Bg 6.42
atha vā yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām
etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ loke janma yad īdṛśam
Bg 6.43
tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ labhate paurva-dehikam
yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ saṁsiddhau kuru-nandana
Bg 6.44
pūrvābhyāsena tenaiva hriyate hy avaśo ’pi saḥ
jijñāsur api yogasya śabda-brahmātivartate
Bg 6.45
prayatnād yatamānas tu yogī saṁśuddha-kilbiṣaḥ
aneka-janma-saṁsiddhas tato yāti parāṁ gatim
Translation
42. Or, he is even born in the family of the wise YOGIS; verily, a birth like this is very difficult to obtain in this world.
43. There he comes to be united with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives more than before for Perfection, O son of the Kurus.
44. By that very former practice he is borne on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know YOGA goes beyond the SHABDA BRAHMAN.
45. But the YOGI, who strives with assiduity, purified from sins and perfected (gradually) through many births, then attains the highest Goal.
Commentary
The other type, which makes a direct and immediate manifestation, in which the continuity of the past is clearly noticeable, is the theme of this stanza. Those who are pursuing selfless Upasanas, thereby gain more and more inner integration and as a result of it, they become dynamic minds capable of the highest meditation. The more integrated a personality, the more spiritual he becomes, and therefore, he must be given a chance to fulfil himself, not in heaven, which is a plane for enjoyment, but he must arrive right here to strive more diligently and achieve the highest. Such an ego-centre (Jeeva), as soon as it leaves one embodiment immediately comes to manifest itself in a conducive atmosphere, where it can continue its pilgrimage without any obstruction. It being an aspiring heart, it should necessarily come to be "BORN ONLY IN A FAMILY OF WISE-MEN-OF-MEDITATION."
This theory gives a lot of insight into the present-day fallacy which gives such an exaggerated importance to one's unhealthy environments and makes everyone protest against one's surroundings. No doubt, in some ways man is a creature of his environments; but the same statement, when viewed through the glasses of philosophy, gives also an insight into the fact that the individuals, in their own freedom, had themselves ordered in the past their own present environments. By merely changing his environments, the individual concerned cannot progress; a habitual drunkard may still continue drinking on the sly, even if he were to be brought into a dry city to live among teetotallers.
Examples like Shankara, Christ, Buddha, and other great masters can be considered as supporting this philosophical theory. Such men of brilliant genius, who, from their very early youth, exhibit superhuman knowledge and Godly wisdom, are no doubt, rare. Krishna himself accepts here that such persons are "VERY RARE TO OBTAIN IN THIS WORLD." If the previous stanza explained the re-birth of an ego (Jeeva) after an interval of existence in the heavens, this stanza explains the lives of the few, who, after departing from one embodiment, immediately arrive in this world to continue their pilgrimage to Perfection.
AFTER REACHING SUCH CONDUCIVE AND HELPFUL ENVIRONMENTS, WILL THE FALLEN YOGI OF THE LAST LIFE CONTINUE HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE? LISTEN:
It may be feared, that an individual who is thus born again, will have to start his studies and practices all over again. To remove any such doubt, Krishna explains here that such an individual, in his new life, under the conducive circumstances, gets naturally "UNITED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRED IN HIS FORMER BODY." Such a born-Yogi completes his education much more easily than others, since, to him, it is not an education that is needed, but only a revision, or a recapitulation. In a very short time, he discovers that all knowledge is bubbling up from within himself, and to him study is but a rediscovery of a digested knowledge which was already lying dormant in him.
Not only does he discover in himself the knowledge that he had acquired in the past, but he easily finds in himself the required enthusiasm and energy for a consistent self-application and vigorous pursuit. Knowledge without practice is a dull, dreary load upon the shoulders of a seeker. Krishna asserts here that one "fallen from Yoga" in the past, when he is reborn in the right atmosphere, not only regains all knowledge easily, but he comes to "STRIVE MORE THAN BEFORE, FOR PERFECTION, O SON OF THE KURUS."
