12.13 It begins with not hating Krishna speaks
अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी
adveṣhṭā sarva-bhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva cha
nirmamo nirahankāraḥ sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣhamī
Without hatred toward any being, friendly and compassionate, free of “mine” and of “I”, the same in pain and pleasure, patient;
Explanation
The portrait begins, and not with devotion.
Eight verses now describe who is dear to him, and the first qualification is the absence of hatred toward any being — then friendliness, then compassion, then freedom from mine and I.
For a chapter named for devotion, the list is startlingly lateral. What it measures is not the intensity of anyone's feeling toward God but how they are with everything else.
Going further
Word by word
- adveṣhṭā
- free from malice
- sarva-bhūtānām
- toward all living beings
- maitraḥ
- friendly
- karuṇaḥ
- compassionate
- eva
- indeed
- cha
- and
- nirmamaḥ
- free from attachment to possession
- nirahankāraḥ
- free from egoism
- sama
- equipoised
- duḥkha
- distress
- sukhaḥ
- happiness
- kṣhamī
- forgiving
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The list of what makes someone dear begins with adveṣhṭā sarva-bhūtānām — without hatred toward any being.
Not devotion, not faith, not knowledge. The first qualification is the absence of hatred, and the second is friendliness. For a chapter titled Devotion, the criteria turn out to be almost entirely about how one is with others.