प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकान् उषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः ।शुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे योगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते ॥
prāpya puṇyakṛtāṁ lokān uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥśucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yogabhraṣṭo’bhijāyate
Having attained to the world of the righteous and having dwelt there for immemorial years, he who fell from Yoga is again born in the house of such as are pure and glorious.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
His translation
KRISHNA Partha, neither in this world nor in the other is there for that man any perdition; no man who doeth good, can come to an evil end, O beloved. But to the world of the righteous he goeth and there dwelleth for endless seasons and then is born again, the man fallen from Yoga, in a house of pure and fortunate men. Or else he even cometh to being in the house of the wise men, in a family of Yogins, for such a birth as this in this world is one of the hardest to win. There he getteth touch again with the mind he had in his former body and with that to start him he striveth yet harder after perfection, O delight of the Kurus. For he is seized and hurried forward even by that former habit & askesis of his, though it be without his own will. Even if a man’s mind is curious after Yoga, he overpasseth the outer Brahman in the Word. The Yogin earnestly striving is purified of sin; perfected by toil of many births he arriveth at his highest salvation. Greater than the men of askesis is the Yogin and greater I hold him even than the men of Knowledge, and than the men of works he is surely greater, a Yogin therefore shouldst thou be, O Urjoona. And of all that are Yogins I deem to have most Yoga him who with his inner Self taking refuge in Me hath faith in Me & loveth Me & worshippeth.
Other writings
The central figure of Nadir Shah dominates his surroundings. It is from this centre that the suggestion of something terrible coming out of the silent group has started. The strong, proud and regal figure is extraordinarily impressive, but it is the face and the arm that give the individuality. That bare arm and hand grasping the rigid upright scimitar are inhuman in their savage force and brutality; it is the hand, the fingers, one might almost say the talons of the human wild beast. This arm and hand have action, murder, empire in them: the whole history of Nadir is there expressed. The grip and gesture have already commenced the coming massacre and the whole body behind consents. The face corresponds in the hard firmness and strength of the nose, the brute cruelty of the mouth almost lost in the moustache and beard. But the eyes are the master-touch in this figure. They overcome us with surprise when we look at them, for these are not the eyes of the assassin, even the assassin upon the throne. The soul that looks out of these eyes is calm, aloof and thoughtful, yet terrible. Whatever order of massacre has issued from these lips, did not go forth from an ordinary energetic man of action moved by self-interest, rage or blood-thirst. The eyes are the eyes of a Yogin but a terrible Yogin; such might be the look of some adept of the left-hand ways, some mighty Kapalik lifted above pity and shrinking as above violence and wrath. Those eyes in that face, over that body, arm, hand seem to be those of one whose spirit is not affected by the actions of the body, whose natural part and organs are full of the destroying energy of Kali while the soul, the witness within, looks on at the sanguinary drama tranquil, darkly approving but hardly interested. And then it dawns on one that this is not so much the Nadir of history; unconsciously perhaps the artist has given a quiet but effective delineation of the Scourge of God, the man who is rather a force than a human being, the Asura with a mission who has come to do God’s work of destruction and help on the evolution by carnage and ruin. The soul within is not that of a human being. Some powerful Yogin of a Lemurian race has incarnated in this body, one born when the simian might and strength of the vānara had evolved into the perfection of the human form and brain with the animal still uneliminated, who having by tapasya and knowledge separated his soul from his nature has elected this reward that after long beatitude, prāpya puṇyakṛtāṁ lokān uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ, he should reincarnate as a force of nature informed by a human soul and work out in a single life the savage strength of the outward self, taking upon himself the foreordained burden of empire and massacre.
180) There are lesser & larger eternities, for eternity is a term of the soul & can exist in Time as well as exceeding it. When the Scriptures say “śaśwatih samah”, they mean for a long space & permanence of time or a hardly measurable aeon; only God Absolute has the absolute eternity. Yet when one goes within, one sees that all things are secretly eternal; there is no end, neither was there ever a beginning.
Writings in Bengali
In the Gita Arjuna asks Sri Krishna: “He who takes up yoga but before going through to the end, wanders away and falls from it, what happens to him? Does he lose both worldly and spiritual gains and perish like a cloud dissolving?” In answer Sri Krishna said: “Neither in this life nor hereafter is there destruction for him. Never does any one who practises good come to woe. Having attained to the world of the righteous and having dwelt there for immemorial years, he who fell from yoga is again born in the house of such as are pure and glorious and driven by his longing for yoga, acquired during past lives, he tries even more for perfection and, finally, through the practice of many lives gets rid of all sins and achieves the supreme end.”
