Devotional Service

² Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.

^3-4 But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, 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.

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.

^6-7 But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Pṛthā – for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.

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.

⁹ Arjuna, if you cannot fix your mind on Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me.

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.

¹¹ If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness of Me, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated.

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.

^13-14 My devotee is One who:

• is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities
• does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego
• is equal in both happiness and distress
• is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled
• engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me

Such a devotee is very dear to Me.

¹⁵ Very dear to me is My devotee who:

• puts no one into difficulty
• is not disturbed by anyone
• is equipoised in happiness and distress, fear and anxiety
• ¹⁶ is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities
• is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains
• not striving for some result
• ¹⁷ neither rejoices nor grieves
• neither laments nor desires
• renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things

^18-19 Very dear to Me is a person who:

• is equal to friends and enemies
• is equipoised in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy
• is always free from contaminating association
• always silent and satisfied with anything
• doesn’t care for any residence
• is fixed in knowledge
• is engaged in devotional service

I love such a person who:

• does not troubles others nor is troubled by them.
• is clear of wrath
• living above gladness, grief, or fear
• dwells quiet-eyed, stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed,
• works with Me, yet detached from all works
• fixed in faith on Me
• dotes upon none
• scorns none
• rejoices not
• grieves not
• letting good or evil happen
• letting in Light when it will, and let it will depart
• keeps an equal heart to friend and foe
• with equal mind bears shame and glory
• with an equal peace takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain
• quit of desires,
• hears praise or calumny in passionless restraint unmoved by each
• linked by no ties to earth
• steadfast in Me

²⁰ But most of all, I love those who do devotional service and completely engage themselves with faith, making Me the supreme goal.