Bhagavad Gita · 8.15 · Path of the Eternal God·15 of 28
मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दुःखालयमशाश्वतम्।नाप्नुवन्ति महात्मानः संसिद्धिं परमां गताः ॥
mām upetya punar janma duḥkhālayam aśhāśhvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ sansiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
Sanskrit recitation
The path of light · 8.14–8.22 · Teaching
Translation
Having attained Me, these great souls do not take birth again here—a place of pain and impermanence—but have reached the highest perfection of liberation.
Meaning
Birth is the home of pain or seat of sorrow arising from the body. Study the Garbhopanishad. There the nature of pain, i.e., how the child is confined in the womb, and how it is pressed during its passage along the vaginal canal and the neck of the womb or uterus, is described. Further it is much affected by the PrasutiVayu (the vital air which is responsible for the delivery of the child).Mahatmas (great souls) are free from Rajas and Tamas.Having attained Me This denotes KramaMukti or gradual liberation. The devotees who pass along the Devayana through the force of their Upasana, attain to Brahmaloka (the world of Brahma the Creator) or Satyaloka (the world of truth, the highest of the seven worlds) and there enjoy all the divine wealth and glory of the Lord and then attain to Kaivalya Moksha (final liberation) through the knowledge of Brahman, along with Brahma during the cosmic dissolution.Mahatmas or great souls who have attained Moksha do not come again to birth. Those who have not attained Me, take birth again in this world.
After Swami Sivananda
The path of light· 8.14–8.22→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 8.14I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast yogi who constantly and daily remembers me for a long time, not thinking of anything else with a single-minded or one-pointed focus, O Partha.
8.15Having attained Me, these great souls do not take birth again here—a place of pain and impermanence—but have reached the highest perfection of liberation.
- 8.16All the worlds, including the world of Brahma, are subject to return again, O Arjuna; but he who reaches Me, O son of Kunti, has no rebirth.
- 8.17Those who know the day of Brahma, which lasts a thousand Yugas, and the night, which also lasts a thousand Yugas, know day and night.
- 8.18From the Unmanifested, all the manifested worlds proceed upon the arrival of the 'day'; upon the arrival of the 'night', they dissolve indeed into that which is known as the Unmanifested.
- 8.19This same multitude of beings, being born again and again, helplessly dissolves, O Arjuna, into the Unmanifested at the coming of the night and comes forth at the coming of the day.
- 8.20But verily, there exists higher than this Unmanifested, another Unmanifested Eternal, which is not destroyed even when all beings are destroyed.
- 8.21What is known as the Unmanifested and the Imperishable, That is said to be the highest goal. Those who reach It do not return (to this Samsara). That is My supreme abode (place or state).
- 8.22That highest Purusha, O Arjuna, is attainable by unswerving devotion to Him alone, within Whom all beings dwell and by Whom all this is pervaded.
Word-by-word→
- na
- never
- mām
- me
- janma
- birth
- upetya
- having attained
- punaḥ
- again
- gatāḥ
- having achieved
- paramām
- highest
- sansiddhim
- perfection
- āpnuvanti
- attain
- aśhāśhvatam
- temporary
- duḥkha-ālayam
- place full of miseries
- mahā-ātmānaḥ
- the great souls
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