8.21

Verse 3 defined brahman as akshara in a single flat clause, early enough that the definition could easily be forgotten by the time it mattered. Eighteen verses later, this verse hands that same word the full weight of the chapter — highest path, Krishna’s own supreme abode, the place of no return. A term introduced almost in passing turns out to have been the chapter’s real destination all along.

Read for what “no return” is actually ruling out: the ordinary experience of a peak state fading and pulling you back to baseline — the meditator’s stillness that dissolves by evening, the clarity that doesn’t survive the commute home. Every other realm Krishna has named in this chapter, up to and including Brahma’s own world in verse 16, comes with an eventual return trip. This one is defined by its absence — not a better experience among experiences, but the one exception to the rule that everything gained this way is eventually lost again.