8.2 And how, at the end? Arjuna speaks

अधियज्ञः कथं कोऽत्र देहेऽस्मिन्मधुसूदन
प्रयाणकाले च कथं ज्ञेयोऽसि नियतात्मभिः

adhiyajñaḥ kathaṁ ko ’tra dehe ’smin madhusūdana
prayāṇa-kāle cha kathaṁ jñeyo ’si niyatātmabhiḥ

How is the lord of offerings present in this body, and who is it? And how are you to be known at the moment of departure by those who are restrained?

Explanation

The real question is the last one.

Arjuna adds two more: how the adhiyajña, the lord of offerings, is present in the body — and how someone disciplined comes to know Krishna at the moment of death.

The first questions are vocabulary. This one is not. It is what a man on a battlefield asks, and the whole chapter is built on it: everything about cosmic time and the two paths that follows is an answer to a soldier asking what happens at the end.

Word by word

adhiyajñaḥ: the Lord all sacrificial performances
katham: how
kaḥ: who
atra: here
dehe: in body
asmin: this
madhusūdana: Shree Krishna, the killer of the demon named Madhu
prayāṇa-kāle: at the time of death
cha: and
katham: how
jñeyaḥ: to be known
asi: are (you)
niyata-ātmabhiḥ: by those of steadfast mind