Chapter 6Verse 42 of 47

Bhagavad Gita 6.42

अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम् | एतद्धि दुर्लभतरं लोके जन्म यदीदृशम् ||

athavā yoginām eva kule bhavati dhī-matām | etad dhi durlabha-taraṁ loke janma yad īdṛśam ||

Translation

Or he is even born in the family of talented devotees. But such a birth as this is more difficult to obtain in this world.

An alternative is offered, and the verse marks it as the rarer of the two. The yogi who has slipped may be born straight into a family of practitioners who are themselves intelligent in this work. This is the more difficult birth to obtain. The reason it is rarer is not stated but is easy to see. The first birth, into a clean prosperous household, still leaves the work of finding the path again. The second birth lands the man inside the path on the day he is born. The training is in the air of the house. He does not have to discover it. He inherits it.

Reflection

Whose company in your present life acts the way that family in the verse would, holding you inside the practice?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six

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