At the final hour

What is that Brahman? What is the adhyātma, the self within? What is karma, O best of puruṣas? What is called adhibhūta, and what is called adhidaiva?

Who is the adhiyajña here in this body, and how, O slayer of Madhu? And how are you known at the time of death by those who have mastered themselves?

The imperishable is the supreme Brahman. Its presence as one's own inmost nature is called adhyātma. The offering that brings forth and sustains beings is called karma.

The perishable state of existence is the adhibhūta, and the puruṣa is the adhidaiva. I alone am the adhiyajña here in this body, best of embodied beings.

And whoever, at the time of death, leaves the body remembering me alone, attains my state of being. There is no doubt of this.

Whatever state of being one remembers when one gives up the body at the end, to that very state one goes, son of Kunti, for one is always shaped by dwelling on it.

Therefore remember me at all times, and fight. With mind and buddhi surrendered to me, you will come to me without doubt.

By the yoga of constant practice, with a mind that goes nowhere else, one who keeps dwelling on the supreme, radiant puruṣa reaches him, son of Pṛthā.

Whoever remembers the seer, the ancient one, the ruler, subtler than the subtlest, the sustainer of all, of unimaginable form, sun-colored, beyond the darkness— that person, at the time of death, with mind unmoving, joined to devotion and to the power of yoga, drawing the breath rightly between the eyebrows, reaches that supreme, radiant puruṣa.

I will now declare to you in brief that which knowers of the Veda call the imperishable, which those who are disciplined and free of passion enter, and desiring which people live the life of a brahmacārin.

Restraining all the gates of the body, confining the mind in the heart, fixing one's own life-breath in the head, established in the steady hold of yoga, uttering the single syllable Om—which is Brahman—remembering me: whoever departs like this, leaving the body, reaches the supreme goal.

For the yogin who remains constantly disciplined, who remembers me always with a mind fixed on nothing else, I am easy to reach, son of Pṛthā.

Having reached me, these great souls, having attained the highest perfection, do not undergo rebirth again—rebirth, the home of suffering, which does not last.

All the worlds, up to and including the realm of Brahmā, are subject to return, Arjuna. But having reached me, son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.

Those who know that a day of Brahmā lasts a thousand yugas, and a night lasts a thousand yugas—they truly understand day and night.

At the coming of day, all manifest things arise from the unmanifest; at the coming of night, they dissolve back into that very thing called the unmanifest.

This same mass of beings, coming into existence again and again, dissolves helplessly at the coming of night, son of Pṛthā, and arises again at the coming of day.

But beyond this unmanifest, there is another unmanifest existence, eternal, which does not perish even when all beings perish.

This unmanifest is called the imperishable; they call it the supreme goal. Having reached it, there is no return. That is my highest abode.

That supreme puruṣa, son of Pṛthā, is reached by undivided devotion alone—he in whom all beings dwell, and by whom all this is pervaded.

Now I will tell you, bull of the Bhāratas, of the times at which yogins depart never to return, and the times at which they depart only to return.

Fire, light, daytime, the bright half of the month, the six months of the sun's northward course—departing by this path, those who know Brahman go to Brahman.

Smoke, night, the dark half of the month, the six months of the sun's southward course—departing by this path, the yogin reaches the light of the moon and returns.

These two paths, bright and dark, are held to be the world's eternal paths. By one, a person goes to no return; by the other, one returns again.

No yogin who knows these two paths is ever deluded, son of Pṛthā. Therefore, Arjuna, be disciplined in yoga at all times.

Whatever fruit of merit is declared for the study of the Vedas, for sacrifices, austerities, and gifts—the yogin who knows this passes beyond all of it, and reaches the first, supreme abode.