Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 8, Verse 25
धूमो रात्रिस्तथा कृष्णः षण्मासा दक्षिणायनम्।
तत्र चान्द्रमसं ज्योतिर्योगी प्राप्य निवर्तते।।
तत्र चान्द्रमसं ज्योतिर्योगी प्राप्य निवर्तते।।
dhūmo rātris tathā kṛṣṇaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā dakṣiṇāyanam
tatra cāndramasaṁ jyotir yogī prāpya nivartate
also searched as "dhumo ratris tatha krishnah shanmasa dakshinayanam"
Translation
Following this Path, the yogi, having reached the lunar light, returns, smoke, night, as also the dark fortnight and the six months of the Southern solstice.
Vāṇi's rendering
Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, the sun's southern half-year — leaving then, one gains the moon's light and returns.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| धूमःdhūmo | smoke (dhūmaḥ, softened before the following voiced sound) |
| रात्रिःrātris | night |
| तथाtathā | likewise, and so too |
| कृष्णःkṛṣṇaḥ | the dark fortnight, the waning moon |
| षण्मासाःṣaṇ-māsā | the six months |
| दक्षिणायनम्dakṣiṇāyanam | the sun's southward course; dakṣiṇa (south) joined with ayana (going) |
| तत्रtatra | there, by that road |
| चान्द्रमसम्cāndramasaṁ | belonging to the moon, lunar |
| ज्योतिःjyotir | light, radiance |
| योगीyogī | the one joined in practice, the yogī |
| प्राप्यprāpya | having reached, having gained |
| निवर्ततेnivartate | turns back, returns |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 Verse 25 mean?
It names the second road out of a life: smoke, night, the waning fortnight, the sun's southern half-year. One who leaves along it reaches the moon's light — bright, but borrowed — and from there turns back into birth. Krishna states it plainly, as one states the shape of an orbit.
What does dhumo ratris tatha krishnah mean?
Smoke, night, and likewise the dark fortnight. These are not omens or punishments. They are the darkening markers of a path of departure — the counterpart to fire, day, and the waxing moon named just before. Together they describe a leaving that is not yet a final one.
Is the lunar path in the Gita a punishment for bad karma?
No. Krishna calls the traveller a yogī on both roads. The moon's light is real light, gained by real merit — it simply runs out, as borrowed light does. Return is not a sentence passed on you. It is what remains when the work of a life is good but not yet complete.
Why does the yogi return after reaching the moon?
Because he has arrived somewhere lit rather than somewhere self-luminous. Merit carries you as far as merit reaches, and then sets you down again. Krishna is not shaming that. He is showing you the difference between a light you visit and a light you are, so you can choose what you cultivate now.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Krishna has just named the bright road. Here is the other one, and it is described without a word of blame. Smoke instead of flame, night instead of day, the waning half, the sun going south — a whole vocabulary of dimming. The yogī on this road is a yogī still. He reaches the moon's light, which is borrowed light, lovely and not his own, and then he comes back. Coming back is not failure. It is what unfinished work looks like from the outside. Notice which light you are gathering — the kind that returns you, or the kind that keeps you.