अथ यत् उ च एव अस्मिन् छव्यं कुर्वन्ति यदि च न अर्चिषम् एव अभिसंभवन्ति अर्चिषः अहः अह्नः आपूर्यमाणपक्षम् आपूर्यमाणपक्षात् यान् षट् उदङ् एति मासान् तान् मासेभ्यः संवत्सरम् संवत्सरात् आदित्यम् आदित्यात् चन्द्रमसम् चन्द्रमसः विद्युतम् तत् पुरुषः अमानवः सः एनान् ब्रह्म गमयति एषः देवपथः ब्रह्मपथः एतेन प्रतिपद्यमानाः इमम् मानवम् आवर्तम् न आवर्तन्ते न आवर्तन्ते
atha yat u ca eva asmin chavyaṃ kurvanti yadi ca na arciṣam eva abhisaṃbhavanti arciṣaḥ ahaḥ ahnaḥ āpūryamāṇapakṣam āpūryamāṇapakṣāt yān ṣaṭ udaṅ eti māsān tān māsebhyaḥ saṃvatsaram saṃvatsarāt ādityam ādityāt candramasam candramasaḥ vidyutam tat puruṣaḥ amānavaḥ saḥ enān brahma gamayati eṣaḥ devapathaḥ brahmapathaḥ etena pratipadyamānāḥ imam mānavam āvartam na āvartante na āvartante
And whether the funeral rite is performed over him or not, such men go into the flame; from the flame into the day, from the day into the bright fortnight, from the bright fortnight into the six months when the sun goes north, from the months into the year, from the year into the sun, from the sun into the moon, from the moon into the lightning. There a superhuman Puruṣa leads them to Brahman. This is the path of the gods, the path of Brahman. Those who go up by it do not return into the human round — they do not return.
e098c11b273e · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:22:39 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is the "path" (gati) which not the fires but only the ācārya could disclose — the arcirādi, the road of light: flame → day → waxing moon → the half-year of the northward sun → the year → the sun → the moon → the lightning. Each step is brighter than the last; the departing soul is handed from light to light like a child from arms to arms. And the first great tiding: the rite does not decide — "whether the funeral is performed over him or not". For the knower the path is opened by the knowledge-and-love itself; mercy is not locked up in ritual correctness.
At the last created rung — the lightning — everything "human" ends, and there waits puruṣo 'mānavaḥ, "a superhuman Puruṣa": an envoy not of mortals, a servant of the Lord, who "leads them to Brahman" (brahma gamayati). No one enters the highest by his own skill — at the last threshold the soul is taken by the hand. This is the Vedic image of what bhakti knows as grace: the last step is always taken by Him. The Gītā confirms both the path and the outcome: "Fire, light, day, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northward sun — knowers of Brahman who go by this path go to Brahman" (BG 8.24).
And the conclusion, repeated twice, as everything irrevocable is: imaṁ mānavam āvartaṁ nāvartante — "they do not return into this human round, they do not return". The path of the fathers, through smoke and moon, brings one back (5.10); the path of the gods — devapatha, brahmapatha — is a road with no return ticket: yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama — "having gone whither they do not return — that is My supreme abode" (BG 15.6). With this promise of no return the instruction of Upakosala ends: love of the Immortal has one ending — irreversibility.