Sanskrit
धूमो रात्रिस्तथा कृष्णः षण्मासा दक्षिणायनम् । तत्र चान्द्रमसं ज्योतिर्योगी प्राप्य निवर्तते ॥
dhūmo rātris tathā kṛṣṇaḥ ṣaṇmāsā dakṣiṇāyanam tatra cāndramasaṃ jyotir yogī prāpya nivartate
Translation
Smoke, night-time, the dark fortnight also, the six months of the southern path—then the Yogî, obtaining the moonlight, returneth.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The second path, built as an exact mirror of verse 24: smoke, night, the dark fortnight, the sun’s southern course (dakshinayana). A yogi traveling this route reaches lunar light and then returns to rebirth. The moon here stands for the subtler body that survives death but not indefinitely — reaching it, unlike reaching brahman in verse 24, is still a stop on the way back to birth, not a final destination.