Chapter 8 Shloka 16

आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोका: पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन।

मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते।।१६।।

O Arjuna! All the lokas or hemispheres,

including the Brahmloka, are subject to rebirth.

However, the one who has attained Me is never reborn.

Chapter 8 Shloka 16

आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोका: पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन।

मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते।।१६।।

Clarifying further the mystery of birth and death, the Lord says:

O Arjuna! All the lokas or hemispheres, including the Brahmloka, are subject to rebirth. However, the one who has attained Me is never reborn.

Little one, understand how the one who attains the Lord is no longer subjected to rebirth.

1. How can one who has been absorbed into the Atma ever return?

2. How can one who has renounced the body return to it?

3. How can one who has become an Atmavaan retract from that state?

4. Once one has become the embodiment of knowledge, how can such a one claim the mortal body?

5. How can the Eternal Luminescence Itself turn into darkness?

6. One who becomes Consciousness itself in That Supreme Consciousness, how can he revert?

7. Once absorbed into the very essence of knowledge and its practice, how can he accede to ignorance?

That one becomes the embodiment of Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. He becomes the Eternal Light of Adhyatam itself. He has transcended the body – the external form, and is now the everlasting Atma Itself. Devoid of the body, he is the essence of Truth Itself. Having transcended the body, he no longer claims it as his own.

The Lord says, “Such a one has given his body to Me even whilst still alive. I abide in that body. That body becomes My abode. The realm of that body is My kingdom.”

‘I’ and Shyam ran into conflict with each other. Acknowledging the tenets of the Gita as supreme, ‘I’ became the embodiment of the Gita. Now Shyam abides therein instead of ‘I’. The Lord Himself dwells there instead of a mere mortal. How can such a one retrace his steps?

Little one, understand this in yet another way.

1. Take the Brahmloka to be the abode of the intellect where the individual, having gained knowledge of Brahm and the strength of the intellect, attains joy.

2. Take the Indraloka to be the realm where this mind remains ever joyous in living a life such as is led by the gods.

3. In Bhuloka both good and evil actions co-exist, which inevitably bear fruit.

4. In the Indraloka, the individual receives both the pleasure of sense objects and all the means of comfort and happiness. He is invariably trapped in this ‘fruit of good deeds’. Once the latencies of those righteous deeds have finished, such a one is once more caught in the cycle of good and evil.

5. In the Brahmloka, the individual remains satiated and happy, based on the strength of his knowledge. He understands knowledge extremely well as does a researcher and happily revels in the recognition he receives from it.

The Lord says, that people who enjoy the fruits of this world (Bhuloka), are also liable to be caught in the cycle of birth and death. However, those who attain the Lord Himself, do not return to this mortal sphere again.

a) Such a one has renounced the body idea in his natural, everyday life.

b) He has no need to establish his status of a devta through the pursuance of selfless deeds or meritorious acts.

c) He does not need to use his intellect for the protection of his state.

d) He needs to do nothing for the protection of his body.

e) In fact he has no need for any of the three realms for his own self.

f) Little one, one who no longer claims the body as his own does not bother about joy and sorrow.

g) Such a one does not bother about entertainment for the body or regaling the mind or intellect.

Therefore such a one is not attached to any realm. Those who are attached, take birth in order to enjoy the deeds of those particular realms. He who is detached has no need to take birth again.