In Śloka 8.24, Bhagavān described the bright path taken by a qualified niṣkāma saguṇa upāsaka. Guided by divine beings, this seeker reaches Brahmaloka, gains liberating knowledge, and attains krama-mukti [gradual liberation].

Now Bhagavān explains the second route, called kṛṣṇa-mārga [the dark path] or pitṛyāna [the path of the ancestors]. Its traveller, destination, and result differ from those of the bright path.

The central teaching is that meritorious actions can produce extraordinary heavenly experiences, but those experiences remain temporary and do not constitute liberation.

1. The traveller is a karmī

Bhagavān uses the word yogī in this śloka. Its contextual meaning is particularly important.

Here, yogī refers to a karmī, specifically a kevala karmī [a person devoted to performing meritorious actions without undertaking the higher discipline of upāsanā].

Such a person may faithfully perform religious duties, rituals, pūjās, charitable activities, and service to society. These actions are valuable and produce puṇyam [merit].

However, the person has not cultivated the sustained saguṇa Brahma upāsanā required for the bright path.

Therefore, the traveller described here is neither the niṣkāma upāsaka of 8.24 nor a jñānī who has already gained liberating knowledge.

2. Why does this traveller follow a different route?

The scriptures distinguish between external religious action and sustained mental contemplation.

Performing a ritual involves the body, speech, and mind. Sustained upāsanā demands a particularly disciplined mind because attention must remain directed toward Bhagavān.

A person may complete an elaborate pūjā while the mind frequently wanders. Maintaining steady contemplation requires a different degree of mental discipline.

Therefore, the two practices produce different kinds of spiritual qualifications and results.

The ritualist accumulates merit through good actions. This merit can provide experiences in higher realms, but it does not automatically produce the knowledge of nirguṇa Brahman.

Meritorious karma produces results; knowledge of Brahman brings liberation. These must not be confused.

3. Four presiding deities guide the dark path

Bhagavān names four presiding deities associated with the second route:

• Dhūmaḥ — the deity associated with smoke.

• Rātriḥ — the deity associated with night.

• Kṛṣṇaḥ — the deity associated with the dark lunar fortnight.

• Dakṣiṇāyanam — the deity associated with the Sun's six-month southern course.

These are not references to four conditions that the traveller must arrange at the time of death.

They identify divine agencies responsible for guiding the departing ritualist along the prescribed route.

The Upaniṣads provide more extensive descriptions of this journey. Bhagavān mentions four representative deities here.

4. Candraloka is the destination

The expression cāndramasaṃ jyotiḥ [lunar light] refers here to Candraloka, also called Svargaloka.

This is a higher realm where the traveller enjoys the favourable results of accumulated merit.

Its pleasures may be far greater than the comforts available in ordinary human life. The enjoyment is real within that realm, and the merit obtained through good actions has not gone to waste.

However, Candraloka is not Brahmaloka, the destination associated with krama-mukti.

The ritualist reaches a realm of enjoyment rather than the particular destination where the qualified upāsaka receives liberating knowledge.

5. Why is it called the dark path?

The name dark path does not mean that the traveller has necessarily lived an evil or immoral life.

The person may have performed many noble actions and accumulated considerable merit. The destination itself may be extraordinarily pleasant.

The path is called dark in comparison with the bright path, because its result is limited.

The bright path ultimately leads to liberation without return. The dark path leads to heavenly enjoyment followed by another birth.

The distinction is therefore based on the permanence of the result, not on a claim that charitable work or religious rituals are bad.

6. Heavenly enjoyment ends when merit is exhausted

Bhagavān concludes with prāpya nivartate [having attained, one returns].

This is the decisive teaching of the verse.

The ritualist reaches Candraloka and enjoys the results of accumulated puṇyam. But those results are finite because they arise from finite actions.

When the relevant merit is exhausted, the individual cannot remain in that heavenly realm indefinitely.

The traveller returns to the cycle of birth and death.

This is the limitation of every destination acquired through finite karma, however attractive it may be.

The timing of death does not determine which route is taken. A person's spiritual preparation and pursuits determine the corresponding result.

Śloka 8.25 explains the dark path taken by the meritorious ritualist. Four presiding deities guide the traveller toward Candraloka, where accumulated merit yields heavenly enjoyment. When that merit is exhausted, the individual returns to saṃsāra. The verse distinguishes temporary karmic rewards from liberation and does not teach that dying at night, during the dark fortnight, or during Dakṣiṇāyana determines spiritual destiny.