Bhakti Yoga
Arjuna asks which is superior: worshipping Krishna's personal, embodied form, or meditating on the unmanifest, formless Absolute. Krishna answers that both paths reach the same goal, but that devotion to the personal form is easier and more natural for embodied beings, since the path of the unmanifest demands an especially difficult discipline of abstraction. He then offers one of the Gita's warmest passages, a repeated, almost litany-like description of the qualities of the devotee who is 'dear to me' — free from hatred, friendly and compassionate to all beings, unpossessive, without ego, equal in pleasure and pain, forgiving, ever content, self-controlled, not agitating the world and not agitated by it, the same toward friend and foe, in honor and dishonor, praise and blame. The chapter is comparatively short but is treasured as the Gita's clearest statement that loving devotion, expressed through an ordinary, steady character, is as valid a path to liberation as knowledge or renunciation.
“Those who fix their minds on me and worship me, ever steadfast, endowed with supreme faith — these I consider most perfect in yoga.”
“Greater is the difficulty of those whose minds are set on the unmanifest, for the goal of the unmanifest is hard for embodied beings to attain.”
“One who hates no being, who is friendly and compassionate, free from possessiveness and pride, equal in pleasure and pain, and forgiving...”
“...ever content, self-controlled, resolute, with mind and reason dedicated to me — such a devotee of mine is dear to me.”
Continues 12.13 in one of the Gita's best-loved character portraits, repeated with variations through the chapter.
“One by whom the world is not disturbed, and who is not disturbed by the world, who is free from joy, envy, fear and anxiety — that person is dear to me.”
“The same in honor and dishonor, the same to friend and foe, having given up all restless undertakings — such a person is dear to me.”
Chapter summaries composed for MyBrahman; verse translations from the public-domain Kashinath Trimbak Telang translation (1882, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 8) where directly checkable, and/or widely-attested traditional renderings of famous verses, cited by standard chapter.verse numbering.