Gita 08.25 – Yogi’s spiritual exit velocity needs to be greater than the world’s gravity pull
Bhagavad Gita 8.25 dhūmo rātre sadhā kṛṣṇaḥ śaṇmāsādakṣiṇāyanam tatra-cāndrama-saṁjyotir yogi-prāpya-nivartate So here, dhūmo rātre sadhā kṛṣṇaḥ Krishna is continuing to describe.
He has talked in 8.23 about how there are two paths, the path of light and the path of darkness. And he has mentioned that brahma brahma vidho janah Anu treads the path of light, that person will attain liberation. Anu treads the path of darkness, that person will come back to this world.
That's what he is telling in this verse. So yogi-prāpya-nivartate. The yogi who goes on this path will nivartate, will return back.
So dhūmo rātre sadhā kṛṣṇaḥ He is giving the factors which are opposite to the factors which are mentioned for the earlier path. Dhūmo is smoke, rātre. So there was agnir jyoti aha śuklaḥ.
So here is dhūmo rātre sadhā kṛṣṇaḥ. So there is smoke, there is night and there is the waning moon. śukla, kṛṣṇaḥ here it is mentioned.
Earlier it was śuklaḥ. So earlier it was saṁsā uttarāyanaṁ, now it is saṁsā dakṣināyanaṁ. And when this happens, tatra-cāndramasam jyotir.
Cāndramasam. Cāndramasam is the moon, jyotir. Attaining the moon, the yogi returns.
Prāpya-nivartate, the yogi comes back. So what exactly is going on here? We will see that. Baldev Vidyabhushan, if you look at his commentary here, and especially if you look at his Govinda Bhashya commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra, he explains how this verse makes the best sense when it is seen metaphorically.
Krishna is in one sense talking about time, as he said, yatra-kāle tvan āvṛttim āvṛttim caiva yogi naḥ. Yatra-kāle, what time one departs, what time one returns. That's what he's talking about here.
Yatra-kāle, what time one departs and attains a supreme destination, what time one departs and doesn't attain a supreme destination. That's his apparent subject here. But at the same time, we'll also see that he's talking about things which are, within time, he's talking about things.
So he said, he'll talk about the time, but then within that time he's talking about smoke here. Smoke and night and the waxing, the waning moon. So here, Baldev Vidyabhushan says that this refers to the post-mortem journey of the soul and the Devatas who help the soul on that post-mortem journey.
The soul's journey happens through the guidance of the super-soul who is right there with the soul. But along with the super-soul, when the soul is moving, the soul also has to deal with, has to negotiate through the various material realms. And that negotiation through the material realms under the guidance of the super-soul is done through the supervision of the various Devatas.
So here, some of these Devatas are mentioned. They are called Ativahik Devatas. So these objects in these phases of time have predominating deities.
And Kaal, in that sense, refers to the path. And Krishna is cautioning that overall, his purpose of discussion is that we should not live in such a way that we get a return ticket back to this world. We should live in such a way that we get an exit ticket.
So normally, the devotees take the path of light because that is the path that takes to liberation. But here, actually, Krishna doesn't. We'll see later when he talks in the 27th and 28th verses.
27th verse especially, he will say that, नई ते सुति पार्थ जानन्योगे मुहियति कश्चन तस्मात् सर्वेशु कालेशु योगयुक्तो भवा अर्जुन So he says, despite knowing both these paths, still, do not be deluded. Still, do not be bewildered, worried. Just be engaged in yoga.
सर्वेशु कालेशु योगयुक्तो भवा अर्जुन At all times, be engaged in yoga. So essentially, Krishna is talking here about a path that will enable us to move, to attain liberation. And that path is the path of Chunda Bhakti, of Kevala Bhakti, of pure devotion.
And of course, for the pure devotees, Krishna loves those devotees and those devotees love Krishna. And Krishna is so eager to be united with them that he personally comes and it is said in the Puranas that he comes on Garuda, places his devotees on his own Garuda next to him and takes them to Vaikuntha. Of course, that is for devotees who are completely pure.
For those who are not yet pure, they may have to go through the path of light. And by treading the path of light, mentioned in the previous verses, ब्रह्म ब्रह्म विदो जड़ा, they can also move towards liberation by that. ब्रह्म विदो.
So here Krishna is telling, now Krishna, we have to be clear that he's not talking about people who are sinful, who are simply staying at the materialistic level of consciousness and going on cycle of birth and death. He's certainly not talking about people who are going to go to the hellish planets. He's actually talking about people who are transcendentalists and who do or who are at least aiming for a higher destination in life and who do get elevated, but they don't get elevated enough.
त्र चान्द्रमसं जोतिर् योगी प्राप्ट लिवर्थते, चान्द्रमसं जोतिर्, that they go to the moon, but then they come back from there. So he's talking about those who are elevated, but they're not elevated enough. It's like when a rocket is shot from the earth and if it is meant to catapult a satellite to go out of the earth's gravity pull, then it has to have an adequate force.
Otherwise it will rise, rise, rise, but then it will come down when its velocity is not enough to overcome the gravity pull of the earth. So like that, for some yogis, their exit velocity is less than the gravity pull of the earth and they fall back. The best way to get an exit velocity that will take us beyond the earth's gravity pull is by practicing bhakti.
Because bhakti places us within the supreme gravity pull of Krishna and once we are within his gravity pull, he pulls us up and his gravity pull is far greater than the gravity pull of worldly objects whose pull, whose seductive appeal drags us down and keeps us trapped in material existence. Thus by being devoted to Krishna, we can progress towards liberation and ultimately attain liberation.