Quiz · 8.1–8.8
What is remembered at death
Cover the answer. Read the Devanagari of the verse before you open it.
1
In 8.7, what form are anusmara (अनुस्मर) and yudhya (युध्य), and what does each tell Arjuna (अर्जुन) to do?
Answer
Both are imperatives, second person singular. No ending is added. The stem is the command. anusmara (अनुस्मर) is "remember," from anu (अनु) + smṛ (स्मृ). yudhya (युध्य) is "fight," from yudh (युध्). Remember me, and fight.
2
In 8.5, na asti atra (न अस्ति अत्र) is recited nāsty atra (नास्त्यत्र). What two sandhis make that sound?
Answer
न + अ na + a becomes nā (ना). Then the i (इ) of asti (अस्ति) before the a (अ) of atra (अत्र) becomes y (य्), so asti atra (अस्ति अत्र) is asty atra (अस्त्यत्र).
3
Say what 8.6 means, in one sentence.
Answer
Whatever being he remembers when he leaves the body at the end, to that very being he goes, son of Kuntī (कुन्ती), always shaped into that being.
4
What does Arjuna (अर्जुन) ask in 8.1 and 8.2, and what does Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) turn that question into by 8.7?
Answer
He asks what brahman (ब्रह्म) is, what adhyātma (अध्यात्म) is, what action is, what is declared to be adhibhūta (अधिभूत), what is called adhidaiva (अधिदैव), who the adhiyajña (अधियज्ञ) is here in this body, and how Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) is to be known at the time of departure by those whose selves are held steady. Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) names the six. The man who leaves remembering him comes to his being. Whatever is remembered at the end is where one goes. Therefore, at all times, remember him, and fight.
5
Cover the English of 8.7 and say the verse back. Which word fails the sitting if it drops out, and which phrase fails it if the remembering is kept for the last hour only?
Answer
yudhya (युध्य) fails it if the fight drops out. sarveṣu kāleṣu (सर्वेषु कालेषु) fails it if the remembering shrinks back to antakāle (अन्तकाले) alone.