Gita 08.21 – Our longing for home is our longing for the spiritual world
Bhagavad Gita 8.21 अव्यक्तो अक्षरित्युक्तस् तमाहु परमाम्गतिन् यं प्राप्पिननि वर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमंममा Krishna is continuing here the description of the spiritual world अव्यक्तो अक्षरित्युक्तस् अव्यक्तो अक्षरित्युक्तस् इत्युक्तस् it is thus said to be अव्यक्तो, unmanifest अक्षर, infallible तमाहु परमाम्गतिन् तमाहु परमाम्गतिन् it is known as the supreme destination यं प्राप्पिननि वर्तन्ते having attained it one doesn't come back. That is my supreme abodh.
Avyakta and Akshara are words which have already been used in the same chapter. Krishna has used the word avyakta earlier to refer to his own abodh. Krishna has talked about how his abodh is beyond the vyakta and avyakta this word in the previous text in 8.20. So it is beyond, the spiritual is beyond the material manifest and the material unmanifest.
But the same word avyakta now Krishna is using to describe the meaning of, to describe the spiritual world. And clearly if the spiritual world is beyond the vyakta and avyakta and yet it is also described as avyakta and that means that the spiritual world is not the same as the material world. I mean sorry that means the two words avyakta are not used with the same meaning.
So meanings of words are not frozen. We sometimes use dictionary, we usually use dictionaries to determine the meanings of words that we are not familiar with. But then dictionaries give multiple meanings of the words and we need to recognize that which particular meaning will apply in which particular context.
We have to use our intelligence or we have to use, we have to consult those who have the intelligence to explain that. So avyakta essentially means that which is not manifest. Not manifest means not manifest to a sensory perception.
So in the 20th text it referred to matter in a matter which is normally in a manifest state going to a unmanifest state. And in the 21st verse, this verse it refers to the spiritual which is eternally unmanifest. And then aksharaityukta, akshara is infallible.
Krishna has used the word akshara most significantly in his first verse in this chapter. Krishna's first verse in the chapter is 8.3. 8.1 and 2 are Arjuna's questions. So 8.3a is aksharam brahma paramam.
So bhavo adhyatmam uchyate bhuta bhavo adbhavo karo visarga karma sangeetaha. So aksharam brahma paramam. So akshara, Krishna says that the brahma is akshara, the spiritual reality is infallible, is not something which becomes shara, it does not get decayed, it does not get destroyed.
In that sense it is infallible. And the same he says applies here to the spiritual world. It is indestructible.
It does not deteriorate over time. It does not get destroyed. Tamao paramam gatim.
It is the supreme destination. So after declaring in the first line that it is invisible, invisible is a simplified rendition of avyakta, unmanifest we could say invisible, where we use invisible as an inclusive sense to refer to all the senses, beyond all the senses. So invisible is indestructible.
It is invisible and indestructible, avyakta and akshara. It is paramam gatim, it is supreme destination. All of us are looking for a destination where we can settle and live happily.
We all want to belong. We all want to love and be loved. We all want to be in a place where we are secure, satisfied.
And that place is what often we want our home to be. Poets have written songs like home, sweet home. There is no place in the world like home.
And the idea is that home is a very sweet place. And this longing for home actually is an expression, although slightly misdirected, of our longing for the spiritual world. It is in the spiritual world that we live eternally.
It is in the spiritual world that we rejoice and relish. And it is this spiritual world that we all long for. We may not know this with the paramam gatim.
If you understand the glory of the spiritual world, naturally we will long for it. Paramam gatim, the supreme destination, that is what we want. And Krishna assures, yam prapya nivartante tad dhama paramam mama.
Have you attained it? One doesn't come back. And that is called my supreme abode, dhama paramam mama. So Krishna has used the word paramam twice in this verse.
Paramam gatim and paramam dhama paramam. dhama paramam mama. So paramam and paramam are just grammatical inflections of the same word based on the context.
Supreme transcendental destination, supreme transcendental abode. So Krishna had stated in 8.16 that a brahma bhuvana loka punaravartino arjuna mam upetitu kaunteya punar janmana vidyate. He had stated that those who go to the spiritual world, those who attain his abode, they don't have to come back.
But those who go anywhere else, even to the level of Brahma's abode, they will have to come back. Here he is adding that, he is elaborating, he is specifying that to the extent we can move onwards steadily in our journey towards him and eventually succeed in attaining him. How we can attain him will be talked about in the next verse.
But this verse assures that when we attain his abode, there is no coming back. yam praptena nivartante tad dhama paramam mama So this is a reiteration of mam upetitu kaunteya punar janmana vidyate. There is no punar janma, there is no punaravartino.
What was told in 8.16 is elaborated in 8.21 here. And this understanding that we can have a home from which we will never be evicted, that understanding inspires us to redirect our heart and our energy into the attainment of that home. And just as home is not a physical structure, you know, home is an emotional shelter.
The place where we get emotional shelter among our loved ones, that is a home. It is not even if you have a huge magnificent structure, physical structure, that itself will not give us relief, joy, belonging, comfort, happiness. That will come when there is emotional shelter and the most refined emotions are spiritual emotions, emotions directed towards Krishna.
So when we learn to love Krishna and when we devote ourselves to Krishna, then the result of that is we get the supreme emotional shelter. That shelter comes in Krishna's eternal abode. And that Krishna says, if you attain it, this is my supreme abode.
Having attained it, oh Arjuna, you will never come back here. Thank you.