Bhakti Yoga

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Bhagavad Gita

 

XII. BHAKTI YOGA

 

ARJUNA SAID:

 

1. Those devotees who, always devout, thus contemplate Thee and those

also who (contemplate) the Imperishable, the Unmanifest - which of

them are better versed in Yoga?

 

THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

 

2. Those who, fixing their thought on Me, contemplate Me, always

devout, endued with supreme faith, those in my opinion are the best

Yogins.

 

3-4. Those who ever contemplate the Imperishable, the Indefinable,

the Unmanifest, the Omnipresent and the Unthinkable, the

Unchangeable, the Immutable, the Eternal - having restrained all the

senses, always equanimous, intent on the welfare of all beings - they

reach Myself.

 

5. Greater is their trouble whose thoughts are set on the Unmanifest;

for, the Goal, the Unmanifest, is very hard for the embodied to reach.

 

6-7. But those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me,

regarding Me Supreme, meditating on Me with exclusive devotion

(Yoga); for them whose thought is fixed on Me, I become ere long, O

son of Pritha, the deliverer out of the ocean of the mortal samsara.

 

8. Fix thy mind in Me exclusively, apply thy reason to Me. Thou shalt

no doubt live in Me alone hereafter.

 

9. If thou art unable to fix thy thought steadily on Me, then by yoga

of constant practice do thou seek to reach Me, O Dhananjaya.

 

10. (If) thou art not equal to practise either, then be thou intent

on (doing) actions for My sake. Even doing actions for My sake, thou

shalt attain perfection.

 

11. If thou art unable to do even this, then refuged in devotion to

Me, do thou abandon the fruits of all actions, self controlled.

 

12. Better indeed is knowledge than practice; than knowledge is

meditation more esteemed; than meditation the abandonment of the

fruits of actions; on abandonment, peace follows immediately.

 

13-14. He who hates no single being, who is friendly and

compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, to whom

pain and pleasure are equal, who is enduring, ever content and

balanced in mind, self-controlled and possessed of firm conviction,

whose thought and reason are directed to Me, he who is (thus) devoted

to Me is dear to Me.

 

15. He by whom the world is not afflicted and who is not afflicted by

the world, who is free from joy, envy, fear and sorrow, he is dear to

Me.

 

16. He who is free from wants, who is pure, clever, unconcerned,

untroubled, renouncing all undertakings, he who is (thus) devoted to

Me is dear to Me.

 

17. He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires,

renouncing good and evil, he who is full of devotion is dear to Me.

 

18-19. He who is the same to foe and friend and also in honour and

dishonour; who is the same in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain;

who is free from attachment; to whom censure and praise are equal;

who is silent, content with anything, homeless, steady-minded, full

of devotion; that man is dear to me.

 

20. They, verily, who follow this immortal Law described above,

endued with faith, looking up to me as the Supreme and devoted, they

are exceedingly dear to Me.