8.27 Clarity, then the instruction Krishna speaks
नैते सृती पार्थ जानन्योगी मुह्यति कश्चन
तस्मात्सर्वेषु कालेषु योगयुक्तो भवार्जुन
naite sṛitī pārtha jānan yogī muhyati kaśhchana
tasmāt sarveṣhu kāleṣhu yoga-yukto bhavārjuna
Knowing these two paths, son of Pritha, one who practises is not confused by them. So at all times be joined in yoga, Arjuna.
Explanation
Knowing the two paths gives an orientation, not a lever.
na muhyati — is not bewildered. That is the whole benefit claimed for the knowledge.
And then the chapter's actual conclusion: at all times be joined in yoga. Twenty verses of grounds, ages, dissolutions and departures, and the practical instruction is the one already given at 8.7, unchanged. The cosmology never altered what to do. It altered the size of the thing that doing it sits inside.
Going further
Word by word
- na
- never
- ete
- these two
- sṛitī
- paths
- pārtha
- Arjun, the son of Pritha
- jānan
- knowing
- yogī
- a yogi
- muhyati
- bewildered
- kaśhchana
- any
- tasmāt
- therefore
- sarveṣhu kāleṣhu
- always
- yoga-yuktaḥ
- situated in Yog
- bhava
- be
- arjuna
- Arjun
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Knowing these two paths, one who practises is not confused by them.
Notice what is not said: that knowing them lets you choose. The verse ends with an instruction to be joined in yoga at all times, which is the same answer 8.7 gave. The elaborate cosmology of the last twenty verses resolves back to a practice available now, and the Gita seems content to let the machinery drop away once it has.