Chapter Eight
This chapter alludes briefly to several important concepts presented more fully in the Upanishads, and it will be helpful to quote the Upanishads to elucidate these points. Also, this chapter presents a very ancient view of the soul’s journey after death. These ideas about the afterlife did not originate in the Gita, and are even more ancient than the Upanishads. Another ancient concept here is that of a cyclical universe, which is elaborated in other Hindu scriptures in great detail; this chapter merely refers to it in passing.
The chapter begins with Arjuna asking what appear to be questions of theology, but the role of theologian does not fit him naturally. These questions are asked in response to the technical terms mentioned in the last verse of chapter 7. The sense of Krishna’s answer is in accord with what he said earlier about his maya: he is God immanent in all things as well as God transcendent.
But it is Arjuna’s other question that determines the direction the discourse now takes. Arjuna asks how Krishna can be known at the hour of death. Here, of course, Arjuna means Krishna in his cosmic, mystical aspect, so he is asking in essence, “How can the Self-realized person enter the supreme state of immortality at the time of death?” Krishna replies that whoever remembers him at the time of death will enter madbhavam, “my being.” If Arjuna can remember Krishna in the hour of death, he will be united with Krishna and enter into immortality.
In fact, whatever it may be, the content of the mind at the hour of death directs the soul in its journey to rebirth. Thus the mind influences the evolution of the soul as it moves into the next life. Whatever a person thinks about in life – his or her deepest motivations – are likely to be the last thoughts at the time of death. So there is a continuity between this life and the next, and all the baggage of desire and motivation goes right along with the soul. But here Krishna is talking about the person – he hopes Arjuna will be such a one – who has no worldly baggage, who will remember Krishna at the final hour.
To ensure he will focus his devotion on Krishna at the hour of death, Arjuna should make a practice of remembering him continually now. If he makes his mind one-pointed in meditation and learns to focus his being on Krishna, then naturally at the time of deathhe will think of nothing else. Otherwise, in the chaos of death, he will panic and lose his way.
Krishna describes in detail what happens to consciousness at the moment of death (8:12–13). These verses actually describe the yogis as being in control of the process of death. Directing their consciousness step by step through the difficult ordeal of leaving the body, they attain the supreme goal. This idea is also accepted by one of the greatest teachers of meditation in ancient India, Patanjali, who says in the Yoga Sutras that the yogi dies at will. Similar descriptions of the death process occur in the Upanishads, though there the dying person is not necessarily in control. The Upanishads give a detailed account:
When the Self seems to become weak and sink into unconsciousness, the vital breaths gather to him. Then he takes with him those particles of light and descends into the heart. When the consciousness that is in the eye turns back, the dying person no longer sees any form. “He is becoming one,” they say; “he does not see.” “He is becoming one,” they say; “he does not smell.” “He is becoming one,” they say; “he does not taste.” “He is becoming one,” they say; “he does not speak.” “He is becoming one,” they say; “he does not hear.” “He is becoming one,” they say; “he does not think or touch or know.” The point of his heart lights up, and by that light the Self departs, either through the eye, or the skull, or through some other door of the body. And when he departs, lifedeparts: and when life departs, all other vital forces depart after it. He is conscious, and with consciousness he leaves the body. Then his knowledge and his works and his previous impressions go along with him. (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad iv.4.1–2)
First consciousness is withdrawn from the senses. The dying no longer hear or see what is going on around them. They are still conscious, but the “light” of consciousness has been withdrawn from the senses, here called the “gates” of the body. There are said to be nine such gates: two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, the mouth, and the organs of generation and excretion. Sometimes two more are added: the navel and the sagittal suture, located at the top of the skull and called in Sanskrit brahmarandhra, “the aperture of Brahman.”
