BHAGAVAD-GITA 8:21

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 8:21

 

avyakto 'ksara ity uktas

tam ahuh paramam gatim

yam prapya na nivartante

tad dhama paramam mama

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

ayvaktah--unmanifested; aksarah--infallible; iti--thus; uktah--is

said; tam--that; ahuh--is known; paramam--the ultimate;

gatim--destination; yam--which; prapya--gaining; na--never;

nivartante--come back; tat--that; dhama--abode; paramam--supreme;

mama--My.

 

TRANSLATION

 

That which the Vedantists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that

which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which,

having attained it, one never returns--that is My supreme abode.

 

PURPORT

 

The supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is described

in the Brahma-samhita as cintamani-dhama, a place where all desires

are fulfilled. The supreme abode of Lord Krsna, known as Goloka

Vrndavana, is full of palaces made of touchstone. There are also

trees, called "desire trees," that supply any type of eatable upon

demand, and there are cows, known as surabhi cows, which supply a

limitless supply of milk. In this abode, the Lord is served by

hundreds of thousands of goddesses of fortune (Laksmis), and He is

called Govinda, the primal Lord and the cause of all causes. The Lord

is accustomed to blow His flute (venum kvanantam). His transcendental

form is the most attractive in all the worlds--His eyes are like lotus

petals, and the color of His body is like the color of clouds. He is

so attractive that His beauty excels that of thousands of Cupids. He

wears saffron cloth, a garland around His neck and a peacock feather

in His hair. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna gives only a small hint

of His personal abode, Goloka Vrndavana, which is the supermost planet

in the spiritual kingdom. A vivid description is given in the

Brahma-samhita. Vedic literatures (Katha Upanisad 1.3.11) state that

there is nothing superior to the abode of the Supreme Godhead, and

that that abode is the ultimate destination (purusan na param kincit

sa kastha parama gatih). When one attains to it, he never returns to

the material world. Krsna's supreme abode and Krsna Himself are

nondifferent, being of the same quality. On this earth, Vrndavana,

ninety miles southeast of Delhi, is a replica of that supreme Goloka

Vrndavana located in the spiritual sky. When Krsna descended on this

earth, He sported on that particular tract of land known as Vrndavana,

comprising about eighty-four square miles in the district of Mathura,

India.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.