Bhagavad Gita · 12.2 · The Yoga of Devotion·2 of 20
श्री भगवानुवाचमय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते।श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः ॥
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha mayy āveśhya mano ye māṁ
nitya-yuktā upāsate śhraddhayā parayopetās te me yuktatamā matāḥ
Sanskrit recitation
Many paths, one devotion · 12.1–12.12 · Teaching
Translation
The Blessed Lord said, "In My opinion, those who fix their minds on Me, worship Me ever steadfastly, and are endowed with supreme faith, are the best in Yoga."
Meaning
Those devotees who fix their minds on Me in the Cosmi Form, the Supreme Lord and worship Me, ever harmonised and with intense and supreme faith, regarding Me as the Lord of all the masters of Yoga, who are free from attachment and other evil passions -- these, in My opinion, are the best versed in Yoga.They spend their days and nights in worshipping Me. They have no other thoughts except those,of Myself. They live for Me only. Therefore it is indeed proper to say that they are the best Yogins.Are not the others, those who contemplate the imperishable, formless, attributeless, alityless Supreme Brahman, the best of Yogins Listen now to what I have to say regarding them.
After Swami Sivananda
Many paths, one devotion· 12.1–12.12→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 12.1Arjuna said, "Which of them are better versed in Yoga—those who steadfastly worship You, or those who worship the imperishable and the unmanifested?"
12.2The Blessed Lord said, "In My opinion, those who fix their minds on Me, worship Me ever steadfastly, and are endowed with supreme faith, are the best in Yoga."
- 12.3Those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifest, the omnipresent, the unthinkable, the immovable, and the eternal.
- 12.4Having restrained all the senses, being even-minded everywhere, and intent on the welfare of all beings, they verily come unto Me.
- 12.5Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the unmanifested, for the goal of the unmanifested is very hard for the embodied to reach.
- 12.6But to those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the supreme goal, meditating on Me with single-minded yoga.
- 12.7To those whose minds are set on Me, O Arjuna, verily I soon become the savior out of the ocean of Samsara.
- 12.8Fix your mind on Me, and your intellect in Me. Then you will certainly live in Me alone hereafter.
- 12.9If you are unable to fix your mind steadily on Me, then seek to reach Me through the yoga of constant practice, O Arjuna.
- 12.10If you are unable to practice even this Abhyasa Yoga, be intent on doing actions for My sake; even by doing actions for My sake, you will attain perfection.
- 12.11If you are unable to do even this, then, resort to union with Me and renounce the fruits of all actions with self-control.
- 12.12Better indeed is knowledge than practice; better than knowledge is meditation; better than meditation is the renunciation of the fruits of actions: peace immediately follows renunciation.
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
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