When consciousness has been withdrawn from these gates, Krishna says, “the mind is placed [“locked up”] in the heart.” (8:12) Here, as in Christian mysticism, it is the heart and not the head that is taken to be the home of the soul. Probably what is meant is the heart chakra, the center of consciousness corresponding to the center of the chest. Prana (vital energy) and awareness have been withdrawn from the outer frontiers of personality and consolidated within. At this stage of the death process an ordinary person has no access to the will; but it is just here that prana, with conscious awareness, must be made to move upwards to the head. If prana leaves the body through the brahmarandhra, there will be no rebirth: that is, the dying person will enter samadhi at the time of death. In samadhi, prana is withdrawn from lower levels of awareness to rush upwards to the seventh center at the crown of the head. This is possible only for the yogi who has thoroughly mastered meditation and the control of prana. If prana exits through some other one of the eleven doors of the body, the Upanishads say, the state of immortality will not be gained:
When he departs from this body, he ascends with the rays of the sun, repeating the syllable Om. As soon as he thinks of it, he comes to the sun. That, indeed, is the door to the next world. Those who know enter; those who do not know are stopped. There is a verse:
A hundred and one subtle tracks lead from the heart;
One of these goes upwards to the crown of the head.
Going up by it, he goes to eternal life.
Others depart in various directions.
(Chandogya Upanishad viii.6.5–6)
In the Gita, as well as in this passage from the Chandogya Upanishad, the mantram Om is used. If the yogis can remember the mantram even as consciousness itself is departing the body – and, the Gita adds, if they can meditate on Krishna – they will go to the “highest goal.” Relinquishing the body in a state of samadhi, they attain the mystic eternity that is union with Krishna.
In this chapter the Gita alludes to the two paths, “northern” and “southern,” that the soul may take after death. Verses 24–25 present in abbreviated form what the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad spells out in obscure detail:
Those who know this, who meditate upon Truth with faith while living in the forest, go to the light, from light to day, from day to the fortnight of the moon’s waxing, from the waxing fortnight to the six months of the sun’s northern journey, from those six months to the world of the devas, from the world of the devas to the sun, from the sun to the lightning. Then a spirit approaches them and leads them to the world of Brahman. In that world they live for eternal ages. They do not return again.
But those who conquer worlds through sacrifice, charity, and austerity pass into the smoke, from the smoke into the night, from the night into the fortnight of the waning moon, from the fortnight of the waning moon into the six months of the sun’s southern journey, from there into the world of the ancestors, from the world of the ancestors into the moon, . . . and from there to rebirth. (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad vi.2.15–16)
“Northern and southern paths” refers to the path of the sun, which seems to move northward after the winter solstice and southward after the summer solstice. To die during the period in which the sun is moving southward was considered inauspicious; dying during the period after the winter solstice, when the sun is moving back north, meant the soul might take the northern path which leads to immortality. In the Gita and the Upanishads, this “northern path” has come to signify that the soul has been released from karma and need not be reborn. The southern path, by contrast, leads the soul to a new birth in this world, a birth suitable to its karma. This view of the soul’s journey after death has a primordial quality about it, giving the feeling that it far predates even the Upanishads. Perhaps it is a belief of very ancient times that found its way into the Upanishads, which say that the spiritually ready soul makes the journey of the northern route while those who have only practiced rituals take the southern.
This chapter also briefly alludes to the Days and Nights of Brahma. Brahma is the Creator of the Hindu trinity, who brings forth the cosmos at the will of Vishnu. But Brahma in a sense is not in control of this creative process. Just as day follows night in eternal, unvarying rhythm, so does the entire universe undergo cycles of creation, death, and new birth. As the Day of Brahma dawns, the cosmos comes into being; as the Day comes to an end, the entire creation dies and ceases to exist. Then, for a Night as long as the cosmic Day, the universe rests. It ceases to be – or, rather, it continues only in a subtle, unmanifest form, a dream in the mind of Vishnu, who lies sleeping on the waves of the cosmic ocean. Then, without deviating from the eternal rhythm, the cosmos is reborn when the Night is over. The new universe dawns, and Brahma once again moves into his active, creative Day.
Scholars have noted that this grand vision of the cosmos being born, dying, and being reborn for eternity – cosmos after cosmos arising from the black immensity of nothingness – is quite similar to modern theories of the expanding and contracting universe put forward by contemporary cosmology. The vast time spans accepted by present-day physics are also similar to the cosmic Days and Nights of Brahma. Each Day lasts for a thousand yugas, which equals 4,320,000,000 years. For this near-eternity of time the universe lives and grows; then it dies and lies dormant for an equal time, before the new Day dawns.
