arjuna uvaacha
ayatih shraddhayopeto yogaacchalitamaanasah
apraapya yogasamsiddhim kaam gatim krishna gacchati // 6.37 //
Arjuna said
He who is endowed with faith, but not with self-control, and whose mind wanders away from Yoga - to what end does he go, O Krishna, having failed to attain perfection in Yoga?
This verse relates to a seeker who has faith in the efficacy of Yoga but who is unable to control the senses and the mind. Arjuna asks what happens to such a person for he may lose both the joys of the sense objects and the Absolute Bliss hereafter. The word Sraddha does not mean blind faith but an intellectual understanding of the deeper significance of what the teachers teach and scriptures declare.
kacchinnobhayavibhrashtash chhinnaabhramiva nashyati
apratishtho mahaabaaho vimoodho brahmanah pathi // 6.38 //
Fallen from both, does he not, O Mighty Armed, perish like a rent cloud, supportless and deluded in the path of Brahman?
Arjuna wonders as to what will happen to the seeker who though full of faith but for want of mental restraint fails to achieve success having fallen from both. Fallen from both means achieving no success in the path of worldly success as also in the path of Yoga.
Rent cloud is that very small portion of the large cloud which gets detached from the latter on account of heavy winds and as a consequence moves about without any set direction hit by every passing breeze. Arjuna enquires whether such unsuccessful seekers will meander about the universe as the rented clouds and get lost.
etanme samshayam krishna chhettumarhasyasheshatah
twadanyah samshayasyaasya chhettaa na hyupapadyate // 6.39 //
O Krishna, please dispel this doubt of mine completely for, it is not possible for anyone but you to dispel this doubt.
CLARIFICATION REGARDING PARTIAL SPIRITUAL EFFORTS
sri bhagavaan uvaacha
paartha naiveha naamutra vinaashastasya vidyate
nahi kalyaankrit kaschid durgatim taatagacchati // 6.40 //
Sri Bhagavan said
O Partha, there is no destruction for him either in this world, or in the next world; none verily, who does good, O My Son, ever comes to grief.
In the following five verses Sri Krishna elucidates the path of progress of a seeker whose spiritual endeavors have not been met with any success either on account of death or due to any other temptation. The Lord assures him that he who does not achieve perfection in Yoga in this birth will not be destroyed either in this world or in the next. No destruction means that surely he will not take a birth lower than the present one in his next life. Doing good means striving for Self-realization.
What happens to him is as follows.
praapya punyakritaam lokaanushitwaa shaashwateeh samaah
shucheenaam shreemataaam gehe yogabhrashto'bhijaayate // 6.41 //
He who has fallen from Yoga goes to the world of the righteous and having lived there for long years, he is born again in the house of the pure and the prosperous.
The Lord says that the one who was not able to attain perfection in Yoga or the one who achieved some progress in Yoga but had fallen due to lack of dispassion or on account of turbulent senses, attains the worlds inhabited by those pious souls who performed great religious sacrifices while living on this earth. Having lived there as long as the merit of his past spiritual life lasts he is born again in the house of those whose conduct is governed by religion where he can continue his spiritual journey from the point where he had left in the previous birth.
athavaa yoginaameva kule bhavati dheemataam
etaddhi durlabhataram loke janma yadeedrisham // 6.42 //
Or he is born in a family of yogis rich in wisdom; verily such a birth is very difficult to obtain in this world.
Sri Krishna says that those who are possessed of genuine dispassion but yet fail to achieve success in Yoga are born in the family of enlightened yogis poor in resources but rich in wisdom. A birth in such families is rare to obtain than the one mentioned in the preceding verse. It is rare because he is placed right from the beginning of his life in an environment which is conducive for the practice of Yoga so that he could start his spiritual journey from a very early stage. Considering the greatness of the illumined souls, a birth in their families is stated to be very difficult to obtain.
Mundaka Upanishad (III-ii-9) says “In the family of a Knower of Brahman, none remains ignorant of Brahman. Transcending both grief and sin, and freed from the knot of ignorance in the heart, the member of such a family becomes immortal, i.e. attains freedom for all time from birth and death”.
tatra tam buddhisamyogam labhate paurvadehikam
yatate cha tato bhooyah samsiddhau kurunandana // 6.43 //
There he comes in touch with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives more than before for perfection, O Son of the Kurus.
When he takes a human body again in this world, his previous efforts and practice of Yoga do not go in vain. They bear fruit in this birth and hasten his moral and spiritual evolution. Our thoughts, actions and experiences are left in our subconscious mind in the form of subtle impressions. These impressions of the present and the past births will be re-energized in the next birth. The impressions of the yogic tendencies will compel the seeker to work with greater vigor than in his former birth. Whatever progress a man makes in the path of yoga he retains. He again starts from there when the next opportunity arises.
poorvaabhyaasena tenaiva hriyate hyavasho'pi sah
jijnaasurapi yogasya shabdabrahmaativartate // 6.44 //
By that former practice alone he is borne on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know Yoga goes beyond the world of Vedic rites.
The man who had failed in yoga is carried to the goal, which he intended to reach in the previous birth, by the force of impressions of his past yogic practices, though he may not be aware of it. If he had not done that many evil deeds as to overcome his yogic tendencies, he will certainly continue his yogic practices in this birth with great vigor by force of the impressions of the previous birth.
If the force of evil actions is very strong, the yogic tendencies would be overpowered or suppressed by them temporarily. As soon as the fruits of evil actions are exhausted the yogic vasanas will again manifest themselves and he will eventually attain the final realization.
Sri Krishna says even a man of enquiry in whom a desire to know about Yoga goes beyond the Brahmic word i.e. beyond Vedas. He raises superior to the Vedic rituals and ceremonies. He is not satisfied with mere ritualism and yearns for a higher fulfillment. If this is the case of an aspirant without any spiritual inclinations of the previous birth, how much more exalted will be the state of a seeker who takes up the practice of Yoga in this birth after having fallen from that path in his previous birth?
What the Lord implies is that no effort in the practice of yoga goes waste. Even the least effort bears fruit either in this birth or in another and there is no cause for any disappointment for any one including the dullest seeker.
prayatnaadyatamaanastu yogee samshuddhakilbishah
aneka janma samsiddhastato yaati paraam gatim // 6.45 //
But the Yogi, who strives diligently, purified from sins and perfected through many births, attains the Supreme Goal.
Mind and intellect of an individual function through the body in the world outside as per the qualities they assume because of the actions performed in their earlier births. The wrong and negative qualities of the mind and intellect are sins in the language of Vedanta. After purifying the mind from these sins the aspirant practices meditation and ultimately the mind becomes devoid of impressions which is called the end of the mind since the mind is nothing but a flow of thoughts.
When there is no thought, there is no mind and where there is no mind there is no ego which is termed as `reaching the highest goal' or Self-Rediscovery. Little by little acquiring, through many births, the knowledge of Reality, he ultimately attains perfection. The Gita gives us hopeful belief in the redemption of all.
Although this theory is explained here in one or two sentences, in actual implementation, it is an achievement of many life times - `many births' as The Lord puts it.