Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 8, Verse 18
अव्यक्ताद्व्यक्तयः सर्वाः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे।
रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके।।
रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके।।
avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavantyahar-āgame
rātryāgame pralīyante tatraivāvyakta-sanjñake
also searched as "avyaktad vyaktayah sarvah prabhavantyahar-agame"
Translation
With the coming of day, all manifested things emerge from the Unmanifest, and when night comes, they merge into that which is called the Unmanifested.
Vāṇi's rendering
When his day dawns, all forms pour out of the unmanifest. When his night falls, they dissolve back into it.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अव्यक्तात्avyaktāt | out of the unmanifest |
| व्यक्तयःvyaktayaḥ | the visible forms, all that has come into appearance |
| सर्वाःsarvāḥ | all of them, without exception |
| प्रभवन्तिprabhavanti | pour forth, come into being (joined by sandhi to the next word) |
| अहः-आगमेahar-āgame | at the coming of day |
| रात्रि-आगमेrātry-āgame | at the coming of night |
| प्रलीयन्तेpralīyante | dissolve, melt away |
| तत्रtatra | there, into that very place |
| एवeva | exactly, none other |
| अव्यक्त-संज्ञकेavyakta-sanjñake | in what goes by the name unmanifest |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 Verse 18 mean?
It means appearance and disappearance are one motion, not two events. What becomes visible at the opening of Brahmā's day sinks back at its close into the same unmanifest it rose from. Nothing is created out of nowhere and nothing is destroyed into nowhere. There is only a going out and a coming home.
What does avyaktad vyaktayah sarvah prabhavantyahar-agame teach about death?
That death is a return, not an erasure. The verse gives dissolution a destination — tatra eva, that very same unmanifest. Whatever you fear losing goes back where it was held before it was ever yours. Krishna is not softening death here. He is showing you its shape, and the shape is circular.
Whose day and night is this verse talking about?
Brahmā's — the vast cycle described in the verse just before, a thousand ages long each way. It is deliberately too large to imagine. Krishna sets your one lifetime against it not to shrink you but to loosen your grip. On that scale, birth and death are dawn and dusk.
How does the unmanifest relate to me right now?
You came out of it and are made of its coming out. Every form you can point to, including this body and the thought reading this line, is the unmanifest currently in the open. Nothing else is needed for the return; it happens by the same law that brought you. You are already inside the rhythm.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Days are being counted here that no one lives to see the end of. Krishna is describing Brahmā's day and night — forms streaming out at dawn, folding back at dusk, and again, without tiring. Arjuna wanted to know how to die well. He is shown a rhythm in which dying is only the exhale of something that also inhales. Nothing is lost in the dissolving; it goes where it came from. Your own appearing is one small breath inside that larger breathing. You did not arrange the dawn. You will not have to arrange the night either.