluded. Therefore, O Arjuna, be given to yoga at all times. (That will save you from all differential notions, and bestow deliverance).

Krishna recognizes that people do think of uttara and dakshina paths, relating them to sun's movement to north and south. Sun is stationary and earth's revolution around it alone causes these seeming movements. They are not the same everywhere on the globe. The spiritual seeker should be guided by the inner truth of these. Krishna already explained (8.5-7) that one who sheds his body remembering the Supreme, will attain the Supreme. He also urged all to remember the Supreme throughout life. Where is then any other factor to intercept the course of departure or the outcome to follow? Like many other differentiations to help intelligence to compare, contrast and build knowledge, the two paths also trigger enquiry to determine their veracity and usefulness. Mythological narrations have the sole aim of instilling viveka to evaluate matters properly.

Knowing the secret about this path of inner sovereign brilliance, the yogi outlives all the holy rewards and fruitions Vedas declare in the form of yajñas, austerities and dāna, and attains the supreme primordial Abode.

Krishna, right from the beginning, has been emphasizing the pursuit of singular wisdom in preference to all else. The Sāṁkhya exposition itself evidences this unmistakably (2.21,45,49,50). Here too Krishna is upholding the same wisdom path of knowing the lasting and fleeting (2.16), rising above the three guṇas of Prakṛti, and pursuing the non-dual Truth (2.45). Viveka should guide the seeker in rising above the results Vedic study, performance of rituals, yajñas, austerities, etc. are said to bestow. He should take to samatva-buddhi yoga (2.15,38,49,50) Krishna propounds, thereby attaining the supreme abode here itself (2.53). Remember vyavasāyātmikā-buddhiḥ, he described in the 2nd chapter (2.41).