Bhagavadgita Parva — About Indestructible Brahman

Arjuna said “What is Brahma, what is Adhyatma and what is, O best of men, Action? And again, what is (meant by) Adhibhuta, Adhidaiva.

And Adhiyajna, and how (they are in this body), O destroyer of Madhu? And how, too, are you to be known by those who restrain their selves, at the time of their death”.

The great one said “The Brahma is the supreme, and the indestructible. Adhyatma is called its manifestation, and offering (to the divinities) which is the cause of the production and the development of all things, is called Action.

Adhibhuta is all perishable things. Adhidaiva is the (primal) Male-Being. And O best of men, Adhiyajna is I myself in this body.

He, who casts off this body and departs from this world, remembering Me in his last moments. comes to My essence. There is no doubt in it.

And again, whichever from of divinity he remembers when he finally leaves this body and departs from this world, to him, O son of Kunti, he goes, having habitually meditated upon him.

Therefore, think and remember Me at all times, and engage in battle. Fixing your mind and understanding on Me, you will surely come to Me. There is no doubt in it.

He, who things of the supreme Divine Being, O Partha, with a mind not running to other objects and possessing of concentration of mind in continuous meditation, goes to the Supreme Being.

He attains to that transcendent and Divine being, who possessed of reverence for Him, with a steady mind and power of devotion, properly concentrating the life breath between the brows, meditates on that ancient Seer, the ruler of all the minutes of the minute, the supporter of all, whose form is inconceivable, whose brilliance is that of the sun and who is beyond all darkness.

I shall tell you briefly about the seat which the persons, learned in the Vedas, say indestructible, which is entered by ascetics, who are freed from all desires, and which wishing to obtain, men follow the path of Brahmacharis.

He reaches the highest goal who casts off his body and departs, by stopping all passages (senses), confining the mind within itself, placing his own life-breath between the eyebrows, adhering to uninterrupted meditation, uttering the one syllable Om which is Brahma, and thinking Me.

To that Yogi, O Partha, I am easy of access who always meditate on Me, by withdrawing his mind from all other objects, and who constantly practices abstraction.

Those high-souled men, who achieve the highest perfection, attaining to Me, do not again take birth, which is the abode of sorrow, and transient.

All (beings of all) the worlds, O Arjuna, from the world of Brahma, have to take rebirth, But, O son of Kunti, after attaining to Me, there is no rebirth,

Those who know the day of Brahma, as being of one thousand ages, and a night of his, as being of one thousand ages (Yuga) know Day and Night.

On the advent of Day, all things that are manifest are produced from the unmanifest and on the advent of Night, all things dissolve into that which is called unmanifest.

The same assemblage of beings, being manifest (born), again and again, dissolves on the advent of Night, and O Partha, on the advent of Day, they spring forth again, being constrained by the force of actions,

But there is another entity, unmanifested and eternal, which is beyond the unmanifested beings, and which is not destroyed when all entities are destroyed.

It is called unmanifested and indestructible; they call it the highest goal. Attaining to it, none has to come back,

The Supreme Being, O Partha, in which all beings dwell, and by whom an beings are permeated, is to be attained by faith, undirected to any other objects.

I will state the times, O best of the Bharata race, at which Yogis, departing from this world, go never to return, or, to return.

Departing from the world in the Fire, the flame, the Day, the Bright-Fortnight, the Six months of the northern Solstice, one, if he knows Him, goes to Brahma, (never to return again).

Departing from this world in Smoke, Night, the Dark-Fortnight, the six months of the southern Solstice, one goes to the Lunar Light and returns to the world again.

The Bright and the Dark, these two paths are considered to be eternal paths in this world. By the one, one goes never to return, by the other, one goes to come back.

Knowing these two paths, O Partha, no Yogi is deluded, and therefore, O Arjuna, at all times, be possessed of a Yoga.

The meritorious fruits, prescribed in the Vedas, for sacrifices, for penances, for gifts, knowing all this, a Yogi attains to it, the highest and primeval seat.