GITA - Glorification of Chapter Eight

Thereafter Lord 

Shiva

 asked 

Parvati

 to listen to the glories of the eighth chapter of the 

Bhagavad-gita.

 

A brahmana of the name Bhavasharma once lived in the important town Amardakapura. He had taken a prostitute as his wife, and he enjoyed meat-eating, intoxication, stealing, adultery and hunting. Once, after a bout of drinking wine, Bhavasharma contracted a serious disease, and after many days of suffering he died and attained the body of a date palm tree.

One day, two ghosts 

(Brahma-raksasa)

  took shelter beneath this palm tree after unceasingly wandering over the earth, hungry and thirsty by their activities in a previous life, they had attained these ghostly bodies. One of them had once been the brahmana Kusibala, who had been conversant with many branches of knowledge and had been learned in the 

Vedas.

  The other ghost had been his wife, Kumati. Kusibala and his evil-minded wife, both greedy, had been in the habit of collecting much charity daily without ever giving charity to other brahmanas. When they died they both became ghosts.

So while these two ghosts were resting under the palm tree, the one who had been the wife asked her former husband how to atone. He replied that by having knowledge of Brahman, the self and 

Fruitive activities

 this could be accomplished. Upon hearing this, his wife inquired, “What is Brahman? What is the self? What are fruitive activities?” Because she spoke in Sanskrit, she coincidentally chanted the first two lines of the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita.

Upon hearing these lines, Bhavasharma became freed from his tree body and again attained the body of a sinless brahmana. And suddenly a spiritual airplane appeared to take the ghostly husband and wife back to 

Vaikuntha.

 Thereafter Bhavasharma wrote down the two lines from the Bhagavad-gita and he went to Kasipuri with the intention of worshiping Lord Krishna by performing great austerities and continuously chanting these two lines: kim tad brahma kim adhyatmam kim karma purushottama. 

After some time, in Vaikuntha Lord Vishnu once unexpectedly arose from His rest. 

Lakshmi devi

  inquired with folded hands what had awakened Him. Lord Vishnu said. “My dear Lakshmi, in Kasipuri, on the bank of the river Ganges, My devotee is performing great austerities by continuously chanting half a verse of the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. For a long time I have been thinking how to reward his devotion.” Lord Shiva then told Parvati that Bhavasharma pleased Lord Vishnu so much that the Lord awarded him a place in Vaikuntha to engage eternally in the service of His lotus feet. Moreover, all his ancestors also attained the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu.

source: ISKCON