यतन्तो योगिनश्चैनं पश्यन्त्यात्मन्यवस्थितम्।यतन्तोऽप्यकृतात्मानो नैनं पश्यन्त्यचेतसः॥
yatanto yoginaś cainaṃ paśyanty ātmany avasthitamyatanto ‘py akṛtātmāno nainaṃ paśyanty acetasaḥ
Word by word
The verse says
Those who practise, and who keep at it, see him seated in themselves. Those who have not done the inner work do not see him, however hard they try.
In plain words
This one is honest in a way that stings a little.
Both groups try. The word for striving is used about both of them. Effort is not what separates them.
The difference is akṛtātman - the self that has not been worked on yet. You can want it badly, look in the right place, and still not see, because the instrument you are looking with has not been cleaned.
Where you've felt this · in sport
Two boys start learning to swim in the same month. One gets in the water four mornings a week. The other reads about swimming, watches other people swim, and gets in on Sundays with enormous determination. After a year the second boy is still determined and still cannot swim a length. He was never lazy. He was doing the wrong amount of the right thing.
Going deeper
Effort and readiness are different things, and mixing them up is why sincere people give up.
This says plainly that some who try do not see. That is not a threat. It is how any skill works. A person who has slept badly, eaten badly and not sat still in a month can want calm with their whole heart and not get it. Wanting is not the instrument.
Akṛtātman means one whose inner life has not been worked on. Not wicked - unworked. The word is almost gentle. It names a stage, not a verdict.
So if this is not landing for you yet, you have already been told what that means and what it does not. It does not mean you are shut out. It means the order is fixed: the work on yourself comes first and the seeing comes after, and no amount of straining swaps them round.