Sanskrit
ओमित्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म व्याहरन्मामनुस्मरन् । यः प्रयाति त्यजन्देहं स याति परमां गतिम् ॥
om ity ekākṣaraṃ brahma vyāharan mām anusmaran yaḥ prayāti tyajan dehaṃ sa yāti paramāṃ gatim
Translation
"Aum!" the one syllabled Eternal, reciting, thinking upon Me, he who goeth forth, abandoning the body, he goeth on the highest path.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The technique from verse 12 now names its object explicitly: Aum, the single-syllable representation of brahman, recited while thinking of Krishna. Two threads converge here — verse 3’s identification of brahman with akshara, the indestructible, and Aum as the sonic form of that same reality — with the promise that whoever dies this way “goes on the highest path,” language that anticipates the two-paths teaching starting at verse 23. Oṃ ity ekākṣaraṃ brahma — “Oṃ, the one-syllable Brahman” — makes the sacred syllable the audible form of the same akṣara verse 3 defined. Chapter 17 pairs it with tat and sat.
Study deeper
Word by word
- om ity ekākṣaraṃ brahmaओं इत्य् एकाक्षरं ब्रह्म
- uttering 'Oṃ', the one-syllabled Brahman (om + iti + eka-akṣaram + brahma)
- vyāharan mām anusmaranव्याहरन् मां अनुस्मरन्
- pronouncing [it], remembering Me (vyāharan + mām + anusmaran)
- yaḥ prayāti tyajan dehaṃयः प्रयाति त्यजन् देहं
- who departs, leaving the body (yaḥ + prayāti + tyajan + deham)
- sa yāti paramāṃ gatimस याति परमां गतिं
- he goes to the supreme goal (saḥ + yāti + paramām + gatim)
Commentary
Site Commentary
By this point “akshara” has been doing two jobs at once without announcing it: back in verse 3 it named the indestructible brahman, and now it also names the literal syllable, Aum. The chapter is quietly using the same word for a metaphysical claim and a physical practice — chanting a single sound as a way of holding the very reality that sound is said to indicate.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- Notice when a word or symbol you use daily is quietly doing double duty as both a concept and a practice — saying the word can become a way of enacting the idea it names, which is worth doing deliberately rather than by habit alone.
Professional
- A team's shared vocabulary — a slogan, an acronym — sometimes carries both a concept and an implicit practice inside it; make the practice explicit rather than letting the word alone do the work of reminding people what it's supposed to produce.
Family & Social
- A phrase your family repeats often — a grace before meals, a family motto — can be doing more than stating an idea; treat saying it as an actual practice of the value it names, not just a habitual phrase.
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