There is Only Success in Yoga...

Here, as in many other places throughout the Gita, Sri Krishna is referred to as Bhagavan. This is another of the Lord's innumerable names.

Bhagavan indicates that Krishna is the proprietor of six opulences: He possesses all beauty, all wealth, all power, all fame, all knowledge and all renunciation. Living entities partake of these opulences in finite degrees.

One may be famous in a family, in a town, in a country or on one planet, but no one is famous throughout the creation, as is Sri Krishna.

The leaders of the world may be famous for a few years only, but Lord Sri Krishna appeared five thousand years ago and is still being worshiped.

So one who possesses all six of these opulences in completeness is considered to be God. In Bhagavad-gita Krishna speaks to Arjuna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such it is to be understood that He has complete knowledge.

Bhagavad-gita was imparted to the sun-god and to Arjuna by Krishna, but nowhere is it mentioned that Bhagavad-gita was imparted to Krishna. Why? Complete knowledge means that He knows everything that is to be known. This is an attribute of God alone.

Being that Krishna knows everything, Arjuna is putting this question to Him about the fate of the unsuccessful yogi. There is no possibility for Arjuna to research the truth. He simply has to receive the truth from the complete source, and this is the system of disciplic succession.

Krishna is complete, and the knowledge that comes from Krishna is also complete. If Arjuna receives this complete knowledge and we receive it from Arjuna as it was spoken to him, then we also receive complete knowledge. And what is this knowledge?

"The Blessed Lord said: Son of Prtha, a transcendentalist engaged in auspicious activities does not meet with destruction either in this world or in the spiritual world; one who does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil." (Bg. 6.40)

Krishna indicates that the very striving for yoga perfection is a most auspicious attempt. When one attempts something so auspicious, he is never degraded.

Actually Arjuna is asking a very appropriate and intelligent question. It is not unusual for one to fall down from the platform of devotional service.

Sometimes a neophyte devotee does not keep the rules and regulations. Sometimes he yields to intoxication or is trapped by some feminine attractions. These are impediments on the path of yoga perfection. But Sri Krishna gives an encouraging answer, for He tells Arjuna that even if one sincerely cultivates only one-percent worth of spiritual knowledge, he will never fall down into the material whirlpool.

That is due to the sincerity of his effort.