There is a state of being, however, that is higher than the perishable cosmos, which is not born and does not die the cosmic death. Here (8:20) it is called simply avyakta, the Unmanifest. This is the supreme goal of all living things, and it is Krishna’s home (8:21). Returning to this final resting place, the soul enters into immortal bliss and is not reborn. –D.M.
8: Eternal Godhead
ARJUNA
1 O Krishna, what is Brahman, and what is the nature of action? What is the adhyatma, the adhibhuta, the adhidaiva? 2 What is the adhiyajna, the supreme sacrifice, and how is it to be offered? How are the self-controlled united with you at the time of death?
KRISHNA
3 My highest nature, the imperishable Brahman, gives every creature its existence and lives in every creature as the adhyatma. My action is creation and the bringing forth of creatures. 4 The adhibhuta is the perishable body; the adhidaiva is Purusha, eternal spirit. The adhiyajna, the supreme sacrifice, is made to me as the Lord within you.
5 Those who remember me at the time of death will come to me. Do not doubt this. 6 Whatever occupies the mind at the time of death determines the destination of the dying; always they will tend toward that state of being. 7 Therefore, remember me at all times and fight on. With your heart and mind intent on me, you will surely come to me. 8 When you make your mind one-pointed through regular practice of meditation, you will find the supreme glory of the Lord.
9 The Lord is the supreme poet, the first cause, the sovereign ruler, subtler than the tiniest particle, the support of all, inconceivable, bright as the sun, beyond darkness. 10 Remembering him in this way at the time of death, through devotion and the power of meditation, with your mind completely stilled and your concentration fixed in the center of spiritual awareness between the eyebrows, you will realize the supreme Lord.
11 I will tell you briefly of the eternal state all scriptures affirm, which can be entered only by those who are self-controlled and free from selfish passions. Those whose lives are dedicated to Brahman attain this supreme goal.
12 Remembering me at the time of death, close down the doors of the senses and place the mind in the heart. Then, while absorbed in meditation, focus all energy upwards to the head. 13 Repeating in this state the divine name, the syllable Om that represents the changeless Brahman, you will go forth from the body and attain the supreme goal.
14 I am easily attained by the person who always remembers me and is attached to nothing else. Such a person is a true yogi, Arjuna. 15 Great souls make their lives perfect and discover me; they are freed from mortality and the suffering of this separate existence. 16 Every creature in the universe is subject to rebirth, Arjuna, except the one who is united with me.
17 Those who understand the cosmic laws know that the Day of Brahma ends after a thousand yugas and the Night of Brahma ends after a thousand yugas. 18 When the day of Brahma dawns, forms are brought forth from the Unmanifest; when the night of Brahma comes, these forms merge in the Formless again. 19 This multitude of beings is created and destroyed again and again in the succeeding days and nights of Brahma. 20 But beyond this formless state there is another, unmanifested reality, which is eternal and is not dissolved when the cosmos is destroyed. 21 Those who realize life’s supreme goal know that I am unmanifested and unchanging. Having come home to me, they never return to separate existence.
22 This supreme Lord who pervades all existence, the true Self of all creatures, may be realized through undivided love. 23 There are two paths, Arjuna, which the soul may follow at the time of death. One leads to rebirth and the other to liberation.
24 The six months of the northern path of the sun, the path of light, of fire, of day, of the bright fortnight, leads knowers of Brahman to the supreme goal. 25 The six months of the southern path of the sun, the path of smoke, of night, of the dark fortnight, leads other souls to the light of the moon and to rebirth.
26 These two paths, the light and the dark, are said to be eternal, leading some to liberation and others to rebirth. 27 Once you have known these two paths, Arjuna, you can never be deluded again. Attain this knowledge through perseverance in yoga. 28 There is merit in studying the scriptures, in selfless service, austerity, and giving, but the practice of meditation carries you beyond all these to the supreme abode of the highest Lord.