📿 Shloka Collection

Avyakto'kshara Ity Uktah

Gita 8.21 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 8 — Akshara Brahma Yoga
अव्यक्तोऽक्षर इत्युक्तस्तमाहुः परमां गतिम् ।
यं प्राप्य न निवर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमं मम ॥
Avyakto'kshara ity uktas tam ahuh paramam gatim,
Yam prapya na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama.
अव्यक्तः
the unmanifest
अक्षरः
the imperishable
इति उक्तः
thus it is called
तम् आहुः
that is called
परमाम् गतिम्
the supreme destination
यम् प्राप्य
having reached which
न निवर्तन्ते
one does not return
तत् धाम
that abode
परमम् मम
My supreme (abode)

Krishna names this eternal reality. What is called unmanifest and imperishable — that is the supreme destination. Having reached it, no one ever returns. And that, Krishna says, is My own supreme abode.

"Tad dhama paramam mama" — that is My supreme abode. This is extraordinary. Krishna is saying that the eternal reality beyond creation and dissolution is not some empty void — it is His home. Just as every person has a home to return to, God too has an abode. And that is where the devotee ultimately arrives.

From there, no one comes back. Not because they are trapped, but because there is nothing left to desire. When everything is found, where else would one go?

This shloka completes the arc from 8.15 to 8.21: reaching God means no return (8.15), all worlds up to Brahmaloka involve return (8.16), cosmic time is vast but finite (8.17-8.19), there is a reality beyond the cycle (8.20), and that reality is Krishna's own eternal abode (8.21). The next shloka (8.22) reveals how to reach it: through ananya bhakti, single-pointed devotion.

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