Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 8, Verse 24
अग्निर्ज्योतिरहः शुक्लः षण्मासा उत्तरायणम्।
तत्र प्रयाता गच्छन्ति ब्रह्म ब्रह्मविदो जनाः।।
तत्र प्रयाता गच्छन्ति ब्रह्म ब्रह्मविदो जनाः।।
agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā uttarāyaṇam
tatra prayātā gacchanti brahma brahma-vido janāḥ
also searched as "Agnir jyotir ahah shuklah shanmasa uttarayanam"
Translation
Fire, light, daytime, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern solstice—by following this path, persons who are knowers of Brahman attain Brahman when they die.
Vāṇi's rendering
Fire, light, day, the bright fortnight, the sun's northern half-year — leaving then, the knowers reach the eternal.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अग्निःagnir | fire (agniḥ, softened before the next word) |
| ज्योतिःjyotir | light, flame (jyotiḥ, softened before the next word) |
| अहःahaḥ | day, the daylight hours |
| शुक्लःśuklaḥ | the bright half of the lunar month, the waxing fortnight |
| षण्मासाःṣaṇ-māsā | the six months (final visarga dropped before the vowel) |
| उत्तरायणम्uttarāyaṇam | the sun's northward course |
| तत्रtatra | there, by that path |
| प्रयाताःprayātā | those who have departed, gone forth (from the body) |
| गच्छन्तिgacchanti | go, reach, arrive at |
| ब्रह्मbrahma | the eternal, the boundless |
| ब्रह्मविदःbrahma-vido | those who know the eternal (visarga voiced before janāḥ) |
| जनाःjanāḥ | people, those who |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 Verse 24 mean?
Krishna names five bright things — fire, light, day, the waxing fortnight, the sun's northern half-year — and says those who know the eternal depart along them and reach it. The list is not a schedule. It is one quality repeated: brightness. The luminous leave by the luminous, and do not return.
What does Agnir jyotir ahah shuklah mean in the Gita?
Fire, light, day, the bright fortnight. Four names for the same thing, stacked so you cannot miss it. Krishna is describing a path made entirely of clarity, walked by those whose living was clear. The words are not ritual instructions; they are the shape of a mind that leaves without residue.
Does this verse mean it is better to die at certain times of the year?
It has been read that way, but Krishna's own logic points elsewhere. Bhīṣma waited for the northern course, yet what carried him was a lifetime of steadiness, not a date. You cannot choose your hour. You are choosing, daily, what will be lit in you when it comes.
What is the dark path mentioned after this verse?
The next verse names smoke, night, the waning fortnight, the sun's southern half — and those who go that way return. Krishna sets the two side by side deliberately. One path ends; the other circles back. The difference is not luck. It is what you knew, and lived by.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Krishna answers a question about departure with a list of bright things. Fire, light, day, the waxing moon, the sun climbing north — nothing here is a rule about calendars. It is one quality named five times: luminosity. What the knower carries out of the body is what the knower lived by, and light goes to light. Those who leave lit do not come back. The verse is less about the hour of your death than the temperature of your days. You cannot schedule your last breath. You can decide, this morning, whether the mind you are building is one that burns clear.