Verse 8.27

Verse 8.27: “Knowing these Pathvays, O Son of Pritha, the Yogin is never confounded. Therefore, at all times, do thou remain steadied in Yoga. (247)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Let that pass: for one cannot be sure what might happen at the time of death. Whatever he is destined to be by fate he shall get (even) without wishing for it. How could it happen then, that one would get united to the Supreme Brahman, by following one of these pathvays? Whether the body perishes or not our soul is verily the Supreme Spirit. The rope itself makes an end of the error taking it to be a snake! Is the water ever conscious if it has got any ripples or not? From first to last it exists in its own pure being with or without ripples. It (water) does not come to be with the advent of ripples, nor does it perish with their disappearance. In that way those that get absorbed in the Supreme Brahman, even while in the (human) body-form, are called “Disembodied” (videhī).

Now since there is left not even a trace of the body in the case of those that have become bodiless, how should anything perish at any time? How then are they to search for a path-way and whence, where, and when (are they) to go, since the place (deśa) and the time have all merged in their Supreme. Just see. Does it ever happen that the sky (reflections) appearing in an earthem jar has, at the breaking of the jar, to rise up quite straight in order to be able to be merged in the unbounded sky, and if it does not do so does it fail to be one with it? The fact is that with the breaking of the jar, only the form (of the reflections in it) is destroyed; yet the original pure sky existed, even before the jar came to be prepared and continues to exist (as it is) even after its (the jar’s) breaking up. Therefore, those Yogins, that get absorbed in the Supreme Brahman, through their knowledge of the Brahman, never experience any difficulty in regard to the pathvays viz. which is right and which is wrong.

Therefore, Oh Son of Pandu, you be ever steady in Yoga, and through that stage you will, without further ado, be absorbed in the Supreme Brahman and then your free eternal union in the Brahman will not be shaken, whether the body lives or dies. Such a soul united to the Supreme Brahman is neither born at the time of creation of the universe, nor has it anything to fear from death at the time of the world’s dissolution: nor is he entangled, during the cycle of coming and going between the creation and the dissolution of the universe, in any such delusions leading to heavenly and worldly enjoyments. He alone, who becomes a Yogin with the realization of this knowledge, is secure in the enjoyment of the fruit of it, since he spurns the enjoyment of the sense pleasures and attains unto the form of the Self. Holding them as utter trash he scorns and renounces even the sovereign powers and enjoyments which are famed to crown the heavenly life of Indra and other gods.