HOW CAN ONE GET UNITED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRED IN HIS FORMER EMBODIMENT? LISTEN:
At any given moment our bank balance is the balance to our credit shown in our 'statement of account.' No banker can give us more, nor can he cheat us with a smaller amount. Almost in the same fashion, in the cultural growth of a given mind and intellect, no god can either take away any or give some more, but can only hand over to each one of us his own exact "balance." Each birth has a logical continuity with its own past, as strictly as we experience in day-to-day life. Today is but an extension of yesterday. With the full understanding of this law of life in our mind, if we are to re-read the stanza, its suggestions become quite clear automatically, without any strain.
An individual who has been in Yoga in his past life, will be, "BY THAT VERY FORMER PRACTICE, BORNE ON IN SPITE OF HIMSELF." This is true even in our life here. An educated man will, IN SPITE OF HIMSELF, be carried away in his behaviour and conversation to exhibit his cultivated mental and disciplined physical habits. No cultured man can successfully imitate the idiot for a long time; so too, no rascal can act the part of the noble-born for any length of time. Both will, sooner or later, be compelled, IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES, to exhibit unconsciously their true nature through their words, ideas, and actions.
Similarly, a man who had in the past lived the life of self-control, study, and practice gathers unto himself those cultural traits and he, in this life, IN SPITE OF HIMSELF and in spite of all his adverse circumstances, environments and conditions of life, cannot but instinctively come to exhibit --- in his attitudes to life, and in his behaviour towards the things and beings in the world --- a tranquillity and a balance, which are a surprise even to himself.
This is no mere theory. The truth of the statement is amply evident everywhere in any society, in all strata of its life, in all its professions and in all departments of its activities. Each one of us has an instinctive bent of mind, and we are irresistibly drawn towards it, IN SPITE OF OURSELVES. This pull is most powerful when arising from our essential evolutionary tendencies. Even a bandit chieftain can, overnight, turn himself to be a determined seeker and, ere long, become a great poet of the land, as Valmiki did in the past. Hundreds of such examples could be noted from our recent history and even amidst us today. In all those cases, the only satisfactory explanation will be that the individual mind-and-intellect was expressing through its given physical structure its own characteristic tendencies, which it had acquired by itself in its past incarnations, through its own willful actions and deliberate motives.
When an individual, who was a fallen Yogi in the past, is reborn, "IN SPITE OF HIMSELF" he is drawn towards a life of meditation and quietude, of seeking and striving, of self-control and discipline. Let him be put on the throne of a kingdom, or in the bustle of a market-place, or in the ignominy of the gutters, he cannot but express his nobility of heart and the philosophical bent of his mind. All the wealth in the world brought under command, unquestioned might and power gained, love and respect given... yet he cannot be dissuaded from his Path Divine. If the whole world stands surprised at his peculiar tendencies, he himself is one of those who are gazing on with the wildest surprise, with the utmost amazement!! "BY THAT PREVIOUS PRACTICE ALONE IS HE BORNE ON IN SPITE OF HIMSELF."
After observing this philosophical truth, Lord Krishna is naturally tempted to express the glory of meditation (Yoga). He says "ONE WHO HAS EVEN THE WISH TO KNOW CONTROL (YOGA), HE PASSES BEYOND THE VEDIC RITUAL." According to Shankara, the term "Shabda-brahman" used here denotes "the words in the Veda," wherein the term Veda indicates only the "ritualistic portion." Therefore, the Acharya, commenting upon this portion, says that such an individual goes beyond all the charms for the promised fruits of the Vedic rituals. This may rightly be considered as too laboured a commentary, although its implications are only too true. One who has warped his mind in the practice of self-control, study, and meditation in the past, could not have any more fascination for the material wealth or the sensuous life, however celestial they might be. Even if this interpretation fits in with the context, we must admit that it has been laboriously stretched by the teacher of the Advaita-philosophy.
HOW IS THE PATH OF MEDITATION NOBLER THAN ALL OTHERS? LISTEN:
As already noticed, the mind-intellect equipment of an individual functions through his body in the world outside as per the traits chalked out upon it by the actions performed in its earlier lives. These channels of thinking cut across the fields of the mind determine the direction of its thoughts and the texture of its actions in the present. These lacerations on the subtle body are called in Vedanta as 'SINS,' or as the 'DIRT OF THE WITHIN.' These impurities are removed and the existing ulcers healed through selfless action.
