Bhagavad Gita
The Yoga of Devotion
Bhakti Yoga
Devotion is described through practice and through the qualities of a beloved devotee.
What this chapter does
Arjuna asks who understands yoga best: those devoted to the visible universal Lord or those who worship the unmanifest imperishable. The Lord calls constant, faithful devotion to him the most integrated path, while saying that worshippers of the imperishable also attain him, though this is harder for embodied people. He then gives a descending series of practices—fixed mind, repeated practice, work for him, and renouncing the fruits of work—and describes the steady, unattached renunciant whose qualities are especially dear. It ends by calling this lived discipline of faith, directed to the supreme, an immortal dharma.
- 01Arjuna compares two forms of worship
- 02Devotion to the universal Lord preferred
- 03Unmanifest worship is harder embodied
- 04Practices descend to fruit-renunciation
- 05Beloved renunciant qualities are gathered
- Opens
- Arjuna asks about two kinds of worshippers.
- Closes
- Faithful practitioners of immortal dharma are most dear.
About this edition
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GRETIL Śaṅkara Bhāṣya source. Chapter 18 is absent. Verse 3.4 is present with a spaced source marker, and chapter 13 has a source-marker numbering anomaly.
atha bhakti-yogo nāma dvādaśo 'dhyāyaḥ
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