Chapter 8.1 Akshara Brahma Yoga (Yoga of The Imperishable Brahman) - Slokas 1-13
The eighth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called “Akshara Brahma Yoga” (Yoga of The Imperishable Brahman). In this chapter, Arjuna asks Bhagavan Sri Krishna a series of questions including what is Brahman and what is karma. Sri Krishna answers them all and explains why Arjuna should think of the Lord all the time. He goes on to explain how, those who know the Vedas, depart from this world uttering the word “Om”. Lord Krishna also tells Arjuna how He (The Lord) is easily attainable. He explains how the multitude of human beings come forth into this world and disappear from this world again and again. But beyond this “manifested world of beings”, Sri Krishna says, there is also “Unmanifested Eternal Existence” which does not perish. Lord Krishna further explains the two paths by which a person departs from this world that decide whether the person returns to this world or not.
Sloka 1-2
Arjuna said:
Sloka 3 – 5
Aksharam Brahma paramam svabhaavo dhyaatmanucyate
Bhutabhaavod bhavakaro visargah karmasamjnitaha
The Blessed Lord said:
3. Brahman is imperishable, the Supreme. His essential nature is called Self-knowledge. The creative force that causes beings to spring forth into manifestation is called “work”.
4. Adhibhuta (or elements) constitutes my perishable nature and the Indweller (or the essence) is the adhidaivata. I alone am the Adhiyajna here, this body, O best of the embodied.
5. And, whosoever leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone at the time of his (her) death, he (she) attains my being; there is no doubt about this.
Arjuna asks a series of seven questions to Lord Krishna;
Lord Krishna answers that the supreme Brahman is imperishable (aksharam), and is the Absolute Reality. Brahman Is beyond time. That means It existed before time was created by The Lord. It always existed and will always exist.
Katopanishad says, “The Atman (Brahman) did not spring from anything and nothing sprang from it”. In other words, The Atman is ever present and It is the “causeless cause”.
Taittiriya Upanishad (Yajur veda) declares “Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma” (Brahman is the Truth, Brahman is The Knowledge and Brahman is Infinite).
2) What is “Adhyaatma”?
The intrinsic property of a thing is called its “Svabhaava”. For example, the svabhaava of the fire is to give heat. Sri Krishna says here that the essential nature (svabhaava) of Brahman is to appear as numerous beings called Jivatman. This way of appearing and taking the role of Jivatman is called Adhyatma. In other words, the presence of Brahman in each individual body is called Adhyatma.
3) What is “Karma”?
Karma is “The creative force that brings forth beings into existence”. As per Swami Chinmayananda, karma or action here means something deeper and divine. It means, that action, which is the subtle spiritual strength, useful for the benefit of the society at large.
(It would be interesting to note here that one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy called “Mimaamsa”, claims that karma is an all-powerful agency and that karma is the cause of everything.)
4) What is “Adhibhuta”?
The five elements – earth, water, fire, air and ether constitute the Adhibhuta, the perishable (ksharam) aspect. Basically, what Lord Sri Krishna is telling Arjuna here is that the Self alone is the Real and the Imperishable.
5) What is called “Adhidaiva”?
Adhidaiva is the “special faculty” or the presiding deity (devata) for each apparatus. For example,
the faculty of vision in the eyes, the faculty of audition in the ears, the power of smelling in the nose.
6) Who and how, is “Adhiyajna” here in this body?
Adhiyajna is the Lord Himself. Lord Vishnu is identified with yajna. Wherever selfless activity takes
place, Divinity (Adhiyajna) is present.
7) At the time of death, how are You to be known by the self-controlled?
Lord Krishna assures Arjuna that a person, who remembers The Lord at the time of shedding the
body, (death), attains His being.
Having answered all of Arjuna’s questions, now Bhagavan Krishna tells Arjuna what happens to those who do not think of the Lord at the time of death and what Arjuna should do.
Sloka 6-7
6. Yam yam vaapi smaranbhaavam tyajatyante Kalevaram
tam tam evaiti Kaunteya sada tadbhaava bhaavitaha
Whosoever, at the end, leaves the body, thinking of any being, to that being only he goes, O Kaunteya (son of Kunti), because of his constant thought of that being.