But even while rejecting the wrong negative tendencies of the mind, the individual will have to plough the fields of his mind with new patterns representing the constructive divine tendencies. These meritorious vasanas (punya) can also provide a severe obstruction for a man of meditation. After having purified his mind of its unethical and sensuous tendencies, the aspirant should practise meditation. During the still moments of peace in the depth of his depths, when he exposes his mind to the thrilled atmosphere of its vibrant silence, the noble traits also get completely wiped off. A state of mind which is thus rendered completely impressionless (vasana-less) is the end of the mind, since mind is nothing but a bundle of vasanas. Where the mind has ended, there the ego has also ended having "THEN REACHED THE HIGHEST GOAL, or gained Self-rediscovery.
The explanation of this theory would not perhaps occupy more than half a page, but in actually carving it our into our individual life, it may be a programme for very many lives' consistent practice. "Through many births" is a phrase used in the Upanishads by the honest "Scientists of Life," the Rishis, and they are perfectly right; for evolution, as we all know, is not a drama played out during an afternoon, but it is the slow revelation of the history of progress through endless aeons.
To one who has the proper temperament to seek Life, the anxiety to realise the Perfection, the capacity to understand the hollowness of sense-life, the daring to follow the narrow foot-prints of the Seers of the world, the appetite for Infinite peace and tranquillity, the courage to live the moral and the ethical values, the heroism to barter one's all to achieve the highest... such a one is not a "mineral-man," nor a "vegetable-specimen," nor an "animal-man," but he is the noblest creation under the Sun, a perfect "man-man," standing right in front of the Doors of Truth, demanding as a "God-man" his admission into the SANCTUM SANCTORUM!
Right now, this very life IS OUR LAST BIRTH, if we have a taste to meditate, an urge to seek, a daring to live the Life Divine!
There is nothing which may sound original in this interpretation to all diligent students of the Geeta. A sacred text-book that has been roaring, time and again, in an irrepressible spirit of optimism, the message of hope and cheer, with no threats of hell and brimstone anywhere in it, cannot be considered to have changed its music all of a sudden, to declare that man has hopes of salvation only after "many births" and not "here and now." Even though this misinterpretation may perhaps be helpful to the saboteurs of our religion, no intelligent student of the Geeta can, even for a moment, be hoodwinked by such false notes.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
atha vā yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām
etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ loke janma yad īdṛśam
Bg 6.43
tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ labhate paurva-dehikam
yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ saṁsiddhau kuru-nandana
Bg 6.44
pūrvābhyāsena tenaiva hriyate hy avaśo ’pi saḥ
jijñāsur api yogasya śabda-brahmātivartate
Bg 6.45
prayatnād yatamānas tu yogī saṁśuddha-kilbiṣaḥ
aneka-janma-saṁsiddhas tato yāti parāṁ gatim
Translation
42. Or, he is even born in the family of the wise YOGIS; verily, a birth like this is very difficult to obtain in this world.
43. There he comes to be united with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives more than before for Perfection, O son of the Kurus.
44. By that very former practice he is borne on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know YOGA goes beyond the SHABDA BRAHMAN.
45. But the YOGI, who strives with assiduity, purified from sins and perfected (gradually) through many births, then attains the highest Goal.
Commentary
The other type, which makes a direct and immediate manifestation, in which the continuity of the past is clearly noticeable, is the theme of this stanza. Those who are pursuing selfless Upasanas, thereby gain more and more inner integration and as a result of it, they become dynamic minds capable of the highest meditation. The more integrated a personality, the more spiritual he becomes, and therefore, he must be given a chance to fulfil himself, not in heaven, which is a plane for enjoyment, but he must arrive right here to strive more diligently and achieve the highest. Such an ego-centre (Jeeva), as soon as it leaves one embodiment immediately comes to manifest itself in a conducive atmosphere, where it can continue its pilgrimage without any obstruction. It being an aspiring heart, it should necessarily come to be "BORN ONLY IN A FAMILY OF WISE-MEN-OF-MEDITATION."
This theory gives a lot of insight into the present-day fallacy which gives such an exaggerated importance to one's unhealthy environments and makes everyone protest against one's surroundings. No doubt, in some ways man is a creature of his environments; but the same statement, when viewed through the glasses of philosophy, gives also an insight into the fact that the individuals, in their own freedom, had themselves ordered in the past their own present environments. By merely changing his environments, the individual concerned cannot progress; a habitual drunkard may still continue drinking on the sly, even if he were to be brought into a dry city to live among teetotallers.
