BG 06.42 atha va yoginam eva... cited

Expressions researched:
"atha va yoginam eva" |"etad dhi durlabhataram" |"he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists" |"kule bhavati dhimatam" |"loke janma yad idrsam" |"such a birth is rare in this world"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "6.42" or "atha va yoginam eva" or "etad dhi durlabhataram" or "he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists" or "kule bhavati dhimatam" or "loke janma yad idrsam" or "such a birth is rare in this world"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 6.42, Translation and Purport:

Or (if unsuccessful after long practice of yoga) he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists who are surely great in wisdom. Certainly, such a birth is rare in this world.

Birth in a family of yogīs or transcendentalists—those with great wisdom—is praised herein because the child born in such a family receives a spiritual impetus from the very beginning of his life. It is especially the case in the ācārya or gosvāmī families. Such families are very learned and devoted by tradition and training, and thus they become spiritual masters. In India there are many such ācārya families, but they have now degenerated due to insufficient education and training. By the grace of the Lord, there are still families that foster transcendentalists generation after generation. It is certainly very fortunate to take birth in such families. Fortunately, both our spiritual master, Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and our humble self had the opportunity to take birth in such families, by the grace of the Lord, and both of us were trained in the devotional service of the Lord from the very beginning of our lives. Later on we met by the order of the transcendental system.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 6.40-42 -- New York, September 16, 1966:

So śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). Athavā, or alternative.

athavā yoginām eva

kule bhavati dhīmatām

etaddhi durlabhataraṁ

loke janma yad īdṛśam

(BG 6.42)

Athavā yogināṁ gṛhe. Yogināṁ gṛhe means that neither rich nor very pious, but actually yogi. His parents, he gets such a parent that who are actually in execution of spiritual life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness or yoga, the father mother. So children, they generally imitate, imitate the parents' habits or activities. So fortunately we had the opportunity of getting such a father. So we are imitating our father. In my childhood I imitated my father. He was worshiping Deity of Kṛṣṇa. So I asked him, "My dear father, I shall worship. Give me the Deity of Kṛṣṇa." So he gave me a little Deity of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā and I was imitating. So beginning of life... So these are actually facts. Mahārāja Parīkṣit also, he was playing with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa dolls. Just like Mirabhai. She was playing with Kṛṣṇa doll and later on she became a very high-grade devotee. So these chances are there.

Lecture on BG 6.40-42 -- New York, September 16, 1966:

Athavā yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām (BG 6.42). He's given the chance of being born in such good family. Etaddhi durlabhataram. Now this kind of birth, in a family of devotee and yogi, is very, I mean to say, rare, and it is far better than the other two lives, to have birth in rich family or in pious family. Actually, they are acting. Just like when a boy is born of a father who is a medical man... We have seen it. So naturally he becomes a medical man. Because he sees his father and the inclination inherits. In that way, in the Indian caste system, originally it was a division. But because the son imitated the father, in this way, it has come to be a caste system by birth. So anyway, these chances are given. The purport is that we, everyone, every man should begin spiritual life.

Either any yoga system, any spiritual life is called yoga. Yoga means to link. We are part and parcel of the supreme absolute, Brahman or Bhagavān, whatever you call, Paramātmā, it doesn't matter. But yoga means linking. So the linking, either you link with impersonal formless, the Supreme Brahman, that is also linking. And if you by meditation you link up with the Supersoul within yourself that is also transcendental activity. Or you directly worship as a devotee, Kṛṣṇa. Anything you adopt, that is spiritual life. But to become Kṛṣṇa conscious or a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, that is the ultimate goal.

Lecture on BG 6.40-43 -- New York, September 18, 1966:

Suppose he has fallen down. There is no inauspicity. But a person who does not approach God, but regularly makes his duties perfectly, what does he get? What does he get, religious? He does not get any benefit of his life. But a person, even he falls down, because he has taken shelter of the Supreme Lord, "Oh, he is better." So these things are sanctioned by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā and all Vedic literatures, that there is no harm even one is not able to fulfill his mission properly, half-finished. Still... Why? Why he is not in loss? The next śloka says. Now, again Lord says that "Either in a brāhmaṇa family, very pious family, or in a rich family, athavā, or, yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām (BG 6.42), yoginām, in a family where persons have practiced the yoga system..." Yogināṁ dhīmatām. Yoginām. Yoginām means either devotee or meditators or great philosophers—in their families. Yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām (BG 6.42). Dhīmatām means very intelligent. These transcendentalists, either philosopher, or meditators, or great devotees of the Lord, they are considered the, I mean to say, highest top of the human society, dhīmatām. Etad dhi durlabhataraṁ loke janma yad īdṛśam.