গীতায় অর্জ্জুন শ্রীকৃষ্ণকে জিজ্ঞাসা করিলেন, “যাঁহারা যোগপথে প্রবেশ করিয়া শেষ পর্য্যন্ত যাইতে না যাইতে স্খলিতপদ ও যোগভ্রষ্ট হন, তাঁহাদের কি গতি হয়? তাঁহারা কি ঐহিক ও পারত্রিক উভয় ফলে বঞ্চিত হইয়া বায়ুখণ্ডিত মেঘের মত বিনষ্ট হন?” উত্তরে শ্রীকৃষ্ণ বলিলেন, “ইহলোকে বা পরলোকে সেইরূপ ব্যক্তির বিনাশ অসম্ভব। কল্যাণকৃৎ কখনও দুর্গতিপ্রাপ্ত হন না। পুণ্যলোকসকলে তাঁহার গতি হয়, সেখানে অনেক কাল বাস করিয়া শুদ্ধ শ্রীমান্ পুরুষদের গৃহে অথবা যোগযুক্ত মহাপুরুষদের কুলে দুর্লভ জন্ম হয়, সেই জন্মে পূর্ব্বজন্মপ্রাপ্ত যোগলিপ্সাচালিত হইয়া সিদ্ধির জন্য আরও চেষ্টা করেন, শেষে অনেক জন্মের অভ্যাসে পাপমুক্ত হইয়া পরমগতি লাভ করেন।” যে পূর্ব্বজন্মবাদ চিরকাল আর্য্যধর্ম্মের যোগলব্ধ জ্ঞানের অঙ্গবিশেষ, পাশ্চাত্য বিদ্যার প্রভাবে শিক্ষিত সম্প্রদায়ের মধ্যে তাহার প্রতিপত্তি বিনষ্টপ্রায় হইয়াছিল, শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ-লীলার পরে বেদান্তশিক্ষা প্রচারে ও গীতার অধ্যয়নে সেই সত্য পুনঃপ্রতিষ্ঠিত হইতেছে। স্থূলজগতে যেমন heredity প্রধান সত্য, সূক্ষ্মজগতে তেমনই পূর্ব্বজন্মবাদ প্রধান সত্য। শ্রীকৃষ্ণের উক্তিতে দুইটী সত্য নিহিত আছে। যোগভ্রষ্ট পুরুষ তাঁহার পূর্ব্বজন্মার্জ্জিত জ্ঞানের সংস্কারের সহিত জন্মগ্রহণ করেন, সেই সংস্কার দ্বারা বায়ুচালিত তরণীর ন্যায় যোগপথে চালিত হন। কিন্তু কর্ম্মফল প্রাপ্তির যোগ্য শরীর উৎপাদনার্থ উপযুক্ত কুলে জন্মলাভ প্রয়োজন। উৎকৃষ্ট heredity যোগশরীরের উৎপাদক। শুদ্ধ শ্রীমান্ পুরুষদের গৃহে জন্ম হইলে শুদ্ধ সবল শরীর উৎপাদন সম্ভব, যোগীকুলে জন্মগ্রহণে উৎকৃষ্ট মন ও প্রাণ গঠিত হয় এবং সেইরূপ শিক্ষা ও মানসিক গতিলাভও হয়।
Letters
As to the impossibility of return [to the earth], that is a knotty question. A divine being can always return—as Ramakrishna said, the Ishwarakoti can at will ascend or descend the stair between Birth and Immortality. For the others, it is probable that they may rest for a relative infinity of time, śāśvatīḥ samāḥ, if that is the will in them, but a return cannot be barred out unless they have reached their highest possible status.
You have forgotten the context. Arjuna asks what of a Yogi who fails in this life because of his errors—does he fall from both the ordinary life and the spiritual and perish like a broken cloud? Krishna says no. All who follow the Good get the reward of their effort and do not perish—they get it first in the life beyond and afterwards in the next birth in which the Yogi who fails now may even resume his effort under the best conditions and arrive at Siddhi. Krishna never said that nobody ever in this life fails who attempts the Yoga.
Evening talks
Sri Aurobindo: What do you mean by realisations? There is always the possibility of being Yoga-Bhrashta [_fallen from yoga_].