Examples like Shankara, Christ, Buddha, and other great masters can be considered as supporting this philosophical theory. Such men of brilliant genius, who, from their very early youth, exhibit superhuman knowledge and Godly wisdom, are no doubt, rare. Krishna himself accepts here that such persons are "VERY RARE TO OBTAIN IN THIS WORLD." If the previous stanza explained the re-birth of an ego (Jeeva) after an interval of existence in the heavens, this stanza explains the lives of the few, who, after departing from one embodiment, immediately arrive in this world to continue their pilgrimage to Perfection.
AFTER REACHING SUCH CONDUCIVE AND HELPFUL ENVIRONMENTS, WILL THE FALLEN YOGI OF THE LAST LIFE CONTINUE HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE? LISTEN:
It may be feared, that an individual who is thus born again, will have to start his studies and practices all over again. To remove any such doubt, Krishna explains here that such an individual, in his new life, under the conducive circumstances, gets naturally "UNITED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRED IN HIS FORMER BODY." Such a born-Yogi completes his education much more easily than others, since, to him, it is not an education that is needed, but only a revision, or a recapitulation. In a very short time, he discovers that all knowledge is bubbling up from within himself, and to him study is but a rediscovery of a digested knowledge which was already lying dormant in him.
Not only does he discover in himself the knowledge that he had acquired in the past, but he easily finds in himself the required enthusiasm and energy for a consistent self-application and vigorous pursuit. Knowledge without practice is a dull, dreary load upon the shoulders of a seeker. Krishna asserts here that one "fallen from Yoga" in the past, when he is reborn in the right atmosphere, not only regains all knowledge easily, but he comes to "STRIVE MORE THAN BEFORE, FOR PERFECTION, O SON OF THE KURUS."
HOW CAN ONE GET UNITED WITH THE INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRED IN HIS FORMER EMBODIMENT? LISTEN:
At any given moment our bank balance is the balance to our credit shown in our 'statement of account.' No banker can give us more, nor can he cheat us with a smaller amount. Almost in the same fashion, in the cultural growth of a given mind and intellect, no god can either take away any or give some more, but can only hand over to each one of us his own exact "balance." Each birth has a logical continuity with its own past, as strictly as we experience in day-to-day life. Today is but an extension of yesterday. With the full understanding of this law of life in our mind, if we are to re-read the stanza, its suggestions become quite clear automatically, without any strain.
An individual who has been in Yoga in his past life, will be, "BY THAT VERY FORMER PRACTICE, BORNE ON IN SPITE OF HIMSELF." This is true even in our life here. An educated man will, IN SPITE OF HIMSELF, be carried away in his behaviour and conversation to exhibit his cultivated mental and disciplined physical habits. No cultured man can successfully imitate the idiot for a long time; so too, no rascal can act the part of the noble-born for any length of time. Both will, sooner or later, be compelled, IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES, to exhibit unconsciously their true nature through their words, ideas, and actions.
Similarly, a man who had in the past lived the life of self-control, study, and practice gathers unto himself those cultural traits and he, in this life, IN SPITE OF HIMSELF and in spite of all his adverse circumstances, environments and conditions of life, cannot but instinctively come to exhibit --- in his attitudes to life, and in his behaviour towards the things and beings in the world --- a tranquillity and a balance, which are a surprise even to himself.
This is no mere theory. The truth of the statement is amply evident everywhere in any society, in all strata of its life, in all its professions and in all departments of its activities. Each one of us has an instinctive bent of mind, and we are irresistibly drawn towards it, IN SPITE OF OURSELVES. This pull is most powerful when arising from our essential evolutionary tendencies. Even a bandit chieftain can, overnight, turn himself to be a determined seeker and, ere long, become a great poet of the land, as Valmiki did in the past. Hundreds of such examples could be noted from our recent history and even amidst us today. In all those cases, the only satisfactory explanation will be that the individual mind-and-intellect was expressing through its given physical structure its own characteristic tendencies, which it had acquired by itself in its past incarnations, through its own willful actions and deliberate motives.
