1 · Learn3 of 6 · 5 min

Study a Verse

Pick any verse to see what it means and how to use it in your life.

700 verses37 detailed

Or browse by chapter

Chapter

Chapter 8 · Attaining the Supreme · 28 verses

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Deep profile← → keys move between verses

How to study this verse, in six steps

1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.

Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›

Liberation & destinyChapter 8 · Attaining the Supreme

8.15 8.17

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 8.16

Mortality, cosmic cycles and eternal destination

Kāla · Time

आब्रह्मभुवनाल्ल‍ोका: पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन ।

मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ॥ १६ ॥

ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ

punar āvartino ’rjuna

mām upetya tu kaunteya

punar janma na vidyate

Translation

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.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Beyond Birth and Death

1
All material planets are places of misery, with repeated birth and death. Those who reach Kṛṣṇa’s abode never take birth again.
2
Prabhupāda explains that all yogīs must reach perfection in bhakti-yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to enter Kṛṣṇa’s eternal abode.
3
Cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness rather than seek higher material planets, where birth and death continue.

Key points from the purport

Krishna glorifies the Supreme abode, by contrasting it to material world

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, never takes birth again

To come to “Krishna consciousness is must” if you want to go to Krishna’s abode

All other yogis have to come to this level

What about heaven — It is a place of return (birth, old-age, disease, death)

How to achieve Brahmaloka — By Panchagni-vidya of sacrifice (Chandogya Upanisad)

Fate on Brahmaloka-If we do not cultivate Krishna Consciousness, we must return to earth.

Scope of progress on higher planets — If they progress in Krishna consciousness, can gradually elevate to

Higher and higher planets

Can they go to Spiritual sky – if perfect in Krishna consciousness, can go to spiritual kingdom at universal devastation (Ref. Sridhar Swami quoted)

Pure Devotional Service (Remembrance Of Krishna Through

bhakti)

By constant engagement in devotional service, one who undeviatingly remembers Krishna easily attains the Lord’s abode, far from this miserable material world

Chapter 8, section IV: Pure Devotional Service (Remembrance Of Krishna Through