Upanishads · Yogakuṇḍalinī 2.6
॥
Devanāgarī
अभ्यासं लभते ब्रह्मञ्जन्मजन्मान्तरे क्वचित् । मेलनं तु जन्मनां शतान्तेऽपि न लभ्यते
Transliteration (IAST)
abhyāsaṃ labhate brahmañjanmajanmāntare kvacit | melanaṃ tu janmanāṃ śatānte'pi na labhyate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अभ्यासं लभते ब्रह्मन्abhyāsaṃ labhate brahmanpractice one obtains, O brahmin
जन्म-जन्म-अन्तरे क्वचित्janma-janma-antare kvacitin this or that rebirth, at times
मेलनं तु जन्मनां शत-अन्तेmelanaṃ tu janmanāṃ śata-antemeeting, however, even at the end of a hundred births
अपि न लभ्यतेapi na labhyateis not attained
Translation
"Practice one obtains, O brahmin, in this or that rebirth, at times; but meeting is not attained even at the end of a hundred births".
Version
f1e95def04a4 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The distinction is pushed to its limit: practice is obtained sooner or later, but a meeting is not obtained even after a hundred births. Worth noting is the structure of the thought. Practice is subject to man: he willed it, took it up, repeated it. A meeting is not subject to him: however long he lives, he can fail to get it.
This is, in essence, the distinction between what is earned and what is given; and this distinction is central in Vaishnava books. The Vaishnava side holds it strictly and calls both sides by their own names: sadhana, "means, what a man does," and kripa, "mercy." And her firm rule is: sadhana does not produce kripa. It prepares; He gives.
Hence the whole dispute about merit, in her books, is settled more simply than is commonly supposed. Merit does not buy: there is no relation of purchase between zeal and the gift. But without zeal there is no gift either — not because it is bought, but because the unready would not hold it.
The image usually given here deserves mention. A farmer plows, sows, and waits; he does not produce the rain. But rain is useless to one who did not plow, and one who plowed without rain will grow nothing. And one cannot call his labor useless, nor ascribe the harvest to him alone.
Separately, a word must be said about shata-ante, "at the end of a hundred." The number a hundred in these books, as noted when reading Tripuratapini (4), means not a count but fullness: "even after a hundred births" means "however many pass."