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Bhagavad Gita 8.26

शुक्लकृष्णे गती ह्येते जगतः शाश्वते मते।एकया यात्यनावृत्तिमन्ययाऽऽवर्तते पुनः॥

śuklakṛṣṇe gatī hyete jagataḥ śāśvate mate |ekayā yātyanāvṛttimanyayā''vartate punaḥ ||

The bright and dark paths of the world are thought to be eternal; one leads to no return, and the other leads to return.

Translation by Swami Sivananda · Public domain in India (translator d. 1963)

These bright and dark paths out of the world have always existed. Whoever takes the former, does not return; he who chooses the latter, returns.

Translation by Shri Purohit Swami · Public domain in India (translator d. 1941)

Our plain-language meaning of this verse is waiting for scholar review.

Edition: Common 700-verse recension. Arjuna's opening question in chapter 13, absent from that recension, is kept as 13.0.

Transliteration in IAST, generated from the Devanagari text.

Source: Sanskrit text via gita/gita (Unlicense), from the Gita Supersite, IIT Kanpur. Sanskrit text public domain.

Bhagavad Gita 8.26 · Vidya