Sanskrit
अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम् । एतद्धि दुर्लभतरं लोके जन्म यदीदृशम् ॥
athavā yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām etaddhi durlabhataraṃ loke janma yad īdṛśam
Translation
Or he may even be born into a family of wise Yogis; but such a birth as that is most difficult to obtain in this world.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This gives the second, better outcome — birth directly into a family of accomplished yogis — while flagging that this is the rarer of the two options Krishna names. Verse 43 explains why either birth is valuable: what it actually preserves from the previous effort. Durlabhatara — “harder to get” — marks the yogi-family birth as the premium track: it skips the detour through puṇya worlds and drops the practitioner straight back among people who can help.
Study deeper
Word by word
- athavā yoginām eva kuleअथवा योगिनां एव कुले
- or else in the family of yogins (athavā + yoginām + eva + kule)
- bhavati dhīmatāmभवति धीमतां
- he comes to be, [a family] of the wise (bhavati + dhīmatām)
- etaddhi durlabhataraṃ loke janmaएतद्धि दुर्लभतरं लोके जन्म
- this, indeed, is rarer in the world (etat + hi + durlabhataram + loke)
- yad īdṛśamयद् ईदृशं
- a birth such as this (janma + yat + īdṛśam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna could have simply promised the better of the two outcomes and left it at that — instead he names the harder-to-obtain option as exactly that, rare, even while still offering it as real. Reassurance and honesty about difficulty aren’t presented as being in tension here; the verse manages to promise a good outcome without inflating how easily it comes.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you set yourself a stretch goal, it's fine to name honestly that the best outcome is the rarer one, rather than promising yourself an easy version to feel better now — realistic reassurance holds up better under pressure than an inflated one.
Professional
- When setting expectations with your team about a stretch outcome, name both the good result and the harder, rarer one honestly rather than promising the easy version — credibility survives setbacks better when the difficulty was acknowledged up front.
Family & Social
- When reassuring someone close to you about a hoped-for outcome, it's okay to be honest that the best version is the harder one to reach — honest reassurance that names the real odds tends to be trusted more than a comforting overstatement.
Ask yourself
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