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    "name": "Bhagavad Gita"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 8,
    "slug": "08-discourse-8-the-yoga-of-the-imperishable-brahman",
    "title": "Discourse 8: The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman",
    "of": 18,
    "words": 797,
    "text": "## Discourse 8: The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman\n\n\nVerse 8:1: Arjuna said: What is that Eternal, what Self-knowledge, what Action, O \nPurushottama? And what is declared to be the knowledge of the Elements, what is called the \nknowledge of the Shining Ones? \n\nVerse 8:2: What is the knowledge of Sacrifice in this body, and how, O Madhusudana? And \nhow, at the time of forthgoing art Thou known by the SELF-controlled? \n\nVerse 8:3: The Blessed Lord said: The indestructible, the supreme is the Eternal; His \nessential nature is called Self-knowledge; the emanation that causes the birth of beings is \nnamed Action; \n\nVerse 8:4: Knowledge of the Elements concerns My perishable nature, and knowledge of \nthe Shining Ones concerns the life-giving energy; the knowledge of Sacrifice tells of Me, as \nwearing the body, O best of living beings. \n\nVerse 8:5: And he who, casting off the body, goeth forth thinking upon Me only at the time \nof the end, he entereth into My being: there is no doubt of that. \n\nVerse 8:6: Whosoever at the end abandoneth the body, thinking upon any being, to that \nbeing only he goeth, O Kaunteya, ever to that conformed in nature. \n\nVerse 8:7: Therefore at all times think upon Me only and fight. With mind and Reason set \non Me, without doubt thou shalt come to Me. \n\nVerse 8:8: With the mind not wandering after aught else, harmonised by continual practice, \nconstantly meditating, O Partha, one goeth to the Spirit supreme, divine. \n\nVerse 8:9: He who thinketh upon the Ancient, the Omniscient, the All-Ruler, minuter than \nthe minute, the supporter of all, of form unimaginable, refulgent as the sun beyond the \ndarkness, \n\nVerse 8:10: In the time of forthgoing, with unshaken Manas, fixed in devotion, by the \npower of Yoga drawing together his life-breath in the centre of the two eyebrows, he goeth \nto this Purusha, supreme, divine. \n\nVerse 8:11: That which is declared indestructible by the Veda-knowers, that which the \ncontrolled and passion-free enter, that desiring which Brahmacharya is performed, that path \nI will declare to thee with brevity. \n\nVerse 8:12: All the gates closed, Manas confined in the heart, the life-breath fixed in his \nown head, firm in Yoga, \n\nVerse 8:13: \"Om!\" the one-syllabled Brahman, reciting, thinking upon Me, he who goeth \nforth, abandoning the body, he goeth to the highest goal. \n\nVerse 8:14: He who constantly thinketh upon Me, not thinking ever of another, of him I am \neasily reached, O Partha, of this ever harmonised Yogi. \n\nVerse 8:15: Having come to Me, these Mahatmas come not again to birth, the place of pain, \nnon-eternal; they have gone to the highest bliss. \n\nVerse 8:16: The worlds, beginning with the world of Brahma, they come and go, O Arjuna; \nbut he who cometh unto Me, O Kaunteya, he knoweth birth no more. \n\nVerse 8:17: The people who know the day of Brahma, a thousand ages in duration, and the \nnight, a thousand ages in ending, they know day and night. \n\nVerse 8:18: From the unmanifested all the manifested stream forth at the coming of day; at \nthe coming of night they dissolve, even in That called the unmanifested. \n\nVerse 8:19: This multitude of beings, going forth repeatedly, is dissolved at the coming of \nnight: by ordination, O Partha, it streams forth at the coming of day. \n\nVerse 8:20: Therefore verily there existeth, higher than that unmanifested, another \nunmanifested, eternal, which, in the destroying of all beings, is not destroyed. \n\nVerse 8:21: That unmanifested, \"the Indestructible,\" It is called; It is named the highest \nPath. They who reach It return not. That is My supreme abode. \n\nVerse 8:22: He, the highest Spirit, O Partha, may be reached by unswerving devotion to \nHim alone, in whom all beings abide, by whom all This is pervaded. \n\nVerse 8:23: That time wherein going forth Yogis return not, and also that wherein going \nforth they return, that time shall I declare to thee, O prince of the Bharatas. \n\nVerse 8:24: Fire, light, day-time, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern path— \nthen, going forth, the men who know the Eternal go to the Eternal. \n\nVerse 8:25: Smoke, night-time, the dark fortnight also, the six months of the southern path \n—then the Yogi, obtaining the moonlight, returneth. \n\nVerse 8:26: Light and darkness, these are thought to be the world's everlasting paths; by the \none he goeth who returneth not, by the other he who returneth again. \n\nVerse 8:27: Knowing these paths, O Partha, the Yogi is nowise perplexed. Therefore in all \ntimes be firm in yoga, O Arjuna. \n\nVerse 8:28: The fruit of meritorious deeds, attached in the Vedas to sacrifices, to austerities, \nand also to almsgiving, the Yogi passeth all these by having known this, and goeth to the \nsupreme and ancient Seat.",
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  }
}