Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 37 (BG 6.37) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

At this point, Vyasa places through Arjuna's lips a most fitting question, which grants the Lord another opportunity to illuminate the great optimistic wisdom of Vedanta. No practitioner who walks the divine path of yoga is ever destroyed. Whatever attainment or success one has gained becomes a treasure that remains with them in both this world and the next. In the endless chain of countless yesterdays that have passed, each today becomes a link. Thus this chain continues to grow perpetually. Among the countless events in the span of a being's existence, death too is merely one event, and the coming tomorrow will be neither a chance occurrence nor an undetermined beginning. The past, influenced and transformed by the thoughts and efforts of the present, manifests as the future. Arjuna's carefully posed question to the Lord is somewhat unclear: What is the fate of one who practices yoga with complete faith but does not attain perfect self-mastery during their lifetime, or whose mind wavers from yoga due to insufficient effort? In other words, by renouncing enjoyment in yogic practice, they will not gain the pleasure of worldly objects, and similarly, by failing to succeed in yoga, they will not attain yoga's infinite bliss. Although Vedantists condemn a life of mere sensory indulgence, they never deny that there is fleeting pleasure in worldly objects. But according to their view, the joy of worldly experience is itself a fragment or reflection of Brahman's bliss. Arjuna fears that in following the yoga taught by Sri Krishna, a person might be deprived of both the meager pleasure of worldly objects and the infinite bliss of Brahman. Such a yogi will deliberately protect themselves from the temptations of worldly objects. But if the thread of life of that yogi engaged in practice is cut by the scissors of uncertain time, they will lose the opportunity to attain Brahman's bliss, which the Gita prescribes as life's goal. Or perhaps the yogi's mind might become distracted for some reason. Success in yoga is indeed a great victory, the supreme attainment. But if the practitioner is struck down by the club of invisible desire, they will gain neither the happiness of this world nor the next. Therefore, Arjuna wishes to know the fate of such a practitioner. The faith mentioned in this verse should not be understood as blind belief. Faith is that capacity of intellect through which one can understand the meaning of the scriptures and the teacher's teachings and recognize the truth. Faith is that powerful force of devotion that wells up in the heart from the intellect's conviction—a force that can move mountains and bring heaven down to earth. To further clarify the portrait of one fallen from yoga, Arjuna continues: