Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Now Sri Krishna will describe for the first time in BG a little bit more about His abode and what is that? 

Bg 8.21

avyakto ’kṣara ity uktas
tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim
yaṁ prāpya na nivartante
tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

Word for word: 

avyaktaḥ — unmanifested; akṣaraḥ — infallible; iti — thus; uktaḥ — is said; tam — that; āhuḥ — is known;paramām — the ultimate; gatim — destination; yam — which; prāpya — gaining; na — never; nivartante — come back; tat — that; dhāma — abode; paramam — supreme; mama — My.

Translation: 

That which the Vedāntists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns – that is My supreme abode.

 

So here Krishna clearly now completes the link, He says that paramaṁ mama, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama, it is my Supreme Abode. So repeatedly Sri Krishna has talked about the person will attain the Supreme Destination but what is that Supreme Destination? He makes it clear here.

So in 8.15 He said that those who worship Him, Samdiddim Parmam Gata, they will attain the Pramam gata the Supreme Destination, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama, so Sri Krishna is using almost similar word Paramam paramaṁ, and He is saying that is my abode and what are characteristics of His abode? So what He mentions is yaṁ prāpya na nivartante, you attain this you will not come back. That is also what Krishna has talked yaṁ prāpya na nivartante once you go there you will not come back. So he has talked about it in several places but here in this chapter itself in 8.15 & 8.16 He has talked about it So tad dhāma paramaṁ mama, if one goes there he will not come back. Beyond that here He is also talking about other characteristics, avyakto ’kṣara ity uktas, now somebody may say that what is happening here avyakta ’kṣara, so we have to understand that words can have different meaning at different context. So in the previous verse the word avyakta refers to material but unmanifest, so actually certain matters are unmanifest to us and spirit is also unmanifest to us. So in the previous verse Krishna has said what I am talking about is ’vyakto ’vyaktāt sanātanaḥ, What I am talking about is beyond the manifest and unmanifest matter but now He is using the same word avyakta, which is using to refer to spirit itself, so we have to understand that avyakta always doesn’t mean the same thing. So subtle matters are avyakta and spirit is also avyakta.

So in the previous verse 8.20 Sri Krishna was talking about subtle matter He is referring, to when all material existence is withdrawn then what exists is Mahat Tattva, inactive mahat tattva, it is in equilibrium it is complete frozen silent, it called Pradhan so the nomenclature may vary in some place but in general so that is also avyakta and here spiritual world is also avyakta but they are two different things both are having characteristic of avyakta. Not to manifest to our sense perception but one is material and other is transcendental. And ’kṣara. avyakto ’kṣara ity uktas, ’kṣara means that it is infallible ’kṣara. 

’kṣara mem permam bhavo adyatma muchayate, Sri Krishna has used the word ’kṣara right at the start of this chapter itself to describe the Brahma in 8.3 the first line answers Arjuna’s seven questions in 8.1 and 8.2 so ’kṣaram Brahmam Paramam, so Brahma is ’kṣara, it is not destructible it is not fallible so here we can see it is unmanifest and infallible so fallacy here is in terms of destructibility. So it is indestructible ’kṣara, so here Sri Krishna is saying that abode is avyakto ’kṣara ity uktas, it is known to be avyakto and     

’kṣara. tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim, so incase if somebody is having doubt that paramāṁ gatim and Sri Krishan’s paramāṁ Dhama are different this verse clearly resolves that there is no destination higher than Sri Krishna’s abode. The same verse using the word paramāṁ gatim, supreme destination and same verse is using the word dhāma paramaṁ mama. So in this way what He is saying is very-very clear here tad dhāma paramaṁ mama. So the point is Krishna’s abode is the Supreme Destination there is no destination higher than the Lord’s abode, so that abode is described briefly here and much more in Brahma Samhita.

End of transcription.