Capitolo 8

VERSO 1: Arjuna chiese: Mio Signore, Persona Suprema, che cosa sono il Brahman, il sé, l’azione fruttifera, la manifestazione materiale e gli esseri celesti? Ti prego, spiegamelo.

VERSO 2: Chi è il Maestro del sacrificio e come vive nel corpo, o Madhusūdana? E come possono conoscerTi all’istante della morte coloro che Ti servono con devozione?

VERSO 3: Dio, la Persona Suprema, rispose: Brahman è l’essere vivente, spirituale e indistruttibile, e adhyātma è la sua natura eterna, il sé. Si chiama karma, o azione fruttifera, l’insieme degli atti che determinano i corpi di cui l’essere vivente si riveste.

VERSO 4: O grande tra i mortali, è definita adhibhūta la natura materiale in perenne mutamento, adhidaiva la forma universale del Signore, che include tutte le personalità celesti, come i deva del sole e della luna, e adhiyajña [il Maestro del sacrificio] la Mia Persona, che sotto forma di Anima Suprema vive nel cuore di ogni anima incarnata.

VERSO 5: Chiunque, alla fine della vita, lasci il corpo ricordando Me soltanto acquisisce subito la Mia natura. Su questo non c’è dubbio.

VERSO 6: O figlio di Kuntī, i ricordi che si hanno all’istante della morte determinano le condizioni della vita futura.

VERSO 7: Devi quindi compiere il tuo dovere di guerriero pensando sempre a Me nella Mia forma di Kṛṣṇa. DedicandoMi le tue azioni e concentrando su di Me la tua mente e la tua intelligenza, Mi raggiungerai senz’altro.

VERSO 8: Chi medita su di Me, Dio, la Persona Suprema, ed è assorto nel Mio ricordo costante, senza mai deviare, è certo di venire a Me, o Pārtha.

VERSO 9: One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.

VERSO 10: One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and, by the strength of yoga, with an undeviating mind, engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord in full devotion, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

VERSO 11: Persons who are learned in the Vedas, who utter oṁ-kāra, and who are great sages in the renounced order enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one practices celibacy. I shall now briefly explain to you this process by which one may attain salvation.

VERSO 12: The yogic situation is that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga.

VERSO 13: After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable oṁ, the supreme combination of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and quits his body, he will certainly reach the spiritual planets.

VERSO 14: For one who always remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Pṛthā, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.

VERSO 15: After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.

VERSO 16: From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.

VERSO 17: By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form the duration of Brahmā’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.

VERSO 18: At the beginning of Brahmā’s day, all living entities become manifest from the unmanifest state, and thereafter, when the night falls, they are merged into the unmanifest again.

VERSO 19: Again and again, when Brahmā’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival of Brahmā’s night they are helplessly annihilated.

VERSO 20: Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.

VERSO 21: That which the Vedāntists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns – that is My supreme abode.

VERSO 22: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him.

VERSO 23: O best of the Bhāratas, I shall now explain to you the different times at which, passing away from this world, the yogī does or does not come back.

VERSO 24: Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing away from the world during the influence of the fiery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of the waxing moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in the north.

VERSO 25: The mystic who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning moon, or the six months when the sun passes to the south reaches the moon planet but again comes back.

VERSO 26: According to Vedic opinion, there are two ways of passing from this world – one in light and one in darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns.

VERSO 27: Although the devotees know these two paths, O Arjuna, they are never bewildered. Therefore be always fixed in devotion.

VERSO 28: A person who accepts the path of devotional service is not bereft of the results derived from studying the Vedas, performing sacrifices, undergoing austerities, giving charity or pursuing philosophical and fruitive activities. Simply by performing devotional service, he attains all these, and at the end he reaches the supreme eternal abode.