BG 8.1: Arjuna said: What is that brahman? What is Adhyatma? What is Karma? What is said to be Adhibhuta? O Supreme Person, who is said to be Adhidaiva?

BG 8.2: Who is Adhiyajña in this body, and how is he the Adhiyajña, O Krishna? And how are You to be known at the time of death by the self-controlled?

BG 8.3: The Lord said: The brahman is the Akshara or the supreme and imperishable self. Nature (Svabhava) is spoken as that which dwells with the self. Karma is that creative force which produces the origination of material beings.

BG 8.4: Adhibhuta is perishable existence, O best of the embodied men; the Adhidaivata is the Purusha (individual self). I am the Adhiyajña, here in the body.

BG 8.5: And he who, at the last moment, while leaving the body, departs, remembering Me alone, attains My being; of this, there is no doubt.

BG 8.6: Remembering whatsoever thought one abandons the body at the end, to that alone he goes, O Arjuna, ever dwelling in the thought thereof.

BG 8.7: Therefore, remember Me at all times and fight; with your mind and intellect set upon Me, you shall surely come to Me.

BG 8.8: Meditating with a mind trained by constant practice and not moving towards anything else, thinking of the Supreme Divine Person, one reaches Me, O Arjuna!

BG 8.9-10: He who, at the time of death, remembers with devotion—with a mind unwavering by the power of Yoga and with the Prana fixed between the eyebrows—, the Omniscient, the Primeval, the Ruler, one subtler than the subtle, the creator of all, whose nature is inconceivable, who is sun-coloured, and who is beyond darkness, reaches that same Divine Supreme Person.

BG 8.11: I shall tell you briefly that goal, which the knowers of the Veda call the imperishable, which ascetics, free from passion, enter, and desiring which they practise the vow of continence (Brahmacarya).

BG 8.12: Who, controlling all the doors (senses), holding the mind within the heart, fixing his life-breath within the head, maintains himself in steady concentration;

BG 8.13: Uttering the sacred syllable Om which connotes Brahman, thinking of Me constantly—one who abandons the body and departs thus, he reaches the highest state.

BG 8.14: I am easy of access, O Arjuna, to that Yogin who is ever integrated with Me, whose mind is not in anything else but Me and who ceaslessly recollects Me at all times.

BG 8.15: Having attained Me, great souls are never again subject to birth which is transient and the abode of sorrow. They have found the highest perfection.

BG 8.16: All the worlds, down from the realm of Brahma, are subject to return, O Arjuna. But on reaching Me there is no rebirth.

BG 8.17: Those who know the duration of the day and night understand a day of Brahma to last for a thousand Yugas, and a night of Brahma to last for another thousand Yugas.

BG 8.18: All the manifested entities come forth from the unmanifest (Avvakta) at the coming of the day of Brahma; at the coming of his night they are dissolved into the same which is known also as the unmanifest.

BG 8.19: The same multitude of beings comes forth again and again irresistibly, and is dissolved at the coming of the night. And again it comes forth at the coming of the day.

BG 8.20: There is, however, another non-manifest being than this non-manifest entity, which is eternal; this is not destroyed when all entities are destroyed.

BG 8.21: This has been called unmanifest (Avyakta) and imperishable (Akshara). This, they say, is the highest goal. This is My highest abode, reaching which the selves do not return to Samsara.

BG 8.22: But the Supreme Person in whom all beings abide and by whom all this is pervaded is to be attained by undivided devotion, O Arjuna.

BG 8.23: Now, I declare to you the time departing in which the Yogins do not return and also the time departing in which, they return, O Arjuna.

BG 8.24: Light in the form of fire, the day, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern course of the sun—the knowers of Brahman who take this path go to the Brahman.

BG 8.25: Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, the six months of the southern course of the sun—the Yogin who takes this path reaches the light of the moon and returns.

BG 8.26: These two paths, the bright and the dark, are said to be eternal. By the former one, a man goes to the plane of no-return, by the other, he returns again.

BG 8.27: No Yogin who knows the two paths is ever deluded. Therefore, O Arjuna, be integrated with Yoga always.

BG 8.28: Whatever fruit of merit is prescribed for the study of the Vedas, for the performance of sacrifices, for the practice of austerities and gifts, all this does the Yogin transcend. Knowing this teaching of Mine, he reaches the supreme, primal abode.