Devanagari
जन्मौषधितपोमन्त्रैर्यावतीरिह सिद्धय: ।
योगेनाप्नोति ता: सर्वा नान्यैर्योगगतिं व्रजेत् ॥ ३४ ॥
Verse text
janmauṣadhi-tapo-mantrair
yāvatīr iha siddhayaḥ
yogenāpnoti tāḥ sarvā
nānyair yoga-gatiṁ vrajet
Synonyms
janma
—
by birth
;
auṣadhi
—
herbs
;
tapaḥ
—
austerities
;
mantraiḥ
—
and by mantras
;
yāvatīḥ
—
as many as there are
;
iha
—
in this world
;
siddhayaḥ
—
perfections
;
yogena
—
by devotional service to Me
;
āpnoti
—
one obtains
;
tāḥ
—
those
;
sarvāḥ
—
all of them
;
na
—
not
;
anyaiḥ
—
by other methods
;
yoga
—
gatim — the actual perfection of yoga
;
vrajet
—
one can achieve .
Translation
Whatever mystic perfections can be achieved by good birth, herbs, austerities and mantras can all be achieved by devotional service to Me; indeed, one cannot achieve the actual perfection of yoga by any other means.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Whatever siddhis can be achieved by good birth, herbs, austerities and mantras can all be achieved by yoga as described above. One cannot achieve liberation by any other means.
Some siddhis arise from birth. For instance, the devatās have powers by being born as devatās, or fish are not affected by water by their birth in that body. Similarly birds by their birth can fly in the air. Ghosts can enter others’ bodies and disappear. The Yoga-sūtra says janmauṣadhi-tapo-mantra-yoga-jāḥ siddhayaḥ: siddhis are from birth, medicine, austerity, mantra and yoga. All of these siddhis are also attained by yoga. One cannot attain liberation such as attaining my planet by other means.
Purport
By taking birth as a demigod one is automatically endowed with many mystic perfections. Simply by birth on Siddhaloka one automatically acquires all of the eight principal perfections of
yoga.
Similarly, by birth as a fish one becomes invulnerable to water, by birth as a bird one gets the mystic perfection of flying, and by birth as a ghost one gets the mystic perfection of disappearing and entering into the bodies of others. Pataṣjali Muni states that the mystic perfections of
yoga
can be achieved by birth, herbs, austerities and
mantras.
The Lord states, however, that such perfections are ultimately a waste of time and an impediment to achieving the actual perfection of
yoga,
Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Those who give up the process of
bhakti-yoga
and shop around for other objects of meditation besides Kṛṣṇa are certainly not very intelligent. Those who claim to be
yogīs
but pursue the satisfaction of their own senses are certainly
kuyogīs,
or
bhogi-yogīs.
Such
kuyogīs
cannot understand that just as they have tiny senses, the Absolute Truth has absolute senses, nor can they understand that
yoga
is actually meant to satisfy the absolute senses of the Lord. Therefore, persons who give up the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa in order to pursue so-called happiness in mystic perfection will undoubtedly be frustrated in their attempt. By meditating exclusively on the Supreme Personality of Godhead one can achieve
yoga-gati,
the ultimate goal of
yoga,
which means living on Lord Kṛṣṇa’s planet and there enjoying spiritual opulences.