The Battle is Always Won

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q. What does it mean to fail in yoga? Who is a failure in yoga (yoga bhrashta)?

M. It is only a question of incompletion. He who could not complete his yoga for some reason is called failed in yoga. Such failure is temporary, for there can be no defeat in yoga. This battle is always won, for it is a battle between the true and the false. The false has no chance.

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Conversation between Krishna and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 6 (Dhyana Yoga)

ARJUNA ASKS,

What O Krishna, is the fate of a man who, though endowed with firm faith, is not steadfast in his practices owing to distractions, and therefore fails to reach spiritual perfection?

O mighty armed Lord! Bewildered in the path of Brahman, supportless, does he not lose this world and and the next? Does he not perish like a rain-cloud rent asunder?

THE BLESSED LORD SAID,

O son of Pritha, he does not meet with downfall either here in this world or in the hereafter. Know for certain, O dear one, that one who treads the path of virtue never goes to ruin (i.e., gets an inferior birth)

The fallen Yogi goes, after death, to the spheres of the righteous, and after having lived there for unnumbered years, is reborn in this world in a pure and prosperous family. 

Or he is reborn in a family of men full of wisdom and spirituality. Re-birth under such conditions is passing hard to get in this world.

There, O scion of the clan of Kurus, he will regain the spiritual discernment of his previous birth, and then he will strive harder than ever for perfection. 

Even if helpless, he will be driven towards the path of Yoga by the force of his previous striving. For even a beginner in the path of Yoga goes above the stage requiring the aid of Vedic ritualism, not to speak then of one who has made some progress in it.