In our previous post we talked about the ease with which, a yogi who is re-born is able to follow his intellectual curiosity and move on the path of spiritual progress.
Now, what about the yogi who is born in the house of enlightened yogis? We see in this Sloka…
prayatnaadyatamaanastu yogii sa.nshuddhakilbishhaH .
anekajanmasa.nsiddhastato yaati paraaM gatim.h .. 6.45..
The yogi who strives continuously, attains perfection in this very life, because of the effect of all his previous births. He is thoroughly purified and so he is able to reach God.
tu - but : prayatnaat.h - by constantly striving : yatamaanaH - practicing : yogii – the yogi : anekajanmasaMsiddhaH - attaining perfection in this life, due to the effects of previous births : saMshuddhakilbishhaH - being thoroughly cleaned of sin : tataH - from this : paraaM gatiM yaati - he attains the supreme state.
This yogi who strives continuously attains perfection in this very life, due to the effects of his previous births. He is completely purified and so he is able to achieve God realization.
In chemistry labs, there is a method of purification of water which is called distillation. In this method, the contaminated water is heated so that all the impurities are left behind and the steam is cooled to get purified water. This process is repeated many times to get extremely pure water. Every time the water is heated, it becomes a bit more pure. The many births that a person goes through are like the distillation process. Each birth is intended to make him a bit more pure. When the yogi is born again into the house of yogis, he has reached the very last stage of this process and therefore he is already in a highly pure state. From this stage he is able to reach the ultimate goal of God realization, by constantly striving in this path.
Only after millions of births, a human birth is possible. Whatever we do in this present birth, will form the vasanas or impressions for the next birth. When a yogi who has deviated from yoga is born once again, then all his knowledge has been left intact. So when a yogi has been involved in spiritual actions, these are the impressions that will shape his mind in the next birth. All such impressions of previous births, help a yogi who is constantly striving to reach God. Moreover, all his sins and negative qualities get eliminated in each birth and finally, he is born in a house of yogis in a very pure state and in a position where he will be able to pursue his spiritual efforts even from his childhood. So, the Lord says that such a yogi, can definitely achieve God realization in this birth itself, if he strives continuously.
The importance of “hard work” or prayatna is also mentioned here. In order to be successful, many years of painstaking work is required.
Very often, each time a person fails, it is almost like facing death because of the emotional impact it has on the person as well the amount of time and energy that has been dissipated. However, like a phoenix rising from ashes, people need to lift themselves up from such enormous failures. This requires a veritable rebirth – of thought processes, ideas and fresh effort. However, there is also the added benefit of experience that they now have which they have learnt from and hence this helps to avoid earlier mistakes while making renewed efforts. Each successive failure is therefore not the same – it is actually a step closer to the elusive success, which then eventually happens as long as the person keeps trying hard. This is the assurance from Krishna that hard work never fails..
