Gita 12.20 The concluding verse reiterates and reinforces the starting verse

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is dear to me. Thank you.

Krishna concludes his description of the devotee who is very dear to him, of what kind of qualities that the devotee has who is very dear to him, and he concludes this here by saying that, a devotee is extremely dear to me, this is the path of dharma which Krishna has talked about here, it is, it is like nectar, it is immortal, it is imperishable. Krishna has recently used the word dharma in the ninth chapter, again while talking about a particular path, when he says that Raj, 9.2, he says, and the 9.3 also using dharma again, so Krishna uses the word dharma, that this path of dharma is, it gives practical realization, and then Krishna says, those who do not follow this path of dharma, they return to the cycle of birth and death. So, here Krishna is talking about dharma as the path, and clearly if we look at 9th chapter, what it is talking about is bhakti, and 12th chapter is also talking about bhakti.

So, Krishna is talking about this path of bhakti, this is the immortal path, that immortality or eternality of the path of bhakti is also pointed to in 9.2, when the last word is So, Krishna talks about that same point of dharma, so this path of dharma which Krishna has talked about in this chapter, that means Krishna has talked about how the path of bhakti is preferable to the path of dhyana, to the meditation, devotion to the worship of the absolute is preferable to the focus on the impersonal absolute, and bhakti itself is the path which will lead to perfection, and there are multiple levels at which one can practice bhakti, and the bhaktas are enriched with many wonderful qualities, all this is the path of dharma. Krishna has spoken this path of dharma, yathoktam paripasate yatha uktam, as has been spoken by him, paripasate, paripasate means one who worships, one who cherishes, one who internalizes, yathoktam, as has been told, one who internalizes, shraddhadhana matparama, shraddhadhana, with faith in me, matparama, making me the supreme goal, bhaktas te teevam e priyaha, that devotee is extremely dear to me, teevam e priyaha, so here the word upasate is significant, Arjuna's, the chapter 12 started with Arjuna's question, which involved upasate, evam sarat yuktaye, bhaktas tvam upasate, e chaapya aksharam vittam, te shyam ke yoga vittam, so upasate, and in several of Arjuna's, several of the verses in which Krishna answers Arjuna's question, there also the word upasate has come, so mayye vishyam anoye mam nitya yukta upasate, that is 12.2, then mam dhyayanta upasate, etu sarvani karmani sanyasi matparaha, nanya naiva yogi, namam dhyayanta upasate, 12.6 also had upasate, and now here 12.20 also had upasate, etu dharmam rtum ilam yathok tam paryupasate, it's not just upasate, it's paryupasate, it's worshipping in a complete way, in a holistic way, in a devoted way, shraddha dhana matparama, so those who, we can say that those who worship this path are those who worship me with this path, paryupasate, shraddha dhana, Krishna has also used the word shraddha, we discussed with respect to dharma, has used it in 9.3, shraddha dhana purusha dharmasya se parantapa, those who do not have faith in this path, they fall back to samsara vartmani, but Krishna says those who have faith, shraddha dhana matparama, they understand me to be transcendental, they understand me to be the supreme goal, they understand me to be the ultimate destination, such people are extremely dear to me, such people are bhaktas te teevam etriha, extremely dear, so in a sense, this is a more emphatic assertion of the answer that was given in 12.2, 12.2 also talks about shraddha, mayy aaveshyamano ye mamityukta upasate shraddhaya parayopetas te me yukta tamo mataha, so they are intimately united with me. Now when we talk about union with Krishna, the union is through affection, the union is the linking of the hearts, it is not a merging of beings and the linking of hearts happens more and more when there is more and more affection, the greater the affection, the greater the linking of the hearts that happens and Krishna speaks here in 12.20 that that uses similar words parayopasate, so upasate and parayopasate, we could say actually parayopasate is same word but with the intensifier, paraya is a prefix which is an intensifier of the same sense which is there in 12.2. And then shraddhana, there also the word shraddha is there, here also the word shraddha is there and there in 12.2 there was that they are more intimately united with me, mayy aaveshyamano ye mamityukta upasate shraddhaya parayopetas te me yukta tamo mataha, they are very closely united, they are most united with me and here Krishna is talking about a similar and more personal connection of intimacy between him and his devotees when he says bhaktas te teevame priyaha, these devotees are very intensely devoted to me, they are very very intimately dear to me, very strongly dear to me, very very dear to me.

Also quite often the path of bhakti is taught by some people to be sentimental and further less intelligent and they think that the path of jnana is for the more intellectual people. Krishna has categorically countered this notion and has said that actually the path of bhakti leads to higher level of intimacy, intimate union with the absolute truth and this appreciating this requires faith and those who take this leap of faith based on Krishna's words, those who strive to go closer to Krishna, those who strive to become connected with and absorbed in Krishna, they become very dear to him because they are taking Krishna's testimony, Krishna's words seriously, they are accepting the transcendence of Krishna, the supremacy of Krishna, not just the transcendence but the supremacy of Krishna, the supreme transcendence of Krishna as Arjuna has said param brahma param dhama, there is brahma but Arjuna Krishna is param brahma, the param dhama, the supreme abode and similarly here in a similar spirit one who accepts Krishna's supremacy one who accepts that wholeheartedly as Krishna has proclaimed the glory, the supremacy of devotion in this chapter, one who accepts that and one who devotes oneself to Krishna based on that, such a person is extremely dear to Krishna and Krishna says that those who do like this, they have their faith, their devotion, their adherence to my world, all this makes them extremely dear to me. So from 12.13 to 12.19 Krishna has talked about various things, various qualities which endear one to Krishna, endear the devotee to Krishna but here in none of those sections Krishna uses the word extremely dear, here in this verse Krishna uses the word extremely dear and interestingly Krishna does not talk about any qualities such as sense control or detachment or equanimity in this verse, he simply talks about faith in his supremacy, faith in his words and the willingness to wholeheartedly apply those words in one's life and one who is ready to do that, Krishna says such a person is extremely dear to me.

So even if we don't have all these qualities, if we strive wholeheartedly to follow the path of bhakti, that determination, that.