Verse 8.5

Verse 8.5: “And at the time of death he who, mindful of Me alone, sheds off his body and departs, he attains to oneness (of essence) with Me: of this there is no doubt. (59)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

That, about which I told you just now, and that which is called Adhiyajna is, from the beginning to the end, only Myself—and those that know this, consider this human body as a mere outer cover (khola), themselves becoming the Supreme Brahman, and abiding in it internally and externally, just as a house holds the atmosphere in itself and yet remains itself in the atmosphere. Having entered the innermost chamber of firm conviction, in the central hall of the house of their all-seeing experience of Supreme Brahman, they have no awareness of anything else but the Supreme Brahman. And when they, in this way, become one with the Supreme Brahman in and out, they drop down naturally and without their coming to know of it, the scabs (^^r) in the form of human bodies made up of the five gross elements. They never cared for their bodies, even while the bodies were living and moving. How could they then feel any grief, by their dropping down the cover? And so, even when the bodies drop down, their experiencing the Supreme Brahman, is not disturbed in the least.

That experience (of the Supreme Brahman) is, as it were, a cast-image of the abiding unity rooted in the heart of everlasting life, and having been submerged clean in the sea of identity with the Supreme Spirit, it never gets soiled. An earthen jar dipped and placed in deep water becomes full of water in and out, and even if it gets broken in that state, the water (which was in it) does not get broken. When a serpent casts off its wornout skin, or when one, feeling warm, casts off the cloth he has worn, is any harm done to the limbs in any way? Even so, though the body bearing name and form gets destroyed, yet the Brahman remains intact in its essence, even without that body. How could then the soul that has realised itself in Brahman and become itself the Brahman, get perturbed? Therefore, those that are mindful of Me at the time of the breaking off of their bodies, depart from them in that state and get merged in Me.