Bhagavad Gita 7.3

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

 

Among thousands, rare is one who strives,

For the perfection true yoga gives.

Among the perfected, rarer still is he

Who truly knows me and thus is free.

 

My dear Lord, it is so easy to be captivated by the world’s seductiveness. Through a mysterious combination of factors, a few souls are able to see beyond gross material illusions. O Lord, you have mercifully put me on the path to becoming one such soul by granting me access to the potent path of bhakti-yoga.

Even among these special souls, my Lord, most get caught in the mystic powers that come as a fringe benefit on the spiritual journey. They turn back to the material world to lord over it using these powers, believing that now they can enjoy the pleasures that had previously eluded them. Others get fascinated by the endless ocean of divine light that is your spiritual effulgence.

Rare indeed, O almighty Lord, are the few spiritual survivors who persevere beyond both the subtle material distraction and the non-personal spiritual distraction. They alone get to relish you in your ultimate, unparalleled glory—as the disarmingly sweet personal divinity, the loving benefactor of all that exists, the Lord that every heart wants to love.

Please, O all-attractive Lord, bless me to savor you as the supreme reality and love for you as my highest destiny.

***

07.03 Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.