Sanskrit
प्रयाणकाले मनसाऽचलेन भक्त्या युक्तो योगबलेन चैव । भ्रुवोर्मध्ये प्राणमावेश्य सम्यक् स तं परं पुरुषमुपैति दिव्यम् ॥
prayāṇakāle manasā'calena bhaktyā yukto yogabalena caiva bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyak sa taṃ paraṃ puruṣam upaiti divyam
Translation
In the time of forthgoing, with unshaken mind, fixed in devotion, by the power of yoga drawing together his life-breath in the centre of the two eyebrows, he goeth to this Spirit, supreme, divine.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This completes the sentence begun in verse 9, adding the specific yogic technique: fixing the life-breath between the eyebrows at the moment of death. It’s the most physiologically concrete instruction in the chapter — a detail later systematized in hatha and kundalini yoga traditions as the ajna chakra — and it grounds the abstract cosmic imagery of verse 9 in an actual practice. Bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya — “settling the breath between the brows” — is the same point of concentration BG 5.27 named; here it is deployed at the final moment itself, yoga-balena, by the strength built beforehand.
Study deeper
Word by word
- prayāṇakāle manasā'calenaप्रयाणकाले मनसाऽचलेन
- at the hour of departure, with an unmoving mind (prayāṇa-kāle + manasā + acalena)
- bhaktyā yukto yogabalena caivaभक्त्या युक्तो योगबलेन चैव
- joined by devotion and by the power of yoga (bhaktyā + yuktaḥ + yoga-balena + ca + eva)
- bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyakभ्रुवोः मध्ये प्राणं आवेश्य संयक्
- fixing the life-breath rightly between the brows (bhruvoḥ + madhye + prāṇam + āveśya + samyak)
- sa taṃ paraṃ puruṣam upaiti divyamस तं परं पुरुषं उपैति दिव्यं
- he attains that supreme, divine Person (saḥ + tam + param + puruṣam + upaiti + divyam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
After a verse and a half of cosmic epithets — the Ancient, the Omniscient, form unimaginable — the teaching suddenly gets almost clinical: fix the breath between the eyebrows. The jump from theophany to anatomy in a single sentence is the chapter’s clearest demonstration that its most exalted claims are meant to cash out in an actual, repeatable physical instruction, not just an evocative description.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When a goal you're chasing starts to feel too abstract to act on — "be wiser," "be calmer" — look for the one physical, repeatable action that goal is supposed to cash out in; an exalted intention with no bodily instruction attached rarely survives an ordinary day.
Professional
- When a leadership value gets described in inspiring but abstract language, push for the specific, almost mechanical practice it's supposed to produce — a checklist, a ritual, a step — because the value only becomes real once it has a concrete procedure behind it.
Family & Social
- When you tell someone you love them, follow the abstract statement with one specific, repeatable action — a call, a gesture — the way this verse follows cosmic language with a precise physical instruction. The concrete version is what actually gets sustained.
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