[Can you explain the terms mentioned at the end of the last chapter (07.29-30)?] Arjuna: Krishna, what is brahman? What is adhyatma? What is karma? What is declared to be adhibhuta? What is said to be adhidaiva? (1) What is adhiyajna and in what manner is it in the body? And how are you to be known by the self-controlled at the time of death? (2)

Krishna: Brahman is the imperishable supreme; adhyatma is the inherent nature of the self; action that leads to the formation of living beings’ material bodies is called karma (3). O Arjuna, adhibhuta is the perishable material existence; adhidaiva is the supreme divine agent [purusha]; adhiyajna is I myself, present in the body of living beings (4). Those who at the time of death remember me and relinquish their body attain my state of being – of this, there is no doubt (5).

[Why is what is remembered at the time of death so important?] Whatever state of being they remember at the time of death, they attain that state of being – indeed, what is mental eventually manifests as the physical (6).

[How can they ensure that they remember you at the time of death?] By remembering me throughout their life while doing their duty [which, in Arjuna’s case, is fighting] – with their mind and intelligence thus dedicated to me, they will undoubtedly come to me (7).

[How can they remember you lifelong?] By the disciplined practice of yoga, with consciousness fixed on the Supreme Person and not straying toward anything else – thus, O Partha, yogis attain the ultimate reality (8).

[What attributes of the Supreme Person do such yogis meditate on?] They meditate on him as the primeval seer; the ruler; the one who is smaller than an atom, who is yet the sustainer of all; the one whose form is inconceivable, and the one who is effulgent like the sun, existing beyond darkness (9).

[How does such meditation help them at the time of death?] At the time of death, they fix their life-air in the space between their eyebrows and steady their mind by dint of their practice of yoga infused with the power of devotion [coming from their lifelong meditation on the Lord]; thus, they attain the Supreme Person (10).