Sanskrit
आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकाः पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन । मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ॥
ābrahmabhuvanāl lokāḥ punarāvartino'rjuna mām upetya tu kaunteya punarjanma na vidyate
Translation
The worlds, beginning with the world of Brahmâ, they come and go, O Arjuna; but he who cometh unto Me, O Kaunteya, he knoweth birth no more.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This is the verse that raises the stakes on everything before it: even the world of Brahma, the highest and longest-lived of the cosmic realms, is still subject to return and further rebirth. Only reaching Krishna is exempt. It’s a deliberate demotion of what popular cosmology treats as the ultimate destination, in favor of a goal beyond even that — and verse 17 immediately supplies the timescale that makes “highest and longest-lived” concrete.