Avyaktam

 evam sathathayukthaaye bhakthaaH thvaam paryupaasathe

ye cha api aksharam avyaktham theshaam ke yogavitthamaaH

 

Of the two, those who are your devotees and worship you with unswerving devotion and those who meditate on the imperishable unmanifest Brahman, who are the best yogis?

 

 

After the elaboration of the nature of Brahman as the Absolute Reality, manifest and unmanifest in the chapters second to tenth, Krishna has shown the Cosmic Form in the eleventh chapter., thus showing the efficacy of contemplation on  Brahman with and without Upadhis. Now Arjuna wants to know the relative importance of worship of both manifest and unmanifest Brahman.

       

This legitimate doubt has sprung from the proclamation of Krishna in the last chapter that `bhakthya thu ananyaya sakyah hi aham evamvidhah , jnaathum, drashtum cha thathvena,' the Lord cannot be understood or perceived in His real state through any means except devotion. In the next verse Krishna gives a definition of such devotion by saying, `mathkarma krt mathparamo madbhakthassangavarjithah nirvairassarvabhootheshu.' The devotee should be  nirvaira, without  malice towards any being, sarvabhootheshu and sangavarjitha without attachment towards worldly affairs, and mathkarmakrth , all his actions are done as an offering to God

 

So which of the two, those who worship the Lord in the manner outlined above ,'evam sathatha yuktha yebhakthaah, devotees  whose mind is integrated  in the Lord always, and those who worship or meditate on aaksharam avyaktham,  imperishable and unmanifest Brahman, are comparatively better yogis?  

The Lord replies extolling the bhakthiyoga to be the  best.