Geeta slokas 12.3, 12.4

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In the second sloka, God states "maayya-veshya-mano ye maam" -- fix your mind on Me; further, "nitya-yukta upaasate" worship Me, steadfast and balanced at all times and "shraddhaya paryopetaa" - submit totally to Me.

 

So what happens to those who worship an unmanifest form?

 

"Ye Tva-aksharam-anirdeshyam-avyaktam paryupaasate

Sarvatra-gam chintyam cha kutastham achala-dhruvam (12.3)

But those who elaborately worship the Impershiable, the Ineffable, the Unmanifest, the Omnipresent, the Imponderable, the Immutable, the Immobile, the Unwavering'

 

"Saneeyam-yendriya-graamam sarvatra samabuddhaya:

te praapnu-vanti maam-eva sarva-bhuta hite rathaha" (12.4)

'Controlling all sense organs fully, with the cognition of sameness at all times, devoted to the welfare of all beings, they attain Me, indeed'

 

"kleshodhikta-raste-shaam-avyakta-sakta-chetsaam

avyakta hi gatir-dukham-dehavad-bhir-vaapyate" (12.5)

'Their toil is harder, their minds being set on the Unmanifest; embodied beings find it hard to tread the path of the Unmanifest'.

 

The struggle for those who worship God in the abstract is therefore harder because the path ahead is not visible and it is difficult to travel by a path that one cannot see. However, these devotees also reach Him, provided they devote themselves to Him, adore Him, remain even-minded at all times, and are interested in the good of all. In these slokas therefore Lord Krishna makes it clear that for us human beings who identify ourselves with the body, the way of bhakti in which we worship a personal form of the Lord, is the easier way; we can lovingly look upon the face of the Lord and try to fix our minds on Him.

 

Om Namo Narayanaya.

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