Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 8, Verse 13: Krishna to Arjuna — Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The syllable Oṃ (oṃkāra) is the verbal designation (abhidhāna) of Brahman itself — not a pointer to something external but the name-form whose referent is the Lord (Īśvara). One who departs uttering that syllable while inwardly attending to its referent, the supreme Self, quits the body without the Self being destroyed — for it is the body that is abandoned, not the ātman, which has no form to lose. Such a one reaches the supreme state (paramā gati), here the non-return to conditioned existence that is the fruit of realized non-difference.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Having withdrawn all the senses from their objects and restrained the mind in the lotus-heart where Bhagavān Himself dwells, the devotee utters Oṃ — which here names Me directly (mad-vācaka) — and holds My image unwaveringly in consciousness. At death he propels the prāṇa (life-breath) to the crown and departs: he attains an ātman liberated from prakṛti, identical in form to Mine (mat-samānākāra), never to return. The destination is not mere cessation but the conscious bliss of dwelling in the Blessed Lord's likeness.

• Madhvadvaita

  All gates of the body having been sealed, the mind fixed on Nārāyaṇa in the heart (hṛdi Nārāyaṇe), the yogin departs through the brahma-nāḍī alone — for any other channel leads to rebirth, not liberation. Where the prāṇa goes, the mind follows, and where the mind is, there the jīva stands dependent on Hari. Oṃ as the name of the eternally distinct supreme Lord seals the jīva's identity as servant, and the departure through the brahma-nāḍī is the mark of that servant's final homecoming to Hari.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  In the Brahma-vāda Kṛṣṇa Himself is of the nature of name and form (nāma-rūpātmakatva); therefore the yogin who recollects Me in the single-syllable form Oṃ and simultaneously utters It is not deploying a technique but entering the streaming grace (prasāda) of Kṛṣṇa's own self-disclosure. The 'supreme destination' named here is precisely that padatva — the status of Kṛṣṇa's own realm — which is not achieved but received as the fruit of this total surrender at the final moment.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The single syllable Oṃ is Brahman — either because it directly denotes Brahman (brahma-vācakatva) or because it serves as its emblem, as an image (pratimā) stands for the deity. Uttering this syllable while simultaneously remembering Me, its referent, and then abandoning the body, the departing soul travels by the luminous path (arcirādi-mārga) and reaches My supreme destination. The double requirement — utterance and recollection together — means neither external repetition alone nor silent meditation alone suffices.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Oṃ is the imperishable (akṣara), non-dual, all-pervading Brahman whose verbal body is sound; meditating on its meaning — which is Me — the yogin traverses the devayāna path to Brahmaloka and thence, when the merit of that divine experience is exhausted, attains the highest destination which is My own form (mad-rūpā paramā gati). Patañjali's own testimony confirms this: 'the praṇava is Its designator; its japa and contemplation of its meaning constitute Īśvara-praṇidhāna,' and from that praṇidhāna samādhi-siddhi arises — hence no contradiction between the yoga-śāstra and this verse.