Bhagavad Gita · 6.43 · Path of Meditation·43 of 47
तत्र तं बुद्धिसंयोगं लभते पौर्वदेहिकम्।यतते च ततो भूयः संसिद्धौ कुरुनन्दन ॥
tatra taṁ buddhi-sanyogaṁ labhate
paurva-dehikam yatate cha tato bhūyaḥ sansiddhau kuru-nandana
Sanskrit recitation
When the mind will not stay · 6.33–6.47 · Teaching
Translation
Then he comes into contact with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives even more for perfection, O Arjuna.
Meaning
When he takes a human body again in this world his previous exertions and practice in the path of Yoga are not wasted. They bear full fruit now, and hasten his moral and spiritual evolution.Our thoughts and actions are left in our subconscious minds in the form of subtle Samskaras or impressions. Our experiences in the shape of Samskaras, habits and tendencies are also stored up in our subconscious mind. These Samskaras of the past birth are revivified and reenergised in the next birth. The Samskaras of Yogic practices and meditation and the Yogic tendencies will compel the spiritual aspirant to strive with greater vigour than that with which he attempted in the former birth. He will endeavour more strenuously to get more spiritual experiences and to attain to higher planes of realisation than those acired in his previous birth.
After Swami Sivananda
When the mind will not stay· 6.33–6.47→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 6.33Arjuna said, "O Krishna, I do not see how this Yoga of equanimity, which you have taught me, can be maintained steadily, due to the restlessness of the mind."
- 6.34The mind is indeed restless, turbulent, strong, and unyielding, O Krishna; I consider it as difficult to control as controlling the wind.
- 6.35The Blessed Lord said, "Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and restless; but with practice and dispassion, it can be restrained."
- 6.36I think Yoga is hard to be attained by one with an uncontrolled self, but the self-controlled and striving one can attain it by the appropriate means.
- 6.37Arjuna said, "He who is unable to control himself, even though he has faith, and whose mind wanders away from Yoga, what end does he meet, having failed to attain perfection in Yoga, O Krishna?"
- 6.38Fallen from both, does he not perish like a rent cloud, supportless, O mighty-armed one, deluded on the path of Brahman?
- 6.39O Krishna, please completely dispel this doubt of mine, for it is not possible for anyone but You to do so.
- 6.40The Blessed Lord said, "O Arjuna, neither in this world nor in the next will there be destruction for him; none, indeed, who does good, O my son, ever comes to grief."
- 6.41Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for everlasting years, he who fell from Yoga is born in a house of the pure and wealthy.
- 6.42Or he is born in a family of even the wisest of yogis; verily, such a birth is very difficult to obtain in this world.
6.43Then he comes into contact with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives even more for perfection, O Arjuna.
- 6.44By that same former practice, he is borne on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know Yoga goes beyond the Brahmanic word.
- 6.45But the Yogi who strives assiduously, purified of sins and perfected gradually over many births, reaches the highest goal.
- 6.46The yogi is thought to be superior to the ascetics, even superior to those who have knowledge obtained through the study of scriptures; he is also superior to men of action; therefore, be thou a yogi, O Arjuna.
- 6.47And among all the Yogis, he who, full of faith and with his inner self merged in Me, worships Me is deemed by Me to be the most devoted.
Word-by-word→
- cha
- and
- tam
- that
- tatra
- there
- yatate
- strives
- labhate
- obtains
- tataḥ
- thereafter
- bhūyaḥ
- again
- sansiddhau
- for perfection
- kuru-nandana
- Arjun, descendant of the Kurus
- paurva-dehikam
- from the previous lives
- buddhi-sanyogam
- reawaken their wisdom
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