In the previous śloka, Bhagavān explained how continuous remembrance makes Him easily accessible to a devoted seeker. Now He begins a new discussion, continuing through 8.22: Why should Bhagavān be our highest goal rather than the world and its achievements?

Every person seeks happiness, security, and fulfilment. We pursue these through wealth, relationships, possessions, education, and success. These are legitimate goals, but all finite achievements have three unavoidable limitations.

1. Pleasure is mixed with pain — duḥkha-miśritatvam.

Acquiring something desirable often requires effort, sacrifice, and anxiety. After acquiring it, we worry about protecting it. Eventually, when it changes or disappears, we experience the pain of loss.

Consider buying a beautiful house. The purchase brings genuine happiness, but it can also bring loan repayments, maintenance expenses, security concerns, and the possibility of eventual separation. The pleasure is real, but it is not free from difficulty.

2. Finite achievements cannot provide complete satisfaction — atṛptikaratvam.

We often believe that reaching a particular goal will make us permanently fulfilled. Yet once we achieve it, another desire appears.

Someone who dreams of earning a certain salary may eventually reach that level, only to begin comparing it with a higher one. The achievement brings satisfaction for a while, but the sense of incompleteness returns.

The problem is not that achievements are worthless. It is that a finite achievement cannot satisfy our longing for limitless fulfilment.

3. Dependence upon external things creates bondage — bandhakatvam.

When our happiness depends upon changing circumstances, those circumstances begin controlling our emotional well-being.

If praise makes us feel secure, criticism may disturb us. If possessions become our source of happiness, the possibility of losing them produces fear.

The more we depend upon external things for our sense of completeness, the more vulnerable we become.

Why is Bhagavān different?

Bhagavān represents pūrṇatvam [absolute completeness], which is free from limitation, dissatisfaction, and dependence.

Initially, we may seek Bhagavān as though He were a supreme being separate from us. But the highest teaching reveals that Bhagavān's essential nature is not separate from our own true Self.

This is expressed through tat tvam asi [That you are].

Through liberating knowledge, we discover that the completeness we were seeking externally is our own essential nature. What begins as dependence upon Bhagavān culminates in freedom from dependence.

What does liberation free us from?

Bhagavān calls worldly existence duḥkhālayam [an abode of sorrow] and aśāśvatam [impermanent].

This does not mean that every moment of life is miserable. The world offers genuine pleasures, beautiful relationships, and worthwhile accomplishments. But none can provide permanent, unconditional security or satisfaction.

Bhagavān therefore says that the wise, called mahātmānaḥ [great souls], do not undergo punarjanma [rebirth] after attaining Him.

Here, rebirth also represents returning to saṃsāra [the condition of finitude, dissatisfaction, and dependence].

Such people have attained paramā saṃsiddhi [the highest accomplishment], which is mokṣa.

Thus, 8.15 teaches that worldly achievements are valuable but inherently limited. They bring pleasure mixed with pain, cannot provide complete satisfaction, and can make us dependent upon changing circumstances. Bhagavān alone represents limitless fullness. Those who attain liberating knowledge discover this completeness as their own essential nature and become free from saṃsāra and repeated birth.