Chapter 12 of 18
भक्तियोग Bhakti Yoga Devotion
20 verses
Devotion is offered as the reachable path, and the chapter is careful to say that a lesser version of it, honestly done, still counts.
Chapter 11 showed Arjuna the cosmic form and left him unable to look at it. Chapter 12 opens with the question that follows from being shown something like that and then told to worship a person: which is it — the God who can be addressed, or the formless absolute that cannot?
Krishna answers straight, which he rarely does, and then spends four verses making sure the answer is not misread. Both ways arrive. One is simply harder.
Then comes the part that makes this chapter unlike the others. Having stated the practice at its highest, Krishna supposes the reader unable to do it, and offers something less — and when that is also too much, something less again, four times over, until what is being asked is almost nothing. The chapter closes on eight verses describing who is dear to him, and not one of them mentions ritual or belief.
एवं सततयुक्ता ये भक्तास्त्वां पर्युपासते
येचाप्यक्षरमव्यक्तं तेषां के योगवित्तमाः
evaṁ satata-yuktā ye bhaktās tvāṁ paryupāsate
ye chāpy akṣharam avyaktaṁ teṣhāṁ ke yoga-vittamāḥ
Those devoted who worship you, steadfast and constant, and those who worship the imperishable and unmanifest — which of them know better?
Arjuna asks the question the last chapter forced.
He has just seen the cosmic form and been told to worship a person. So which is it — the God with a face who can be addressed, or the akṣara, the imperishable and unmanifest, that has no face at all?
Note that he does not ask which is true. He asks which of the two kinds of worshipper knows better. It is a question about practice, and that is what gets answered.
Word by wordarjunaḥ uvācha — Arjun said · evam — thus · satata — steadfastly · yuktāḥ — devoted · ye — those · bhaktāḥ — devotees · tvām — you · paryupāsate — worship · ye — those · cha — and · api — also · akṣharam — the imperishable · avyaktam — the formless Brahman · teṣhām — of them · ke — who · yoga-vit-tamāḥ — more perfect in Yog
Chapter 12 · Devotion · ← → to move, d for depth
All 20 verses
The Blessed One said
- 12.2 मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते The answer, without hedging
- 12.3 ये त्वक्षरमनिर्देश्यमव्यक्तं पर्युपासते Eight words for the formless
- 12.4 संनियम्येन्द्रियग्रामं सर्वत्र समबुद्धयः They too arrive
- 12.5 क्लेशोऽधिकतरस्तेषामव्यक्तासक्तचेतसाम् Harder, not lesser
- 12.6 ये तु सर्वाणि कर्माणि मयि संन्यस्य मत्पराः Handing the actions over
- 12.7 तेषामहं समुद्धर्ता मृत्युसंसारसागरात् Lifted out, and soon
- 12.8 मय्येव मन आधत्स्व मयि बुद्धिं निवेशय Fix your mind here
- 12.9 अथ चित्तं समाधातुं न शक्नोषि मयि स्थिरम् And if you cannot
- 12.10 अभ्यासेऽप्यसमर्थोऽसि मत्कर्मपरमो भव Then work for my sake
- 12.11 अथैतदप्यशक्तोऽसि कर्तुं मद्योगमाश्रितः And if not even that
- 12.12 श्रेयो हि ज्ञानमभ्यासाज्ज्ञानाद्ध्यानं विशिष्यते The ranking, reversed at the end
- 12.13 अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च It begins with not hating
- 12.14 सन्तुष्टः सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चयः Content, and given over
- 12.15 यस्मान्नोद्विजते लोको लोकान्नोद्विजते च यः Undisturbing and undisturbed
- 12.16 अनपेक्षः शुचिर्दक्ष उदासीनो गतव्यथः Expecting nothing
- 12.17 यो न हृष्यति न द्वेष्टि न शोचति न काङ्क्षति Neither exulting nor grieving
- 12.18 समः शत्रौ च मित्रे च तथा मानापमानयोः The same to enemy and friend
- 12.19 तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनी सन्तुष्टो येनकेनचित् Content with whatever comes
- 12.20 ये तु धर्म्यामृतमिदं यथोक्तं पर्युपासते Very dear to me
Where this sits
Chapter 12 against the whole of it: who is speaking, verse by verse, and how much of the book this chapter is.
The argument so far
- Chapter 1 Arjuna's nerve fails on the field, and the question that opens the book is not a spiritual one but a practical one he cannot answer.
- Chapter 2 The first answer is that Arjuna is not the body he is afraid of losing, and that grief for what cannot die is grief misplaced.
- Chapter 3 Withdrawing from action is not available to anyone alive; what is available is acting without gripping the result.
- Chapter 4 Action, knowledge and Krishna himself all have a deeper structure than they appear to, and knowing it is what makes action free.
- Chapter 5 What has to be renounced is attachment rather than activity — the leaf in water, unwetted.
- Chapter 6 The mind is trained the way anything is trained, by returning to the practice on the days it does not work.
- Chapter 7 Behind both matter and awareness there is one reality, and everything else is a thread strung on it.
- Chapter 8 Everything that appears is temporary; the work of yoga is to train attention toward the one thing that is not.
- Chapter 9 The highest knowledge turns out to ask for the simplest thing: what is offered matters less than the attention it is offered with.
- Chapter 10 Wherever something is most fully itself, the Divine is most visible in it — a list of glories given because the whole cannot be listed.
- Chapter 11 Arjuna asks to see it and cannot bear what he sees, which is the book's reply to anyone who wants the vision rather than the practice.