Chapter 12. Devotional
Service
Chapter 12,
Verse 1.
 Arjuna
inquired: Which is considered to be more perfect, those who are properly
engaged in Your devotional service, or those who worship the impersonal
Brahman, the unmanifested?
Chapter 12,
Verse 2.
The Blessed
Lord said: He whose mind is fixed on My personal form, always engaged in
worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith, is considered by Me
to be most perfect.
Chapter 12,
Verse 3-4.
But those
who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception
of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed and immovable--the
impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth--by controlling the various
senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in
the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.
Chapter 12,
Verse 5.
For those
whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the
Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline
is always difficult for those who are embodied.
Chapter 12,
Verse 6-7.
For one
who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me and being devoted
to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating
upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Prtha, for him I am the
swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.
Chapter 12,
Verse 8.
Just
fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all
your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.
Chapter 12,
Verse 9.
My dear
Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without
deviation, then follow the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga. In this
way you will develop a desire to attain to Me.
Chapter 12,
Verse 10.
If you
cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for
Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage.
Chapter 12,
Verse 11.
If, however,
you are unable to work in this consciousness, then try to act giving up
all results of your work and try to be self-situated.
Chapter 12,
Verse 12.
If you
cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of
knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than
meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation
one can attain peace of mind.
Chapter
12, Verse 13-14.
One who
is not envious but who is a kind friend to all living entities, who does
not think himself a proprietor, who is free from false ego and equal both
in happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional
service with determination and whose mind and intelligence are in agreement
with Me--he is very dear to Me.
Chapter 12,
Verse 15.
He for
whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anxiety,
who is steady in happiness and distress, is very dear to Me.
Chapter 12,
Verse 16.
A devotee
who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure,
expert, without cares, free from all pains, and who does not strive for
some result, is very dear to Me.
Chapter 12,
Verse 17.
One who
neither grasps pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and
who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, is very dear to
Me.
Chapter
12, Verse 18-19.
One who
is equal to friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor and dishonor,
heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free
from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn't
care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional
service, is very dear to Me.
Chapter 12,
Verse 20.
He who
follows this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely
engages himself with faith, making Me the supreme goal, is very, very dear
to Me.
  
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