VII: 19

Chapter 7, Verse 19

"At the end of many lives,
The wise unite with me,
Thinking, 'Krishna is all there is.'
Great souls like this are rare."

Father Bede Griffiths:

There are different words for these great souls in India.  Gandhi was called Mahatma, the great soul. Aurobindo was Mahayogi, the great yogi.  Yogananda was Paramahansa, the supreme swan who takes flight to the Infinite.  Each is subtly different, and the people are astute in the way they discern the different spiritual characteristics.

Sri Aurobindo:

These knowers, says Krishna in the Gita, are my very Self.  Theirs is the divine birth in the supreme nature.  In them the Jiva's existence is justified, because it has exceeded itself and so found its completion and highest truth of Being.

Srila Prabhupada:

There comes a point when devotees become attached to Krishna and surrender to him.  At such a time, they understand that Krishna's mercy is everything, that he is the cause of all causes and that this material manifestation is not independent from him.  Such surrendered souls are very rare.

A friend:

Experience is the best teacher.  It's called the school of hard knocks.  It takes a long time, "after many births," as Krishna says in this verse.  I can't think myself into that state of dispassion.  It takes more than thought.  It takes doing something and feeling the result of doing it.  Then I think about it, but the thought is only analysis and doesn't change me to the core.  What changes me is action and feeling, which run on their own energy below the level of thought.  Prabhupad used to call thinking, "hovering on the mental platform."  The Rosicrucians used to say, though, that "thoughts have wings."  To some extent a thought is an act and can have consequences in the world on a mental level, but the final test is on the level of action and feeling. 

[The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  Thoughts have power when they help a person make positive changes on the path.]