12.2 The answer, without hedging Krishna speaks

मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते
श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः

mayy āveśhya mano ye māṁ nitya-yuktā upāsate
śhraddhayā parayopetās te me yuktatamā matāḥ

Those who fix their minds on me and worship me, always steady, with the highest faith — I hold them to be the best joined.

Explanation

Those who fix their minds on him are the best joined.

The answer arrives immediately and without hedging, which is unusual in this book — chapter 3 spent forty verses declining to rank action against knowledge.

But hold the next three verses against this one before concluding anything. The preference is real, and it turns out to be a preference about difficulty rather than about truth.

Word by word

śhrī-bhagavān uvācha: the Blessed Lord said
mayi: on me
āveśhya: fix
manaḥ: the mind
ye: those
mām: me
nitya yuktāḥ: always engaged
upāsate: worship
śhraddhayā: with faith
parayā: best
upetāḥ: endowed
te: they
me: by me
yukta-tamāḥ: situated highest in Yog
matāḥ: I consider