7. Tasmaat sarveshu kaaleshu maamanusmara yudhya ca
Mayyarpita manobuddhir maamevaisyasya samshayam
Therefore, at all times, remember Me, and fight, with mind and intellect fixed in Me, you shall doubtless come to Me alone.
These two slokas describe one of the most important messages in the Bhagavad Gita. That message to all of us is that “a person should always be thinking of the Lord irrespective of what that person is doing in daily life”. Bhagavan Krishna says that whatever a person is thinking of when he (she) takes the last breath, determines what that person is going to be in the next life.
The human being does not know when his (her) last breath will be. This statement should not be viewed in a negative or depressive manner but should be taken as a fact of life. Here, Lord Krishna advises Arjuna, that he should always remember The Lord and fight the battle in front of him. From our point of view, Sri Krishna is telling us that we should go on doing our daily duties while always remembering God. By doing so, the Lord assures Arjuna (and us) that he (we) will directly go to Him.
I would like to expand on this point with a beautiful passage from Shrimad Bhagavatam.
I will describe it concisely in parts.
There was a king named Bharata, the eldest son of the famous king Rishabha, an incarnation of Lord Narayana. Bharata was such a noble and great king, that the earth earned the name Bharatavarsha, since king Bharata ruled her. After many years of ruling the kingdom, he renounced his kingdom and retired to the ashram of sage Pulaha, in Haridwar. There, he would worship Lord Narayana every day with great Bhakti. His goal was to reach the Lord through prayer and meditation. While he was doing such penances near a river, he saw a female deer getting scared by the roar of a lion. In the despair due to extreme fear, the deer jumped into the river and gave birth to a calf and died. King Bharata saw all this pitiful scene unfold. He took pity on the orphaned baby deer and raised it as his own in the forest.
Subsequently, king Bharata became extremely attached to the deer and forgot his daily prayers and meditation. His whole life now became revolved around the deer. If the deer was late coming back to him in the evening, he started worrying whether it was eaten by predators like lion rather than focusing on his prayers. The great king Bharata, who had renounced his entire kingdom and also his family and children, now got extremely attached to this deer. With such great attachment to the deer and always thinking of the deer, the poor king took his last breath.
In the next birth, King Bharata was born as a deer due to his constant thinking of the deer when he took his last breath. During his life as a deer, he had the privilege of remembering his previous birth. He remembered the mistake (of forgetting The Lord and getting very attached to the deer) in his previous life. He always grazed near the ashram of the rishis so that he can listen to their chanting. With such a focused mind absorbed in prayers, as time passed by, Bharata the deer, died.
Bharata was subsequently born as a human being, to exhaust his Prarabdha Karma, as the son of a brahmin. He remembered the knowledge he had acquired in his previous birth as King Bharata. But during this birth, Bharata did not speak a word, to prevent the mistake of getting attached to anything or anyone in this birth. Thus, he came to be known as “Jada Bharata”. After his father’s death, Bharata’s step-brothers mistreated him and made him do all the physical labor. Bharata endured all the suffering without uttering a single word.
While working as a laborer for his brothers, due to circumstances beyond his control, Bharata became a palanquin bearer for an arrogant king called Rahugana. When the king made sarcastic remarks about his work, Bharata broke his silence. Realizing Bharata’s greatness, the king accepted Bharata as his guru. Bharata attained moksha subsequently after teaching Brahma Vidya to king Rahugana.
Where did king Bharata go wrong? How did he correct his mistake?
What king Bharata did to save the helpless baby deer and nurture it, was the right thing to do. Up to that point, everything he did was perfect from a spiritual viewpoint. At that point, he was very close to attaining moksha due to his prayers and Knowledge of Brahman (Brahma vidya). But when he got attached to the deer and completely forgot his duties to God as a renounced person (forgetting his prayers to the Lord and meditating on the deer rather than the Lord), that is where he went wrong and had to be born as a deer in his next birth. Subsequently, he was able to overcome his error by always remembering the Lord in the following births as a deer and as the son of a brahmin. He taught Brahma Vidya to a king and he attained moksha eventually.
