The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ chapter six
he maintains that it can be done through regular practice if
one has detachment. It is interesting that he does not offer to
help Arjuna here; that will come later. For now, he tells Arjuna
that he must do it for himself, through hard work and detachment
from private, personal motives.
Then Arjuna asks a rather surprising question: what happens
to the person who believes in a spiritual goal but does
not pursue it to the end? What if one of his more powerful
compulsive desires gets the better of him, scattering his resolution
the way a cloud is scattered by the wind? Either Arjuna
is not prepared to seek Self-realization or he is afraid that
somehow he might fail if he tried. If he were to fail, he asks,
would he have lost everything – all that he had given up in
worldly life as well as his goal of self-fulfillment?
Affectionately, Krishna assures Arjuna that no attempt
to improve his spiritual condition could be a wasted effort.
Even looking ahead to the next life, he has nothing to lose and
everything to gain. He will be reborn in a household suitable
for taking up his quest where he left off. In his next life, he will
feel drawn to the spiritual goal once again, and he will have a
head start.
– d.m.
╭ 138