It is evening. You are tired from the day and you want two quiet minutes. But the moment you close your eyes, the mind is back in tomorrow's meeting, and then in an old quarrel. Soon you get up, thinking that perhaps all this is not meant for you.
The twelfth chapter of the Gita is for exactly this person. Its answer is plain: when the mind will not rest on the Lord, the road is not closed. The Lord begins with the highest way and then comes down one step at a time, until he reaches something that can be done today, in this very tiredness. At the end he says what kind of devotee he loves.
In chapter 11 Arjuna had seen the cosmic form, and the Lord had told him that he can be known and seen only through undivided devotion (Gita 11.54). Chapter 12 brings that down to daily life. Arjuna asks which road such devotion should take.
What the chapter says in twenty verses
There are three parts. First, Arjuna asks whether the one who worships the Lord with form or the one who worships the formless is better. The Lord says that the one who fixes the mind on him and worships with faith is best (Gita 12.1–2); the other way also reaches him, but is hard for those in a body (Gita 12.3–5). The reading for this part is Devotion or the Unmanifest.
The second part gives four steps for the person whose mind will not stay (Gita 12.6–12). Its reading is The Ladder of Devotion. The third part describes the devotee the Lord holds dear, and its reading is The Devotee Dear to the Lord. Together they make the path Yoga of Devotion: Chapter 12.
If the mind will not stay, practise
First the Lord addresses the one whose mind can rest in him. Then comes the verse for the tired mind:
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय ॥ १२.९ ॥
O Arjuna, if you are unable to fix your mind steadily on Me, then seek to reach Me through the discipline of repeated practice. Krishna is realistic about the restless mind. If immediate, steady absorption is not possible, then the way forward is to practise again and again, patiently drawing the mind back to the Lord.
If you cannot hold the mind steadily on the Lord, try to reach him through practice. In other words, when the mind wanders, do not give up; bring it back again and again. The wandering is not counted as a fault here. It is accepted, and a step is given for it.
The next step is lighter still. If even sitting for practice is too much, work for the Lord's sake; the Lord says that by doing so you reach perfection (Gita 12.10). And if that too cannot be done, keep mind and senses in hand and give up your grip on the fruit of every action (Gita 12.11). This is giving up the fruit of action.
The step that looks lightest is not a small one. The Lord himself says that peace follows it at once (Gita 12.12). So a person who says, "I cannot meditate, but I do my work honestly and try to let go of how it turns out," is not behind anyone.
The Lord himself does the carrying across
Before the steps the Lord makes a promise, and for a tired mind it is the most important thing in the chapter. Those who offer their work to him, hold him as their goal and meditate on him will soon be lifted by him out of the ocean of worldly life (Gita 12.6, Gita 12.7). "I become the deliverer," he says. The devotee's part is to turn the mind. Getting across is not the devotee's job. That is why the four steps are not an examination. They are more like being led by the hand.
Which step is mine today?
You can set the steps beside the state you are in today:
| Today's state | Today's step |
|---|---|
| The mind is calm and drawn to the Lord | Fix mind and intellect on him (Gita 12.8) |
| The mind keeps running off | Sit a little, bring it back, and repeat each day (Gita 12.9) |
| No wish to sit, and a lot of work | Do that work for the Lord (Gita 12.10) |
| Everything feels heavy and nothing works | Do your work and loosen your grip on the result (Gita 12.11) |
In a single day you may move between two steps, and there is nothing wrong in that.
How to tell that it is working
The chapter gives three signs, and none of them is outward show. The first is lightness, the beginning of the peace the Lord speaks of (Gita 12.12). The second is that people feel at ease near you, since no one is alarmed by the Lord's dear devotee (Gita 12.15). The third is that the swing between joy and sorrow slows down (Gita 12.17). None of them arrives overnight, but watching for these is better than waiting for a miracle.
What the chapter does not say
It does not tell you to leave your work and sit near the Lord. The last two steps go straight through work, and doing your work for the Lord is itself a step (Gita 12.10). It does not say that you must first feel great love before you may go on. Each step starts from something a person can do today. And it does not call the worshippers of the formless wrong: they reach the Lord too, though by a harder road (Gita 12.3–5).
An example
Take Rakesh, who runs a small shop. When he sits down in the evening, his mind goes to the accounts. For a week he tries to repeat a name for five minutes each day. On many days the mind wanders, and he returns to it without irritation. The next week he adds something: when he opens the shop in the morning he pauses for a moment and says that today's work is for the Lord.
One day a customer is very rude to him. Rakesh does his work, and he stops wondering what the customer will think of him. By evening he feels lighter. That night he does not answer his son sharply. He did no great practice. He simply took the step that was possible for him that day.
What kind of devotee the Lord loves
The last part of the chapter tells what devotion comes to. It is not a count of rituals. It is a list of conduct:
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी ॥ १२.१३ ॥
One who bears hatred toward no being, who is friendly and compassionate toward all, who is free from possessiveness and ego, who remains balanced in pain and pleasure, and who is forgiving... (the sentence is completed in the next verse, where Krishna says such a devotee is dear to Him). Here Krishna begins his portrait of the ideal devotee, starting with the qualities that shape one's attitude toward others and toward oneself.
One who hates no being, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from "I" and "mine", the same in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, is dear to the Lord. The same devotee is not carried away by joy or grief, and is the same to friend and foe, honour and dishonour (Gita 12.17–18). Those who live this "immortal dharma" with faith are exceedingly dear to him (Gita 12.20). So the test of devotion is whether people feel afraid or at ease near you.
Choose one task today and do it as an offering to the Lord. When it is done, do not check how it turned out. At night, write one line on how your mind felt.
Questions readers ask
Do I need to feel love for God before I begin?
No. None of the four steps waits for love to rise first. They begin with practice, work and letting go of the grip on the result (Gita 12.9, Gita 12.10, Gita 12.11). Love deepens as one walks.
Is giving up the fruit of action the lowest step?
No. The Lord places it above meditation and says that peace follows it at once (Gita 12.12). It looks lightest only because it does not need you to sit still.
Must a devotee stop feeling anger or joy?
The list of the dear devotee begins with friendliness and compassion (Gita 12.13), so he is not cold. What he lets go of is hatred, alarm and being swept away. Even in joy and grief his mind does not shake (Gita 12.17).
Going deeper
To follow the same chapter verse by verse, with links to other chapters, read the detailed reading. It gives the map of the three parts, the common misreadings and a way to read the chapter in three days.