When an individual, who was a fallen Yogi in the past, is reborn, "IN SPITE OF HIMSELF" he is drawn towards a life of meditation and quietude, of seeking and striving, of self-control and discipline. Let him be put on the throne of a kingdom, or in the bustle of a market-place, or in the ignominy of the gutters, he cannot but express his nobility of heart and the philosophical bent of his mind. All the wealth in the world brought under command, unquestioned might and power gained, love and respect given... yet he cannot be dissuaded from his Path Divine. If the whole world stands surprised at his peculiar tendencies, he himself is one of those who are gazing on with the wildest surprise, with the utmost amazement!! "BY THAT PREVIOUS PRACTICE ALONE IS HE BORNE ON IN SPITE OF HIMSELF."
After observing this philosophical truth, Lord Krishna is naturally tempted to express the glory of meditation (Yoga). He says "ONE WHO HAS EVEN THE WISH TO KNOW CONTROL (YOGA), HE PASSES BEYOND THE VEDIC RITUAL." According to Shankara, the term "Shabda-brahman" used here denotes "the words in the Veda," wherein the term Veda indicates only the "ritualistic portion." Therefore, the Acharya, commenting upon this portion, says that such an individual goes beyond all the charms for the promised fruits of the Vedic rituals. This may rightly be considered as too laboured a commentary, although its implications are only too true. One who has warped his mind in the practice of self-control, study, and meditation in the past, could not have any more fascination for the material wealth or the sensuous life, however celestial they might be. Even if this interpretation fits in with the context, we must admit that it has been laboriously stretched by the teacher of the Advaita-philosophy.
HOW IS THE PATH OF MEDITATION NOBLER THAN ALL OTHERS? LISTEN:
As already noticed, the mind-intellect equipment of an individual functions through his body in the world outside as per the traits chalked out upon it by the actions performed in its earlier lives. These channels of thinking cut across the fields of the mind determine the direction of its thoughts and the texture of its actions in the present. These lacerations on the subtle body are called in Vedanta as 'SINS,' or as the 'DIRT OF THE WITHIN.' These impurities are removed and the existing ulcers healed through selfless action.
But even while rejecting the wrong negative tendencies of the mind, the individual will have to plough the fields of his mind with new patterns representing the constructive divine tendencies. These meritorious vasanas (punya) can also provide a severe obstruction for a man of meditation. After having purified his mind of its unethical and sensuous tendencies, the aspirant should practise meditation. During the still moments of peace in the depth of his depths, when he exposes his mind to the thrilled atmosphere of its vibrant silence, the noble traits also get completely wiped off. A state of mind which is thus rendered completely impressionless (vasana-less) is the end of the mind, since mind is nothing but a bundle of vasanas. Where the mind has ended, there the ego has also ended having "THEN REACHED THE HIGHEST GOAL, or gained Self-rediscovery.
The explanation of this theory would not perhaps occupy more than half a page, but in actually carving it our into our individual life, it may be a programme for very many lives' consistent practice. "Through many births" is a phrase used in the Upanishads by the honest "Scientists of Life," the Rishis, and they are perfectly right; for evolution, as we all know, is not a drama played out during an afternoon, but it is the slow revelation of the history of progress through endless aeons.
To one who has the proper temperament to seek Life, the anxiety to realise the Perfection, the capacity to understand the hollowness of sense-life, the daring to follow the narrow foot-prints of the Seers of the world, the appetite for Infinite peace and tranquillity, the courage to live the moral and the ethical values, the heroism to barter one's all to achieve the highest... such a one is not a "mineral-man," nor a "vegetable-specimen," nor an "animal-man," but he is the noblest creation under the Sun, a perfect "man-man," standing right in front of the Doors of Truth, demanding as a "God-man" his admission into the SANCTUM SANCTORUM!
Right now, this very life IS OUR LAST BIRTH, if we have a taste to meditate, an urge to seek, a daring to live the Life Divine!
There is nothing which may sound original in this interpretation to all diligent students of the Geeta. A sacred text-book that has been roaring, time and again, in an irrepressible spirit of optimism, the message of hope and cheer, with no threats of hell and brimstone anywhere in it, cannot be considered to have changed its music all of a sudden, to declare that man has hopes of salvation only after "many births" and not "here and now." Even though this misinterpretation may perhaps be helpful to the saboteurs of our religion, no intelligent student of the Geeta can, even for a moment, be hoodwinked by such false notes.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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