पूर्वाभ्यासेन तेनैव ह्रियते ह्यवशोऽपि सः ।जिज्ञासुरपि योगस्य शब्दब्रह्मातिवर्तते ॥
pūrvābhyāsena tenaiva hriyate hyavaśo’pi saḥjijñāsurapi yogasya śabdabrahmātivartate
By that former practice he is irresistibly carried on. Even the seeker after the knowledge of Yoga goes beyond the range of the Vedas and Upanishads.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
AI translation
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.
Essays on the Gita
Almost the first word of the synthesis of works and knowledge is a strong, almost a violent censure and repudiation of the Vedavada, “this flowery word which they declare who have not2·42–43 clear discernment, devoted to the creed of the Veda, whose creed is that there is nothing else, souls of desire, seekers of Paradise,—it gives the fruits of the works of birth, it is multifarious with specialities of rites, it is directed to enjoyment and lordship as its goal.” The Gita even seems to go on to attack the Veda itself which, though it has been practically cast aside, is still to Indian sentiment intangible, inviolable, the sacred origin and authority for all its philosophy and religion.2·45 “The action of the three gunas is the subject matter of the Veda; but do thou become free from the triple guna, O Arjuna.” The Vedas in the widest terms, “all the Vedas”,—which might well include the Upanishads also and seems to include them, for the general term Śruti is used later on,—are declared to be unnecessary for the man who knows.2·46 “As much use as there is in a well with water in flood on every side, so much is there in all the Vedas for the Brahmin who has the knowledge.” Nay, the Scriptures are even a stumbling-block; for the letter of the Word—perhaps because of its conflict of texts and its various and mutually dissentient interpretations—bewilders the understanding, which can only find certainty and concentration by the light within.2·52–53 “When thy intelligence shall cross beyond the whorl of delusion, then shalt thou become indifferent to Scripture heard or that which thou hast yet to hear, gantāsi nirvedaṁ śrotavyasya śrutasya ca. When thy intelligence which is bewildered by the Sruti, śrutivipratipannā, shall stand unmoving and stable in Samadhi, then shalt thou attain to Yoga.” So offensive is all this to conventional religious sentiment that attempts are naturally made by the convenient and indispensable human faculty of text-twisting to put a different sense on some of these verses, but the meaning is plain and hangs together from beginning to end. It is confirmed and emphasised by a subsequent passage in which the knowledge6·44 of the knower is described as passing beyond the range of Veda and Upanishad, śabdabrahmātivartate.
The Synthesis of Yoga
For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences. His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively,—if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written Truth,—śabdabrahmātivartate—beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear,—śrotavyasya śrutasya ca. For he is not the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite.
Other writings
Even the highest Shastra can be misused for the purposes of egoism, the egoism of virtue and the egoism of prejudice and personal opinion. At its best it is a great means towards the preparation of liberation. It is śabda-brahma. But we must not be satisfied with mere preparation, we must, as soon as our eyes are opened, hasten on to actual freedom. The liberated soul and the sadhak of liberation who has surrendered even his actions to God, gets beyond the highest Shastra, śabdabrahmātivartate.
Writings in Bengali
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
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.
