Swami Swarupananda, Srimad Bhagavad Gita (1909)
[4]Remembering whatever object, at the end, he leaves the body, that alone is reached by him, O son of Kunti, (because) of his constant thought of that object.
BG 8.6
यं यं वापि स्मरन्भावं त्यजत्यन्ते कलेवरम् | तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भावभावितः ||६||
yaṃ yaṃ vāpi smaran bhāvaṃ tyajaty ante kalevaram | taṃ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ || 6 ||
"Whatever state of being one remembers at death — to that state one attains, shaped by one's constant thought."
All public-domain translations
5 translations · all pre-1928 or released to public domain · sources
Annie Besant & Bhagavan Das, The Bhagavad Gītā (1905)
[5]Whichever form he thinks of at the last moment, when he leaves the body, O son of Kuntî, to that he goes, having been made to think of it by constant practice.
William Quan Judge, The Bhagavad Gita (1890)
[6]Whatever being or principle he may think of at the last moment when he leaves his body, that, O son of Kunti, he assuredly goes to, being in the habit of thinking about it.
Sir Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885)
[7]But, if he meditated otherwise At hour of death, in putting off the flesh, He goes to what he looked for, Kunti's Son! Because the Soul is fashioned to its like.
K.T. Telang, Sacred Books of the East Vol. 8 (1882)
[9]Also whichever form (of deity) he remembers when he finally leaves this body, to that he goes, O son of Kunti! having been used to ponder on it.