Bhagavad Gita 6.45
प्रयत्नाद्यतमानस्तु योगी संशुद्धकिल्बिषः | अनेकजन्मसंसिद्धस्ततो याति परां गतिम् ||
prayatnād yatamānas tu yogī saṁśuddha-kilbiṣaḥ | aneka-janma-saṁsiddhas tato yāti parāṁ gatim ||
Translation
But the devotee working with great efforts, and cleansed of his sins, attains perfection after many births, and then reaches the supreme goal.
Reflection
What would change in today's effort if you knew the full work would not be completed in this lifetime alone?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Six
The picture extends across more than a single life. The yogi who works with diligence, who is washed clean of the old marks, comes to completion only after many births. Then he reaches the highest place. The chapter is making peace with how long the road is. It is not promising that a single intense season of practice will finish the work. It is promising that the work is finished, eventually, by the man who keeps at it. The arithmetic of one lifetime is not the arithmetic of the path. What is left undone here is taken up there. What is purified there ripens further in the life after.