[While meditating on the attributes of the Supreme, do seekers themselves need to develop any attributes?] They know the Vedas well enough to recognize that Supreme as imperishable; to appreciate that he is sought by leading a life of celibacy; and to acknowledge that he is attained only by those freed from attachment — the path to that Supreme, I will describe in summary (11).

[What is that path?] Closing all the sensory doorways of the body, focusing the mind on the heart [the place where the spiritual essence is present], placing the life-air in the head, they become well-established in yoga (12).

[After being established in yoga, what exactly do they do at the time of death?] While uttering om, the single-syllable invocation of brahman, and meditating on me, those who depart, renouncing their physical body, attain the supreme goal (13).

[Apart from this arduous process of yogic discipline, is there any easier way to attain the Supreme?] I am easy to attain for those who meditate on me constantly and undeviatingly — and are thus constantly engaged in serving me devotionally (14).

[What is the benefit of attaining you?] Those great souls who attain me don’t take birth in this distressful and impermanent world, because they have attained the supreme perfection [15].

[Why is attaining you considered the supreme perfection?] All other worlds, extending up to the abode of Brahma, are places where living beings are subject to rebirth; only by attaining me, O Arjuna, are they freed from rebirth (16). 

[Isn’t Brahma’s world also eternal?] Those who know cosmic time spans, such as the durations of days and nights in various parts of the cosmos, know that Brahma’s day extends for a thousand ages [yugas] and so does his night [They know that, though his world lasts for a long time from a human perspective, it is not eternal] (17)

[If Brahma’s world is not eternal, do his days and nights have any significance?] At the arrival of his day, all manifestations come forth from the unmanifest; at the arrival of his night, all manifestations dissolve thoroughly till the point they become known as the unmanifest (18). 

[Don’t living beings have any control in this process?] They are helpless while they are subject, repeatedly, to both physical annihilation with the onset of Brahma’s night and subsequent embodied existence with the onset of Brahma’s day.