Arjuna said: O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is the self? What is action? What is said to be the domain of the material elements? And what is called the domain of the gods?

Who is the Lord of sacrifice, and how does He dwell in the body, O Madhusudana? And how are You to be known at the time of death by those of controlled mind?

The Supreme Lord said: The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and its eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development of material bodies is called karma.

The physical nature is known as adhibhuta; the universal form of the Lord is adhidaiva; and I Myself, dwelling in the heart, am the Lord of sacrifice, adhiyajna, O best of the embodied.

Whoever, at the time of death, quits their body remembering Me alone, attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.

Whatever state of being one remembers when quitting the body, O son of Kunti, that state one will attain without fail.

Therefore, always remember Me and also fight. With mind and intellect fixed on Me, you will surely attain Me; there is no doubt.

One who meditates on the Supreme Person with the mind engaged in constant practice, not deviating to anything else, O Partha, reaches that divine Supreme Person.

One should meditate on the Supreme Person as the omniscient, the oldest, the controller, smaller than the smallest, the maintainer of all, inconceivable in form, luminous like the sun, beyond darkness.

At the time of death, with an unwavering mind, endowed with devotion and the power of yoga, fixing the life force between the eyebrows, one attains the divine Supreme Person.

That which the knowers of the Vedas call the Imperishable, which the self-controlled and passion-free enter, desiring which they practice celibacy—that goal I shall briefly explain to you.

Controlling all the gates of the body, confining the mind in the heart, fixing the life breath in the head, established in yogic concentration—

Uttering the one-syllabled Om, the Brahman, and remembering Me, whoever departs leaving the body attains the supreme destination.

For one who always remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to attain, O Partha, because of their constant engagement in devotion.

Having attained Me, the great souls do not take birth again in this temporary world of misery, having achieved the highest perfection.

From the realm of Brahma downward, all worlds are subject to return, O Arjuna. But after attaining Me, O son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.

Those who know that the day of Brahma lasts a thousand ages and that his night also lasts a thousand ages are the knowers of day and night.

At the coming of day, all manifestations emerge from the unmanifest; at the coming of night, they dissolve into that same unmanifest.

This same multitude of beings, coming into existence again and again, is dissolved at the approach of night and manifests at the coming of day, helplessly.

But there exists another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and transcendental to this manifest and unmanifest matter. It is not annihilated when all beings are destroyed.

That unmanifest, called the Imperishable, is said to be the supreme destination. Those who reach it never return. That is My supreme abode.

That Supreme Person, O Partha, in whom all beings exist and who pervades all this, is attainable only by exclusive devotion.

O best of the Bharatas, I shall now describe to you the times at which yogis depart, either to return or not to return.

Fire, light, daytime, the bright fortnight, and the six months of the northern solstice—departing by this path, those who know Brahman attain Brahman.

Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, and the six months of the southern solstice—by this path the yogi attains the lunar light and returns.

These two paths, light and dark, are considered eternal for the world. By one, one does not return; by the other, one returns again.

O Partha, knowing these two paths, no yogi is ever deluded. Therefore, at all times, be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna.

The yogi who knows this transcends all the fruits of pious acts from Vedic study, sacrifices, austerities, and charity, and attains the supreme, primeval abode.