श्रीभगवानुवाच |
मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते |
श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मता: || 2||
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
mayy āveśhya mano ye māṁ nitya-yuktā upāsate
śhraddhayā parayopetās te me yuktatamā matāḥ
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha—the 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
Translation:
The Blessed Lord said: With mind established in Me, ever steadfast in their devotion, endowed with the highest faith, those who worship Me, they are in my opinion, the best of yogis.
Commentary:
The Lord answers Arjuna’s question about the superiority of the Saguna and Nirguna worshippers. The Lord declares that who-so-ever worships Him with supreme faith and single-minded concentration, he is the best of yogis. Three aspects of spiritual practice are mentioned here.
- Establishing the mind in the Lord,
- ever thinking of Him,
- having firm faith in God.
Whoever possesses these three qualities is the best of yogis. Whether he is a Saguna or Nirguna worshipper or whether he is a sannyasi or house-holder-these distinctions have no significance at all. The Lord’s amazing insight into spiritual Truth is revealed here. Devotion, faith, and concentrated effort-these are emphasised as the final determining factors in spiritual life and not the path or method of worship.
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
“Dive deep; one does not get the precious gems by merely floating on the surface. God is without form, no doubt; but He also has form. By meditating on God with form one speedily acquires devotion; then one can meditate on the formless God. It is like throwing a letter away, after learning its contents, and then setting out to follow its instructions.” (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
—–
The Master said to the kathak: “The gopis had ecstatic love, unswerving and single-minded devotion to one ideal. Do you know the meaning of devotion that is not loyal to one ideal? It is devotion tinged with intellectual knowledge. It makes one feel: ‘Krishna has become all these. He alone is the Supreme Brahman. He is Rama, Siva, and Sakti.’ But this element of knowledge is not present in ecstatic love of God. Once Hanuman came to Dwaraka and wanted to see Sita and Rama. Krishna said to Rukmini, His queen, ‘You had better assume the form of Sita; otherwise there will be no escape from the hands of Hanuman.'(Because Rama and Sita were Hanuman’s Chosen Ideals.) “Once the Pandava brothers performed the Rajasuya sacrifice. All the kings placed Yudhisthira on the royal throne and bowed low before him in homage. But Bibhishana, the King of Ceylon, said, ‘I bow down to Narayana and to none else.’ At these words the Lord Krishna bowed down to Yudhisthira. Only then did Bibhishana prostrate himself, crown and all, before him.
“Do you know what devotion to one ideal is like? It is like the attitude of a daughter-in-law in the family. She serves all the members of the family — her brothers-in-law, father-in-law, husband, and so forth —, bringing them water to wash their feet, fetching their towels, arranging their seats, and the like; but with her husband she has a special relationship.
“There are two elements in this ecstatic love: ‘I-ness’ and ‘my-ness’. Yasoda used to think: ‘Who would look after Gopala if I did not? He will fall ill if I do not serve Him.’ She did not look on Krishna as God. The other element is ‘my-ness’. It means to look on God as one’s own —’my Gopala’. Uddhava said to Yasoda: ‘Mother, your Krishna is God Himself. He is the Lord of the Universe and not a common human being.’ ‘Oh!’ exclaimed Yasoda. ‘I am not asking you about your Lord of the Universe. I want to know how my Gopala fares. Not the Lord of the Universe, but my Gopala.’
“How faithful to Krishna the gopis were! After many entreaties to the door-keeper, the gopis entered the royal court in Mathura, where Krishna was seated as king. The door-keeper took them to Him; but at the sight of King Krishna wearing the royal turban, the gopis bent down their heads and said among themselves: ‘Who is this man with a turban on his head? Should we violate our chaste love for Krishna by talking to him? Where is our beloved Krishna with the yellow robe and the bewitching crest with the peacock feather?’
“Did you observe the single-minded love of the gopis for Krishna? The ideal of Vrindavan is unique. I am told that the people of Dwaraka worship Krishna, the companion of Arjuna, but reject Radha.”
A DEVOTEE: “Which is the better, ecstatic love or love mixed with knowledge?”
10.21 Parable of the three friends
MASTER: “It is not possible to develop ecstatic love of God unless you love Him very deeply and regard Him as your very own.
“Listen to a story. Once three friends were going through a forest, when a tiger suddenly appeared before them. ‘Brothers,’ one of them exclaimed, ‘we are lost!’ ‘Why should you say that?’ said the second friend. ‘Why should we be lost? Come, let us pray to God.’ The third friend said: ‘No. Why should we trouble God about it? Come, let us climb this tree.’
“The friend who said, ‘We are lost!’ did not know that there is a God who is our Protector. The friend who asked the others to pray to God was a jnani. He was aware that God is the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the world. The third friend, who didn’t want to trouble God with prayers and suggested climbing the tree, had ecstatic love of God. It is the very nature of such love that it makes a man think himself stronger than his Beloved. He is always alert lest his Beloved should suffer. The one desire of his life is to keep his Beloved from even being pricked in the foot by a thorn.” (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 12 
(20 Verses)
