Sanskrit
प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः । शुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे योगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते ॥
prāpya puṇyakṛtāṃ lokān uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ śucīnāṃ śrīmatāṃ gehe yogabhraṣṭo'bhijāyate
Translation
Having attained to the worlds of the pure-doing, and having dwelt there for immemorial years, he who fell from yoga is reborn in a pure and blessed house;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna now gives the mechanism behind verse 40’s reassurance: the one who fell from yoga first goes to the heavenly worlds earned by good deeds, then is reborn into favorable circumstances — a wealthy, virtuous household. Nothing about the effort is lost; it’s converted, not erased. The yoga-bhraṣṭa’s trajectory is a two-stage carry-forward: the puṇya earns a good interval, and the residual momentum places the next birth well. BG 6.43 names what actually survives the transfer.
Study deeper
Word by word
- prāpya puṇyakṛtāṃ lokānप्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकान्
- reaching the worlds of the righteous (prāpya + puṇya-kṛtām + lokān)
- uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥउषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः
- dwelling there for endless years (uṣitvā + śāśvatīḥ + samāḥ)
- śucīnāṃ śrīmatāṃ geheशुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे
- in the house of the pure and prosperous (śucīnām + śrīmatām + gehe)
- yogabhraṣṭo'bhijāyateयोगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते
- the one fallen from yoga is born (yoga-bhraṣṭaḥ + abhijāyate)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice that the reassurance doesn’t come with a rush — the text is unhurried enough to specify “immemorial years” spent in the heavenly worlds before anything like a next chapter even begins. Real reassurance here isn’t “this resolves quickly”; it’s “this resolves completely, on whatever timescale that actually takes,” which is a very different, more patient kind of comfort.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're anxious about unfinished effort, the deepest reassurance available usually isn't 'this gets fixed soon' — it's 'this isn't wasted, on whatever timeline it actually takes.' Let go of needing the payoff to be fast in order to trust that it's real.
Professional
- When reassuring a team about a long, unfinished initiative, resist promising a quick resolution just to comfort them — the more durable reassurance is that the work compounds and isn't lost, even if the payoff arrives on a much longer timeline than anyone would prefer.
Family & Social
- If you're comforting someone about a slow-healing situation — grief, an estrangement, a long recovery — don't oversell a fast timeline to make them feel better now. The truer comfort is that nothing sincere is wasted, even when it takes far longer than anyone wants.
Ask yourself
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