Lecture on BG 6.40-43 -- New York, September 18, 1966:

So in the pious family or in the rich family, there is chance of degradation. But one who takes his birth in a family of yogis, devotees, oh, he has got better chance for cultivating the same spiritual culture from which in his past life he had fallen. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, etad dhi durlabhataram: "This is very rare, that a man gets his birth, a parent, a yogi." This is very rare. But He recommends, I mean, He eulogizes this sort of family that... What is the facility of this family? Now, Lord says, tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ labhate paurva-dehikam: (BG 6.43) "In his previous birth, in his previous body, whatever he cultured, now he begins to remember." He begins to remember. I may tell you that those who have taken this society, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very seriously, they are not ordinary persons. They must have had such culture in their previous life. Now they are again trying to revive that thing.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Hari-śauri: "The unsuccessful yogi, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people or into a family of rich aristocracy."

Prabhupāda: Hm. Then?

Hari-śauri:

atha vā yoginām eva

kule bhavati dhīmatām

etaddhi durlabhataraṁ

loke janma yad īdṛśam

(BG 6.42)

"Or he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists who are surely great in wisdom. Verily, such a birth is rare in this world."

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri:

tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ

labhate paurva-dehikam

(BG 6.43)

Prabhupāda: Dehikam.

Hari-śauri:

yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ

saṁsiddhau kuru-nandana

"On taking such a birth, he again revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he tries to make further progress in order to achieve complete success, O son of Kuru."

Prabhupāda: That is... When the, the incompleteness of his yoga practice, if he dies prematurely, or he could not finish and die, so the consciousness goes with him. So, in the next life again he begins from that point, paurva-dehikam. What is the exact word? Tatra? Buddhi...?

Hari-śauri: Buddhi-saṁyogam, revival.

Prabhupāda: Ah, buddhi-saṁyogam.

Hari-śauri: Revival of such consciousness.

Prabhupāda: The intelligence becomes revived, buddhi-saṁyogam. Then?

Hari-śauri: Labhate paurva-dehikam.

Prabhupāda: Ah, labhate paurva-dehikam. That is everything, spiritual and material. Materially also we find sometime when one person is very extraordinary individual. In the class some student picks up very quickly, some student cannot understand. So this is continuation. One is intelligent means he has got some previous revival of his consciousness. So in this way it is going on. That is the proof, immortality of the soul. Otherwise why? Paurva-dehikam, previous birth. This is the proof.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: We just got a telegram today from Bhāgavata.

Prabhupāda: Who is he?

Hari-śauri: He was an elderly Australian devotee, the man who was doing the architecture. You saw him in Bombay, that older man. He was about fifty-six.

Prabhupāda: In Bombay?

Hari-śauri: You saw him in Bombay last year. He had just done some drawings for the development of Bhuvaneśvara, and you asked him if he would like... Oh, Haridaspur. At that time he was working on some plans for Haridaspur, and you asked him if he would like to stay there. He's... Bhāgavata put that he had died of some brain virus.

Prabhupāda: In Bhuvaneśvara?

Hari-śauri: Yes. That is part of Jagannātha Purī dhāma?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: Is that a guarantee for going home, if someone leaves their body in the dhāma?

Prabhupāda: At least, he gets high standard of life for many years. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out in Bhagavad-gītā.

Hari-śauri: (pause) Prāpya puṇya-kṛtāṁ lokān (BG 6.41)?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri:

uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ

śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe

yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate

(BG 6.41)

Prabhupāda: Read the whole verse.

Hari-śauri: The English?

Prabhupāda: Or Sanskrit.

Hari-śauri: That was text 41. "The unsuccessful yogi, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people or into a family of rich aristocracy." Then the next verse,

athavā yoginām eva

kule bhavati dhīmatām

etad dhi durlabhataraṁ

loke janma yad īdṛśam

(BG 6.42)

"Or he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists, who are surely great in wisdom. Verily, such a birth is rare in this world."

tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogaṁ

labhate paurva-dehikam

yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ

saṁsiddhau kuru-nandana

(BG 6.43)

"On taking such a birth, he again revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he tries to make further progress in order to achieve complete success, O son of Kuru."