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GĪTĀ, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CH. VIII 1037
९९ अनन्यचेताः सततं यो मां स्मरति नित्यशः । तस्याहं सुलभः पार्थ नित्ययुक्तस्य योगिनः ॥ १४ ॥ मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दुःखालयमशाश्वतम् । नाप्नुवन्ति महात्मानः संसिद्धिं परमां गताः ॥ १५ ॥ आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकाः पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन । मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ॥ १६ ॥
state", by the word 'pada'; because, it can be said that the letter 'om' is a letter from the alphabet; and also that it is imperishable, as being the symbol of the Brahman (see, stanza 21 later on); that is why, I have retained the doublemeaninged words 'aksara' and 'pada' from the original Sanskrit in my translation of stanza 11 The Blessed Lord now further describes the superlative state, which is reached by this worship-]
(14) O Partha ! whoever, with a feeling that there is none other than Me, ever and continually thinks of Me, to that nity a-yukta (that is, perpetually steeped-in-Yoga), (Karma-) Yogin, becoming merged in Me, s easy. (15) After having come and become merged in Me, that mahātmā (that is, noble soul-Trans.), who has attained the highest perfection, does not get re-birth, which is the home of unhappiness and non-permanent. (16) O Arjuna! there is bound to be a punaravartana (that a return) from even the sphere of the Brahman and other spheres (such as, heaven etc.), (to this world sometime or other); but, O son of Kunti! after having become merged in Me, there is no re-birth.
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[The word punarāvartana' in the 16th stanza means 'coming back to the earth after one's merit is over' (See Gi. 9. 21; Ma. Bha. Vana. 260). Even if a man reaches the spheres of Indra, Surya, nay, even of the Brahman, by such ritual as Yajña, or the worship of the deities, or the recital of the Vedas, yet, as soon as the merit which he had acquired (before death) is exhausted, he has to return to this world (Br. 4. 4. 6); or at any rate, it becomes necessary for him to fall into the cycle of re-births, after the sphere
