This, as described, is the Brāhmī state, the state that rests in Brahman, the standing in the very form of Brahman with all action renounced. O Pārtha, having reached this state, having gained it, one is not deluded, does not fall into delusion. And standing in this state, the Brāhmī state as described, even at the last hour, even in the final span of life, one reaches the extinction in Brahman, the bliss of Brahman, liberation. What need to say that one who has renounced from the stage of studentship itself, and abides in Brahman alone all his life, reaches the extinction in Brahman?

This standing in unattached action, preceded by knowledge of the eternal self, which is the mark of the man of steady wisdom, is the state of Brahman, that which brings one to Brahman. Having reached such a standing in action, one is not deluded, does not again come to transmigration. Abiding in this standing even in the last age of life, one reaches Brahman-nirvana: one goes to Brahman, which is nirvana, one attains the self whose single strand is happiness. Thus, for the stilling of the delusion of one who, deluded by taking the body for the self and so withdrawn from war, did not know the truth of the self nor that the action called war is the means to attaining it, the sankhya understanding bearing on the eternal self, and, preceded by it, the understanding bearing on the discipline of action in the form of the performance of unattached action, which is the means to the yoga of steady wisdom, have been told in the second chapter. As it is said: 'the sankhya-yoga insight, whose sphere is the eternal self and unattached action here, has been told in the second, with the man of steady wisdom for its mark, to still that delusion'.

Krishna concludes with 'this'. The 'standing in Brahman' (brahmi sthiti) is the standing whose object is Brahman; it is the defining mark. Standing in it even at the final hour, one goes to Brahman; otherwise one reaches another birth, since it will be said, 'whatever state one remembers' (8.6). Even for the men of knowledge, when there is action that has begun to bear fruit, another body is fitting, for it has been said, 'the others, through enjoyment'. There are indeed certain actions whose fruit is many bodies, as is seen from 'he becomes a brahmana over seven births' and the like, and so even men of knowledge come to many bodies. So it is said, 'even one of established wisdom, who has gone upward and reached the station of Rudra, thence went, by the grace of Vishnu, to Sankarshana and to release' (Garuda); 'O Mahadeva, your release is set down for a later birth' (Naradiya); 'and for him knowledge whose fruit is settled lasts only so long' (Chandogya Upanishad 6.14.2), and the like. With the action that has begun there is no conflict, and there is no proof against it. Nor is the scripture of those others authoritative, by the censuring text, 'those of little mind who, leaning on the doctrine of the followers of Akshapada and Kanada and of the matted-haired men of the Sankhya and Yoga, find fault with the Veda'. Where there is praise of others, in the case of the devotees of Shiva that praise is meant only as praise, not as truth, for not even they have authority where the sense conflicts with other texts. So it is said, 'I shall swiftly send forth a delusion that will delude men; and you, O Rudra of mighty arm, have the scriptures of delusion made; show forth what is untrue and false, O mighty-armed one; make yourself manifest and make Me unmanifest' (Varaha); 'the all-pervading Rudra, urged by Vishnu, made the censurable and the mixed scriptures, and the seers, urged by him, made the Puranas accordingly, while the followers of Vishnu, urged by Vishnu, made the brahmanic texts along with the Vedas. The Pancaratra, the Bharata, the original Ramayana, and the Purana that is the Bhagavata, are declared to be the Veda of Vishnu; hence the Shaiva Puranas are to be construed so as not to conflict with the rest' (Naradiya). Therefore release does indeed come to the men of knowledge. For Bhishma and the rest there is no release at the very moment; the present tense in 'remembering, he gives up' is used of an ongoing process. As it is said, 'when the moment of casting off the body comes for the men of knowledge who are bound to the gradual path, then the maya of Vishnu turns their mind outward' (Garuda); and others have no such memory then, as the Brahma-vaivarta says, 'those who, by the ripening of many births, worship Hari with devotion and knowledge, to them God grants the memory of Him at the end, and not otherwise'. 'Nirvana' is the bodiless release, by the lexical sense in which kaya, bana and sharira are synonyms for the body, and by such usage. How otherwise could the form of the Lord, well known in all the Puranas and the rest, be accounted for? There is no Brahman higher than the Lord, as the Bhagavata says, 'it is spoken of as Brahman, as the supreme Self, and as the Lord'; He is grasped by what lies beyond the senses; and there are texts such as 'there is none equal to Narayana, none has been or will be; there is none equal to you or above you, how much less another' (11.43). Nor is this divine form to be merely assumed away on the ground that Brahman is bodiless, for a body is heard of even for Brahman, in 'the immortal, whose form is bliss' (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.7), 'of golden light' (Taittiriya Upanishad 3.10.6), 'small is this space within' (Chandogya Upanishad 8.1.2), and the like. If there were no form, the text would say only 'bliss', not 'whose form is bliss'. So too 'the Person of a thousand heads', 'the golden-hued maker' (Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.3), 'sun-hued, beyond darkness', 'having hands and feet on every side' (13.13), 'eyes everywhere and faces everywhere', and the chapter on the universal form, all make out that He has form. And the Lord possesses knowledge, lordship, valour, bliss, glory, splendour and power, supremely full, as the texts say, 'His supreme power is heard of as manifold', 'He who is all-knowing', 'the bliss of Brahman', and the rest. Therefore it is established that the one who has direct knowledge reaches the supreme Brahman named Narayana, who in all His forms at all times has a host of countless infinite qualities and is forever free of every fault.