Chapter 8: Akshara Brahma Yoga – Comprehending the Imperishable Reality: Verse 21
अव्यक्तोऽक्षर इत्युक्तस्तमाहु: परमां गतिम् ।
यं प्राप्य न निवर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमं मम ॥
avyakto’kṣara ityuktastamāhu:
paramāṃ gatim
yaṃ prāpya na nivartante
taddhāma paramaṃ mama – 8.21
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.
Chapter 8: Akshara Brahma Yoga – Comprehending the Imperishable Reality - Verse 21
Ma Gurupriya
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.
