Bg. 8.16 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

आब्रह्मभुवनाल्ल‍ोका: पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन । मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ॥ १६ ॥

Verse text

ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate

Synonyms

ā-brahma-bhuvanāt — up to the Brahmaloka planet ; lokāḥ — the planetary systems ; punaḥ — again ; āvartinaḥ — returning ; arjuna — O Arjuna ; mām — unto Me ; upetya — arriving ; tu — but ; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī ; punaḥ janma — rebirth ; na — never ; vidyate — takes place.

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.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

16. O Arjuna, all persons including the inhabitants of Brahmaloka take birth again. But having attained Me, O son of Kuntī, a person does not take birth again.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

16. O Arjuna, all those up to the inhabitants of Brahma-loka take birth again. But having attained Me, O son of Kuntī, that person does not take birth again.

Purport

All kinds of yogīs – karma, jṣāna, haṭha, etc. – eventually have to attain devotional perfection in bhakti-yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, before they can go to Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental abode and never return. Those who attain the highest material planets, the planets of the demigods, are again subjected to repeated birth and death. As persons on earth are elevated to higher planets, people on higher planets such as Brahmaloka, Candraloka and Indraloka fall down to earth. The practice of sacrifice called paṣcāgni-vidyā, recommended in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, enables one to achieve Brahmaloka, but if, on Brahmaloka, one does not cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he must return to earth. Those who progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness on the higher planets are gradually elevated to higher and higher planets and at the time of universal devastation are transferred to the eternal spiritual kingdom. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, in his commentary on Bhagavad-gītā, quotes this verse: brahmaṇā saha te sarve samprāpte pratisaṣcare parasyānte kṛtātmānaḥ praviśanti paraṁ padam “When there is devastation of this material universe, Brahmā and his devotees, who are constantly engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, are all transferred to the spiritual universe and to specific spiritual planets according to their desires.”

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

All jīvas take rebirth even if they have great puṇyas. But My devotees do not take such rebirth. Even the inhabitants of the planet of Brahmā (ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ) take rebirth.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Though those who do not worship Me may attain svarga loga by their particular karmas, they fall from those worlds. The letter ā (bringing towards) with brahma here means that they attain worlds up to and including Brahma-loka. All the jīvas residing in svarga and other planets, along with those on Brahma loka, return to the earth and take birth after exhausting their karmas. The Lord repeats the words mām upetya mentioned in the first line of the previous verse to strengthen His statement. Attaining Me, those pure devotees do not take birth again. This should be understood. Those who attain Brahma-loka by sacrificing themselves at death through knowledge of the five fires [Note: This is mentioned in the commentary on verse 3.] will fall after the completion of their enjoyment. But those who are saniṣtha devotees of the Supreme Lord, [Note: These are devotees who are dedicated to the Lord but have some interest in experiencing the higher planets. At the end of chapter 6 Baladeva has said that the saniṣṭḥas follow the path of niṣkāma karma yoga, followed by aṣṭaṅga yoga to achieve liberation. They follow prescribed karmas without interest in results, only to realize ātmā and paramātmā, and after realization still perform the karmas, with desire to see svarga only to serve the Lord and see the worlds created by the Lord. Eventually he transcends all of this. Even the nirapekṣa devotee may go to svarga, but this is a test, to see if he has true detachment. This is explained in Govinda Bhāṣya 3.4.33.] experiencing one after the other all the different planets, do not fall after going there. With the destruction of those planets they, along with the ruler of the planet, go to the Supreme Lord’s planet. Smṛti says: brahmaṇā saha te sarve samprāpte pratisaṣcare parasyānte kṛtātmānaḥ praviśanti paraṁ padam Those who are on Brahma-loka with exalted status at the time of dissolution go directly to the supreme abode, along with Lord Brahmā. Kurma Purāṇa 1.11.284

Surrender Unto Me

'Mam upetya'. These words are also repeated in verse 15. Generally, in sanskrit, repetition is not value. Whenever there is repetition there is a great purpose behind it. Mam upetya means 'after achieving Me'. Krsna is explainning this because He wants the devotees to understand that they shouldn't become bewildered by the desire to go to the heavenly planets. Therefore He explains:'a‑brahma bhuvanal lokah...' "After achieving Me, one doesn't have to go through this horrible cycle of birth and death again." There is no other situation that will satisfy the soul. Therefore hearing this 'from the highest position in the material world, to the lowest position ‑ everywhere is a place of misery.", the dev should wipe out from their consciousness any other desire except 'mam upetya', achieving Krsna, obtaining Him. Now, to fix in our consciousness, the differences between the material and spiritual worlds, Krsna explains the next section, comparing the material and spiritual worlds. [ E. COMPARING THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLDS (8. 17‑22) 1 . In this material world, living entities appear during each million‑year long day of Brahma and are vanquished during each night. (17‑19) ] Here is the benefit of leaving the material world.