At any given moment our bank balance is the balance to our credit shown in our ‘statement of account.’ No banker can give us more, nor can he cheat us with a smaller amount. Almost in the same fashion, in the cultural growth of a given mind and intellect, no god can either take away any or give some more, but can only hand over to each one of us his own exact “balance.” Each birth has a logical continuity with its own past, as strictly as we experience in day-to-day life. Today is but an extension of yesterday. With the full understanding of this law of life in our mind, if we are to re-read the stanza, its suggestions become quite clear automatically, without any strain.

An individual who has been in Yoga in his past life, will be, “BY THAT VERY FORMER PRACTICE, BORNE ON IN SPITE OF HIMSELF.” This is true even in our life here. An educated man will, IN SPITE OF HIMSELF, be carried away in his behaviour and conversation to exhibit his cultivated mental and disciplined physical habits. No cultured man can successfully imitate the idiot for a long time; so too, no rascal can act the part of the noble-born for any length of time. Both will, sooner or later, be compelled, IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES, to exhibit unconsciously their true nature through their words, ideas, and actions.

Similarly, a man who had in the past lived the life of self-control, study, and practice gathers unto himself those cultural traits and he, in this life, IN SPITE OF HIMSELF and in spite of all his adverse circumstances, environments and conditions of life, cannot but instinctively come to exhibit — in his attitudes to life, and in his behaviour towards the things and beings in the world — a tranquillity and a balance, which are a surprise even to himself.

This is no mere theory. The truth of the statement is amply evident everywhere in any society, in all strata of its life, in all its professions and in all departments of its activities. Each one of us has an instinctive bent of mind, and we are irresistibly drawn towards it, IN SPITE OF OURSELVES. This pull is most powerful when arising from our essential evolutionary tendencies. Even a bandit chieftain can, overnight, turn himself to be a determined seeker and, ere long, become a great poet of the land, as Valmiki did in the past. Hundreds of such examples could be noted from our recent history and even amidst us today. In all those cases, the only satisfactory explanation will be that the individual mind-and-intellect was expressing through its given physical structure its own characteristic tendencies, which it had acquired by itself in its past incarnations, through its own willful actions and deliberate motives.

When an individual, who was a fallen Yogi in the past, is reborn, “IN SPITE OF HIMSELF” he is drawn towards a life of meditation and quietude, of seeking and striving, of self-control and discipline. Let him be put on the throne of a kingdom, or in the bustle of a market-place, or in the ignominy of the gutters, he cannot but express his nobility of heart and the philosophical bent of his mind. All the wealth in the world brought under command, unquestioned might and power gained, love and respect given… yet he cannot be dissuaded from his Path Divine. If the whole world stands surprised at his peculiar tendencies, he himself is one of those who are gazing on with the wildest surprise, with the utmost amazement!! “BY THAT PREVIOUS PRACTICE ALONE IS HE BORNE ON IN SPITE OF HIMSELF.”

After observing this philosophical truth, Lord Krishna is naturally tempted to express the glory of meditation (Yoga). He says “ONE WHO HAS EVEN THE WISH TO KNOW CONTROL (YOGA), HE PASSES BEYOND THE VEDIC RITUAL.” According to Shankara, the term “Shabda-brahman” used here denotes “the words in the Veda,” wherein the term Veda indicates only the “ritualistic portion.” Therefore, the Acharya, commenting upon this portion, says that such an individual goes beyond all the charms for the promised fruits of the Vedic rituals. This may rightly be considered as too laboured a commentary, although its implications are only too true. One who has warped his mind in the practice of self-control, study, and meditation in the past, could not have any more fascination for the material wealth or the sensuous life, however celestial they might be. Even if this interpretation fits in with the context, we must admit that it has been laboriously stretched by the teacher of the Advaita-philosophy.

HOW IS THE PATH OF MEDITATION NOBLER THAN ALL OTHERS? LISTEN:

Hi, for; tena eva, by that very; purva-abhyasena, past practice-the powerful habit formed in the past life; hiryate, he, the yogi who had fallen from Yoga, is carried forward; avasah api, even inspite of himself. If he had not committed any act which could be characterized as unrigtheous etc. and more powerful than the tendency created by the practice of Yoga, then he is carried forward by the tendency created by the practice of Yoga. If he had committed any unrighteous act which was more powerful, then, even the tendency born of Yoga gets surely overpowered. But when that is exhausted, the tendency born of Yoga begins to take effect by itself. The idea is that it does not get destroyed, even though it may lie in abeyance over a long period. Jijnasuh api, even a seeker; yogasya, of Yoga from the force of the context, the person implied is a monk who had engaged in the path of Yoga with a desire to known his true nature, but had falled from Yoga-; ;even he, ativartate, trascends-will free himself from; sabda-brahma, the result of the performance of Vedic ritual. What to speak of him who after understanding Yoga, may undertake it with steadfastness! And why is the state of Yoga higher?