Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 12: The Yoga of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga)

Source context

Theme

devotional surrender to the personal divine as the supreme path of liberation

Soul-faculty

Sentient Soul

Steiner

• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as a harmonious interpenetration of three spiritual streams — including the devotional-bhaktic dimension — finding therein the living synthesis of Vedic wisdom traditions.
• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner treats the gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) and Krishna's guidance toward self-consciousness as the operative framework of the Gita's spiritual teaching, contextualising the path by which Krishna leads the soul upward — the structural basis upon which Bhakti Yoga's surrender operates.

Cross-tradition

• Christian mysticism (Meister Eckhart / Rhineland school)The Eckhartian notion of Gelassenheit — radical releasement of the self-will into the divine ground — presents a cross-tradition congruence with Discourse 12's teaching that the devotee who surrenders entirely to Krishna is most beloved of the divine.
• Sufi Islam (maqam al-mahabbah)The Sufi station of divine love (mahabbah) and the annihilation of the personal ego in the Beloved (fana) display cross-tradition congruence with Bhakti Yoga's insistence that undivided love toward the personal Isvara constitutes the highest and most direct path.
• Vaishnava Vedanta (Ramanuja, Vishishtadvaita)Ramanuja's qualified non-dualism positions prapatti (total self-surrender to Vishnu/Krishna) as the culminating means of liberation, structurally congruent with Discourse 12's elevation of saguna-brahman devotion over abstract nirguna contemplation.

Discourse 12: The Yoga of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga)

12:1Arjuna said: Those devotees who ever harmonised worship Thee, and those also
who worship the Indestructible, the Unmanifested, whether of these is the more learned in yoga?

12:2The Blessed Lord said: They who with mind fixed on Me ever harmonised
worship Me, with faith supreme endowed, these, in My opinion, are best in yoga.

12:3They who worship the Indestructible, the Ineffable, the Unmanifested,
Omnipresent, and Unthinkable, the Unchanging, Immutable, Eternal,

12:4Restraining and subduing the senses, regarding everything equally, in the
welfare of all rejoicing, these also come unto Me.

12:5The difficulty of those whose minds are set on the Unmanifested is greater; for
the path of the Unmanifested is hard for the embodied to reach.

12:6Those verily who, renouncing all actions in Me and intent on Me, worship
meditating on Me, with whole-hearted yoga,

12:7These I speedily lift up from the ocean of death and existence, O Partha, their
minds being fixed on Me.

12:8Place thy mind in Me, into Me let thy Reason enter; then without doubt thou
shalt abide in Me hereafter.

12:9And if thou art not able firmly to fix thy mind on Me, then by the yoga of
practice seek to reach Me, O Dhananjaya.

12:10If also thou art not equal to constant practice, be intent on My service;
performing actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.

12:11If even to do this thou hast not strength, then, taking refuge in union with Me,
renounce all fruit of action with the self controlled.

12:12Better indeed is wisdom than constant practice; than wisdom, meditation is
better; than meditation, renunciation of the fruit of action; on renunciation follows peace.

12:13He who beareth no ill-will to any being, friendly and compassionate, without
attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving,

12:14Ever content, harmonious, with the self controlled, resolute, with mind and
Reason dedicated to Me, he, My devotee, is dear to Me.

12:15He from whom the world doth not shrink away, who doth not shrink away
from the world, freed from the anxieties of joy, anger, and fear, he is dear to Me.

12:16He who wants nothing, is pure, expert, passionless, untroubled, renouncing
every undertaking, he, My devotee, is dear to Me.

12:17He who neither loveth nor hateth, nor grieveth, nor desireth, renouncing good
and evil, full of devotion, he is dear to Me.

12:18Alike to foe and friend, and also in fame and ignominy, alike in cold and heat,
pleasures and pains, destitute of attachment,

12:19Taking equally praise and reproach, silent, wholly content with what cometh,
homeless, firm in mind, full of devotion, that man is dear to Me.

12:20They verily who partake of this life-giving wisdom as taught herein, endued
with faith, I their supreme Object, devotees, they are surpassingly dear to Me.

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