It is a great thing even to strive after God-vision. Our very attempt is the result of good karma acquired in a past life. Sri Krishna calls those who seek for freedom siddhas, which literally means the perfected ones. It is a ‘great attainment even to long after God.’ It means that we have entered the race.
But what do we find? ‘Among thousands of persons, scarcely one strives for perfection,’ says Sri Krishna. Who cares for Truth? We are more like animals. We live in the senses. We do not care for religion. We want health and prosperity and good times. But we do not care for God. Yes, compared with the ordinary man, those few who sincerely seek after Truth are perfect. They have abandoned their evil ways and entered the race and they must reach the goal sooner or later. It is a great thing to have made a beginning, to have turned our face towards that supreme Goal, which is Knowledge and the realization of God in all His fullness. Indeed, having attained that, nothing else remains worthy of attainment. The entire universe slinks away as if in shame when the beauty of the divine and lovable Mother of the Universe has been witnessed.
Who is worthy, who is deserving of this sublime treasure? Who can say from the bottom of his heart, ‘Yes, I deserve realization; I have renounced all there is to be renounced in exchange for God’? Very few indeed, but some there are. Those are the chosen ones. Chosen because they themselves choose. It is their own supreme effort that made them winners of the race. Never tired of training, never tired of labouring, they win the prize. ‘The disciple is not above his master; but everyone that is perfect, shall be as his master.’ That is the crown of success. ‘Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.’ Be free; know that you are one with God. Realize the highest Truth.
The strong will believe in their own strength. And thus they will run for the prize. The weak will trust in God, that He will give them the strength to run the race to a good end. For ‘through His grace the dumb becomes eloquent, the lame crosses the mountain,’ says the Meditation on the Gita. He, the Almighty, is always ready and willing to shelter those who ask for His protection.