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Bhakti, the Topmost Yoga

Verses
32
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7
Chapters
12

Bhakti-yoga means devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The ultimate teaching of the Bhagavad-gīta is to perfrom bhakti.

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Yoga ultimately means bhakti-yoga. All the other yogas, namely karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, aṣṭāṅga yoga etc., are different rungs of the yoga ladder, a

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Lord Kṛṣṇa’s opinion 5
  1. Bhakti-yogī is the best of all yogis. (6.47 yoginām api sarveṣāṁ...)
  2. Fight with full surrender, knowledge, detachment and non-doership. (3.30 mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi...)
  3. Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee (9.34 man-manā bhava mad-bhakto...)
  4. Those who perfectly know Me as the source of everything, engage in bhakti with all their hearts. (10.8 ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo...)
  5. Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear. (18.66 sarva-dharmān parityajya...)
Bhakti is rare 4
  1. Out of many thousands, one may be interested in transcendental realization to try to know the self, the body, and Absolute Truth. (7.3 manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu...)
  2. After many, many births, one may actually understand that Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate goal of spiritual realization. (7.19 bahūnāṁ janmanām ante...)
  3. After many, many births of pious activities, when one is freed from sins and dualities, and can engage in bhakti. (7.28 yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ...)
  4. The faithless cannot do bhakti, even after hearing all Vedic evidence. Being unfixed they return to the path of birth and death. (9.3 aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā...)
Bhakti is all-encompassing 3
  1. A person who accepts the path of bhakti attains the results derived from Vedic study, sacrifices, austerities, charity etc, and at the end reaches the spiritual world. (8.28 vedṣsu yajñeṣu tapaḥsu caiva...)
  2. Even the lowborn people can attain the supreme destination by taking to bhakti. (9.32 māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya...)
  3. One can perceive results directly (pratyakṣāvagamaṁ) by executing bhakti. (9.2 rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ...)
Bhakti is very easy 6
  1. By experiencing a higher taste, one can easily control one’s mind and senses from sense objects. (2.59 viṣayā vinivartante...)
  2. Those who fix their minds on the personal form of Kṛṣṇa are most perfect. For the impersonalists, advancement is troublesome. (12.2-5 mayy āveśya mano ye...)
  3. Compared to aṣṭānga-yoga, bhakti does not demand strict vows like absolute celibacy and so on. (6.13-14 samaṁ kāya-śiro-grīvaṁ...)
  4. Bhakti process is blissfully performed (su-sukhaṁ). One can simply hear and chanting the Lord’s glories, eat prasāda and so on. (9.2 rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ...)
  5. Kṛṣṇa is pleased to accept even a leaf, a flower, little water or fruit offered in genuine love and devotion. (9.26 patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ...)
  6. Whatever one does, eats, donates and whatever austerities one performs—one may simply do that as an offering to Kṛṣṇa. (9.27 yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi...)
Bhakti benedictions 5
  1. Those who have surrendered unto Kṛṣṇa easily cross beyond the insurmountable material energy. (7.14 daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī...)
  2. One who engages in unalloyed bhakti transcends the material modes and is elevated to the spiritual platform. (14.26 māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa...)
  3. Under the protection of Kṛṣṇa’s divine nature, the great souls are not deluded and fully engaged in bhakti. (9.13 mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha...)
  4. Kṛṣṇa personally supplies what a devotee lacks and preserves what he has. (9.22 ananyāś cintayanto māṁ...)
  5. Understanding Kṛṣṇa to be the only enjoyer, proprietor and the real friend of all, one attains real peace. (5.29 bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ.)
Bhakti is the only way to understand and attain Kṛṣṇa 3
  1. Whoever quits his body remembering Kṛṣṇa alone at once attains His abode. (8.5 anta-kāle ca mām eva...)
  2. Only by undivided bhakti can one understand Kṛṣṇa as He is, and can thus see Him directly. (11.54 bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakya...)
  3. When one is in fully conscious of Kṛṣṇa by devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God. (18.55 bhaktyā māṁ abhijānāti...)
Kṛṣṇa’s personal reciprocation with a bhakti-yogī 5
  1. Kṛṣṇa gives a devotee sufficient intelligence to attain Him in the spiritual world. (10.10 teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ...)
  2. Kṛṣṇa, dwelling in the heart, shows special mercy by removing the darkness of ignorance by the shining lamp of knowledge. (10.11 teṣām evānukampārtham...)
  3. Even if by accident if a devotee does some mistake, if he is engaged in bhakti, Kṛṣṇa considers him a sadhu. (9.30 api cet su-durācāro...)
  4. Kṛṣṇa promises to protect His devotees from all accidental falldowns because of his continuous thinking of the Lord. (9.31 kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā...)
  5. Kṛṣṇa is the swift deliverer of His devotees from the material ocean of birth and death due to their undeviated bhakti. (12.7 teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā...)

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