Book of Krishna (Bhagavad gita)

icon8   Attainment of Salvation

1Arjuna said: O Krishna, who is the Eternal Being or the Spirit?
2What is the nature of the Eternal Being?
3What is Karma?
4Who are the mortal beings? And who are Temporal Beings?
5Who is the Supreme Being, and how does He dwell in the body?
6How can You, the Supreme Being, be remembered at the time of death by those who have control over their minds, O Krishna?
7Lord Krishna said: The eternal and immutable Spirit of the Supreme Being is also called Eternal Being or the Spirit.
8The inherent power of cognition and desire of Eternal Being (Spirit) is called the nature of Eternal Being.
9The creative power of Eternal Being (or Spirit) that causes manifestation of the living entity is called Karma.
10Various expansions of the Supreme Being are also called Temporal Beings or Divine Beings.
11The Supreme Being also resides inside the physical bodies as the divine Controller.
12The one who remembers the Supreme Being exclusively even while leaving the body at the time of death, attains the Supreme Abode; there is no doubt about it.
13Remembering whatever object one leaves the body at the end of life, one attains that object.
14Thought of whatever object prevails during one's lifetime, one remembers only that object at the end of life and achieves it.
15Therefore, always remember Me and do your duty.
16You shall certainly attain Me if your mind and intellect are ever focused on Me.
17By contemplating on Me with an unwavering mind that is disciplined by the practice of meditation, one attains the Supreme Being, O Arjuna.
18One who meditates on the Supreme Being ¾ as the omniscient, the oldest, the controller, smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest, the sustainer of everything, the inconceivable, the self-luminous like the sun, and transcendental (or beyond the material reality) ¾ at the time of death with steadfast mind and devotion by making the flow of bioimpulses rise up to the middle of the eye brows by the power of yogic practices; one attains the Supreme Being.
19Now I shall briefly explain the process to attain the Supreme Abode that the knowers of the Veda call immutable; into which the ascetics, freed from attachment, enter; and desiring which people lead a life of celibacy.
20When one leaves the physical body by controlling all the senses; focusing the mind on God, and the bioimpulses (Pranas) in the cerebrum; engaged in yogic practice; meditating on Me and uttering OM ¾ the sacred monosyllable sound power of Spirit ¾ one attains the Supreme Abode.
21I am easily attainable, O Arjuna, by that ever steadfast devotee who always thinks of Me and whose mind does not go elsewhere.
22After attaining Me, the great souls do not incur rebirth in this miserable transitory world, because they have attained the highest perfection.
23The dwellers of all the worlds ¾ up to and including the world of the creator ¾ are subject to the miseries of repeated birth and death. But, after attaining Me, O Arjuna, one does not take birth again.
24Those who know that the duration of creation lasts countless years and that the duration of destruction also lasts countless years, they are the knowers of the cycles of creation and destruction.
25All manifestations come out of the primary material Nature during the creative cycle, and they merge into the primary material Nature during the destructive cycle.
26The same multitude of beings comes into existence again and again at the arrival of the creative cycle; and is annihilated, inevitably, at the arrival of the destructive cycle.
27There is another eternal transcendental existence ¾ higher than the changeable material Nature ¾ called Eternal Being or Spirit that does not perish when all created beings perish. This is also called the Supreme Abode.
28Those who attain the Supreme Abode do not take birth again.
29This Supreme Abode, O Arjuna, is attainable by unswerving devotion to Me within which all beings exist, and by which the entire universe is pervaded.
30O Arjuna, now I shall describe different paths departing by which, during death, the yogis do or do not come back.
31Fire, light, daytime, the bright lunar fortnight, and the six months of the northern solstice of the sun — departing by the path of these celestial controllers, yogis who know the Spirit attain the Supreme.
32Smoke, night, the dark lunar fortnight, and the six months of southern solstice of the sun — departing by these paths, the righteous person attains heaven and comes back to earth.
33The path of light of spiritual practice and Self-knowledge and the path of darkness of materialism and ignorance are thought to be the world’s two eternal paths.
34The former leads to salvation and the latter leads to rebirth as human beings.
35Knowing these two paths, O Arjuna, a yogi is not bewildered at all.
36Therefore, one should be resolute in attaining salvation — the goal of human birth — at all times.
37The one who knows all this knowledge goes beyond getting the benefits of the study of the Vedas, performance of sacrifices, austerities, and charities; and attains salvation.