The moral we learn from king Bharata’s life is, that we should be very careful of our thoughts at any stage in our life, and remember the Lord at all times, while fulfilling our required duties in daily life. Also, while we go about performing our duties with an attitude of devotion to God, we are advised to not get attached to things and beings (including animals). This way, we will not make the same mistake as the great king Bharata did.
“In whatever direction the ship may sail, the needle of the compass in it, ever points to the north. Similarly, let the mind of the devotee be ever fixed on the lotus feet of the Lord, irrespective of his occupation”- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
Sloka 8- 10
8. With the mind not moving towards any other thing, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and constantly meditating on the supreme Purusha, the resplendent, O Partha, he goes (to Him).
9. Whosoever meditates upon the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler (of the whole world), minuter than the atom, the supporter of all, of form inconceivable, effulgent like the sun and beyond the darkness (of ignorance).
10. At the time of death, with an unshaken mind full of devotion, by the power of yoga fixing the whole “prana”(breath) between the two eyebrows, he (the seeker) reaches the supreme, resplendent “Purusha”.
We have already seen Lord Sri Krishna extensively discuss the technique of meditation in chapter six. Now, He explains that due to the habit of meditating regularly, the mind of the person stays on the “Supreme Purusha”, which has the following eight characteristics:
Kavi (Omniscient) means the Cosmic Knowledge or “The Knower who knows everything” without whom no knowledge is possible. The word “ancient” here is not with reference to time. It is beyond time. (The Supreme Purusha is ancient but ever fresh).
Anor aniyaan means subtler than the subtle but as per Sri Krishna, it is attained by “the habit of steady meditation”. Katopanishad says, “Anor aniyaan, mahatho mahiyaan, Atma asya jantor nihito guhaayaam” (“The Atman is subtler than the subtle, greater than the great and is seated in the heart of each living being”).
Tamasah parastat means The Self is beyond all darkness caused by the ignorance as to what is real and what is false (Ignorance is caused by maya).
It is said that the Prana (or life energy) of any person, leaves the body, at the time of death, through the apertures. But when the Realized Yogi sheds the body, it gets concentrated between the two eyebrows, and exits through the skull.
How does one meditate upon Om? Bhagavan continues:
Sloka 11 -13
11. That which is declared Imperishable by the knowers of the Vedas, That into which the self-controlled and desire-free enter: That, desiring for which, brahmacharya is practiced - That goal I will declare to you, in brief. .
12. Having closed all the gates, having confined the mind in the heart, having fixed the life-breath in the head, engaged in the practice of concentration.
13. Omitye kaaksharam brahma vyaaharan maamanusmaran
Yah prayaati tyajandeham sa yaati paramaam gatim
Uttering the one- syllabled “Om”, the symbol of Brahman, and remembering Me, he who departs, leaving the body, attains the Supreme goal.
“Having closed all the gates” means not entertaining external stimuli to disturb our concentration. This means shutting out the sense organs (the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue and skin).
“Confining the mind in the heart” does not refer to our anatomical organ called heart. The heart here refers to a “conceptual center in the mind” as per Swami Chinmayanandaji. That is where we get our noble thoughts like devotion, charity, etc.
The syllable “Om” is the sound of Brahman (Shabdha Brahman). “Om” is also the primordial sound (pranava mantram) from which the entire world of creation came into existence. It is the word “Om” that is chanted before many Upanishad mantras. Sri Krishna says here, that one who chants the mantram “Om” before leaving the body, attains the Supreme goal (of attaining liberation from birth and death cycles).
Taittiriya Upanishad asserts, “Om iti Brahma, Om iti idagam sarvam” (“Om is Brahman. All this (the world) is the syllable Om”).
Mandukya Upanishad roars, “Whosoever knows the syllable Om, the Self, becomes the Self”.
In the subsequent slokas of this chapter, Lord Krishna explains how He is easily attainable. We learn how the multitude of human beings come forth into this world and disappear from this world again and again. But beyond this manifested world of beings, Sri Krishna says, there is also an “Unmanifested Eternal Existence” which does not perish. Lord Krishna further explains the two different paths by which a person departs this world. We will find out by which path one returns to this world and by which path one merges with Brahman and does not return.
We will see those details in 8.2
Hari Om!
Dr. Shanmugam