Verses 8.23–8.26🔗

In these few verses, Kṛṣṇa describes at what time one can achieve Enlightenment, how one can achieve enlightenment and how to reach that state. He also talks about how people come back into this cycle of birth and death. He says: agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā uttarāyaṇam I tatra prayātā gacchanti brahma brahmavido janāḥ II 8.24 Those who know the supreme Divine attain that Supreme by passing Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 629 away from the world during the influence of Agni, the fire-god, during light or at an auspicious moment of the day, also during the fortnight of the waxing moon or during the six months that the sun travels in the north, referred to as uttarāyaṇaṁ.

Understand, these are not chronological calendars. If it were a chronological calendar, then at uttarāyaṇaṁ time, all of us can commit suicide and be done with it, that’s all! But that is not what is meant here. All these things have metaphorical meanings. When He says uttarāyaṇaṁ, Kṛṣṇa means when our mind is totally balanced and when we are not agitated. In the Mahābhārat war it is said that Bhīśma Pitāmaḥ waits for uttarāyaṇaṁ to leave the body. Don’t think he waited for January. He waited until his mind settled down from the agitations and incompletions, and he establishes himself in the space of completion. He had fallen in battle and was lying down on a bed made of arrows.

He must have felt agitated. He must have felt, ‘My grandson, whom I taught everything, for whom I did everything, did this to me.’ He would have been disturbed. So he waited until the agitation settled down. That is what is meant by the words, ‘he was waiting for uttarāyaṇaṁ.’ Don’t think these are chronological concepts. They are psychological. If it were chronological, then do you think that the millions of people who die in those six months become enlightened? Enlightenment is not an accident! It is a pure conscious choice. So be very clear, when He says agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ, He means if we are conscious...agnir jyotir... means when your being is conscious... when your being is fully alive, awakened, naturally you go up.

(śuklaḥ means going above, kṛṣṇa means going down). Listen. If we live throughout life centered on the eyes, our energy leaves through the eyes. At the last moment, we open the eyes and the soul leaves. If we live throughout life centered on the tongue, eating, our mouth opens and the soul leaves through it. So if we live throughout life centered on higher consciousness, our energy leaves through the sahasrāra, the crown cakra, the energy center on the top of our head. Kṛṣṇa says brahma brahmavido janāḥ. He means that if we have always lived with our attention focused towards higher consciousness, we will travel in that path and disappear into Brahman.

We will become enlightened. So be very clear, these conditions are not chronological. They are psychological. Bhīśma waited until his mind settled, until he felt completely peaceful, till he was able to forgive and complete with everybody and himself, and till he was able to reach conscious awareness. Then he entered enlightenment. Next, Kṛṣṇa says that the person who passes away from this world during smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning moon or those six months when the Sun travels in the south, referred to as Dakṣināyaṇaṁ, reaches the Moon but comes back again. Again, this is psychological. They can’t say that in these six months nobody can become enlightened.

They can’t say, ‘During the six months of dakṣināyaṇaṁ, the Enlightenment gates are locked, no entry. Only at uttarāyaṇaṁ time, the gates are open. Come at that time.’ No! They can’t say, ‘Dakṣināyaṇaṁ time is non-working hours and only uttarāyaṇaṁ time is working hours.’ There are no working hours for enlightenment. It is purely because of the conscious choice of one’s being. Kṛṣṇa says that according to the Vedas, there are two ways to pass from this world: one in light and one in darkness—śukla-kṛṣṇa gatī hy ete jagataḥ śāśvate mate. When one passes in light, he does not return, but when one passes in darkness, he comes back again—ekayā yāty anāvṛttim ananyāvartate punaḥ (8.26).

What does Kṛṣṇa mean by light and darkness, śukla-kṛṣṇa? They refer to the levels of consciousness one has reached. If a person leaves the body without knowing what drove him all along—his saṁskāras, his desires, fears, guilt, etc., which we call root thought patterns—then this ignorance is what He refers to as darkness. Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 631 If you look inside, the reason for your low inner space, powerless inner space will be some root thought pattern. Break that! Reclaim your freedom! Declare your freedom! Raise your inner space to the peak joy, fulfillment, and excitement. Please understand, when Śwetaketu, a young seeker mentioned in Upaniṣads, was initiated by his Guru, his Guru said only nine times— ‘Tat Tvam Asi!

Tat Tvam Asi! Tat Tvam Asi!’ (thou are that), and Śwetaketu became enlightened. Why then, even if you listen to ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ nine-thousand times, you don’t become enlightened? Carry the right inner space! On the rock, seed cannot sprout as a tree. In the right fertile ground only, the seed can become tree. In the right inner space only, the teachings can become reality. Right inner space means where all the root thought patterns of suffering are destroyed. Listen! All root thought patterns are destroyed where your inner space is fertile for experiencing the higher ideals and ideas. When we become aware of these root thought patterns and are free from them, we leave the body and become liberated. This is what He means by light. He says that when this happens, the being does not return to the body. Be Fixed In Devotion