Bhagavad Gītā – Chapter 12 Notes

 

Arjuna begins by asking which is better, to approach God as a personal Being (i.e. as a devotee of Bhakti Yoga)), or as the formless, attributeless Brahman (i.e. as a devotee of J¤ana Yoga).

 

Krishna recommends Bhakti Yoga because it is easier.  Also those who meditate constantly on Krishna will find that he helps them in their efforts, and will deliver them from the cycle of samsara – the birth-death cycle (12.2-7).  He suggests a range of methods of Bhakti Yoga, depending on ability (12.8-12).  He describes the proper practice of Bhakti Yoga, and the qualities, attitudes and austerities that the Bhakti Yogi should cultivate (12.13-20):

The Bhakti Yogi is free from attachment and egotism, is dispassionate yet friendly (12.13), has a mind fixed on God (12.14), yet does not shrink from the world (12.15), looks in the same way on friend and enemy, honour and disgrace, heat and cold, pleasure and pain (12.18).  Most of all, the Bhakti Yogi is full of devotion (12.14,16,17,19,20).

Barbara Powell writes (Windows into the Infinite, page 66: “Some consider this simple teaching the most sublime aspect of the Gita, for Bhakti Yoga offers a kind of “short-cut” to enlightenment.  It is the easiest of all yogas, yet it is as effective as rigorous meditation and austerity.  It is not for everyone, though.  The Gita never insists that all people follow one particular practice or another.  Bhakti Yoga is for those of an emotional and imaginative temperament, or who find themselves drawn to a particular Iṣña (of the many forms of God, the one which the devotee loves most and has most affinity with.).”