8.6 yam yam vA’pi smaran bhAvam

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

Chapter 8

<< Chapter 8 verse 5

SlOkam – Original

yam yam vA’pi smaran bhAvam thyajathyanthE kaLEbaram |
tham tham Evaithi kaunthEya sadhA thadhbhAvabhAvitha: ||

word-by-word meaning

kaunthEya – Oh arjuna!
anthE – in the last moments
yam yam vApi bhAvam smaran kaLEbaram thyajathi – leaves the body, meditating upon whichever state
tham tham Eva Ethi – he attains that state

(Because)
sadhA thadhbhAvabhAvitha: – Did he not always focus on that?

Simple Translation

Oh arjuna! When one leaves the body, meditating upon whichever state in the last moments, he attains that state; (because) did he not always focus on that?

Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam

‘With whatever idea, occupying his thought,, one leaves the body, at time of death, that he becomes, Kaunteya!, as a result of his constant brooding over that (idea).’

Whatever image prominently floats in one’s thought at the hour of death, and he leaves his body with that as the last thought, that he becomes after death (thought becomes form). The last thought will naturally be of the kind over which one will have been constantly brooding during his lifetime.

>> Chapter 8 verse 7

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