Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 6, Verse 43
तत्र तं बुद्धिसंयोगं लभते पौर्वदेहिकम्।
यतते च ततो भूयः संसिद्धौ कुरुनन्दन।।
यतते च ततो भूयः संसिद्धौ कुरुनन्दन।।
tatra taṁ buddhi-sanyogaṁ labhate paurva-dehikam
yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ sansiddhau kuru-nandana
also searched as "tatra tam buddhi sanyogam labhate paurva dehikam"
Translation
There, O Arjuna, he regains the disposition of mind that he had in his former body, and from there he strives even more for success in Yoga.
Vāṇi's rendering
There the understanding of his former life returns to him, and he takes up the climb where he left it.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तत्रtatra | there — in that new birth |
| तम्taṁ | that very |
| बुद्धिसंयोगम्buddhi-saṁyogaṁ | reunion with the trained understanding; contact again with the mind he had shaped |
| लभतेlabhate | he receives, comes into |
| पौर्वदेहिकम्paurva-dehikam | belonging to the earlier body, earned in the former life |
| यततेyatate | he exerts himself, strives |
| चca | and |
| ततःtataḥ | from there, from that point |
| भूयःbhūyaḥ | further, more than before |
| संसिद्धौsaṁsiddhau | toward the complete accomplishment |
| कुरुनन्दनkuru-nandana | joy of the Kurus — Arjuna |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6 Verse 43 mean?
It means the effort you made at steadying the mind is not erased by death. In the next birth the same trained understanding returns to you, and you begin again from where you stopped rather than from nothing. Krishna adds that such a one strives harder than before — the gift is a starting point, not a finish.
What does tatra tam buddhi sanyogam labhate paurva dehikam teach about spiritual practice?
That practice accumulates in a place deeper than memory. You will not recall the sitting or the discipline, but the inclination survives — a native ease with quiet, an unexplained hunger for something beyond comfort. Krishna is telling Arjuna that no honest effort in this direction is ever wasted, however unfinished it looks.
Why does Krishna say the yogi strives even more in the new birth?
Because inheritance is not arrival. What returns is capacity, and capacity is a demand as much as a gift. The one who once tasted saṁsiddhau cannot settle for less again; the old momentum pushes him forward. Krishna will not let Arjuna imagine a rebirth in which effort becomes unnecessary.
Is this verse saying my meditation carries over to my next life?
Krishna says it plainly to Arjuna: the disposition earned in the former body is recovered. But do not use it as a reason to postpone. The verse consoles the one who tried and fell short; it offers nothing to the one who chose not to begin. Only what you actually practice can be inherited.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna asked whether the one who falls short is destroyed — a cloud torn in two, nothing left to show. Krishna answers with a ledger that does not close. The steadiness you built in one body meets you again in the next, not as memory but as aptitude: the ease some people have with stillness, the pull toward it they cannot explain. Nothing practiced is lost. It waits. And notice what Krishna says next — he strives more than before. The inheritance is not a resting place; it is a foothold. Whatever you practiced today is already waiting at the top of the stairs.