Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

After describing these Krishna goes to the last verse of this chapter wherein He will summarize.

Bg 12.20

ye tu dharmāmṛtam idaṁ
yathoktaṁ paryupāsate
śraddadhānā mat-paramā
bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ

Synonyms: 

ye — those who; tu — but; dharma — of religion; amṛtam — nectar; idam — this; yathā — as; uktam — said; paryupāsate — completely engage; śraddadhānāḥ — with faith; mat–paramāḥ — taking Me, the Supreme Lord, as everything; bhaktāḥ — devotees; te — they; atīva — very, very; me — to Me; priyāḥ — dear.

Translation: 

Those who follow this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engage themselves with faith, making Me the supreme goal, are very, very dear to Me.

ye tu dharmāmṛtam idaṁ, idaṁ, this, dharmāmṛtam, is the nectar of religion

yathoktaṁ paryupāsate, As I have spoken so one hears and understands and worships

śraddadhānā mat-paramā, 

bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ, such a devotee is most dear to Me very greatly dear to Me.

First verse of this chapter was Arjuna’s question and in second verse when Krishna started answering He used the word, śraddhayā parayopetās and last verse also He is using same word śraddadhānā.

So Krishna started with similar thought on Sradha and ends with in this chapter.

Sradha, so Krishna is saying you need to have faith. 

bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ, such a devotee is most dear to Me.

ye tu dharmāmṛtam idaṁ
yathoktaṁ paryupāsate

dharma + āmṛtam, the nectar of religion, this is the means by which I can become purified, elevated liberated, as one has heard one starts worshiping. śraddadhānā mat-paramā, understanding Me to be Supreme goal. 

bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ, such a person is very dear to Me. 

So what is that makes a devotee dear there are many things which is possible like the way a devotee speaks etc. but most important thing is faith.

Different Acharyas explains ’tīvain different ways some Acharyas explains that it refers to one who accepts the principle of devotional service and starts practicing with faith. So faith is the greatest quality. Faith makes Lord happy on us. 

So to the extent one practices spiritual path one advances. 

So on recognizing this fundamental point a devotee practices devotional service and one who has faith in pure devotional service such a person is very dear to Me the Lord says. 

SP Purport: One need not bother about materials to keep body and soul together, because by the grace of the Lord everything is carried out automatically.

e.g. even in material world companies / governments provides perks or extra facilities like medical, transportations etc. so that if a person is working there he need not have to be worried for other things. So if one does his work properly that implies taking care of all other needs. 

Similarly a devotee understand that if he serves Krishna other things will be taken care of. And in this way a devotees stay fixed whole heartedly in devotional service towards Krishna even if one doesn’t have much good qualities now it doesn’t matter we can practice devotional service and aspire for these elevated devotional services and in path of devotional service we will develop these qualities and will become dear to Krishna.

If we look at the symmetries…

Chapter 7 to 12 are Bhakti section and now Bhakti section is ending

Bhakti section started from 7.1 from mayy āsakta-manāḥ 

And chapter 12 is ending with bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ, very dear to Me.

So the highest level of Bhakti is to constantly fix mind on Me. That is said in 6th chapter end also a yogi may go through various stages of Yoga and come to elevated stage, but the most elevated yogi is one who fixes his mind on Krishna, and the alternative way to attain same perfection of fixing mind on Krishna is through Bhakti Yoga which is discussed in chapter 7 to 12. 

And from next chapter Krishna will talk about Jyana Yoga and how Jyana Yoga culminates in Bhakti Yoga. 

So let us look at middle 6 chapters to understand what is happening:

7th chapter is called Knowledge of the Absolute in which Krishna introduces us how He pervades material world and how different people are surrendering Him directly, indirectly some deride Him and some approach Him inquisitively, so He describes all these various categories. 

7th chapter provides us intellectual foundation for leading a life of devotion by telling Krishna’s ultimate position and position of Bhakti Yoga.

8th chapter compares Astanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga and establishes that Bhakti Yoga is preferable because it is easier, Sulabha. And then Krishna says in the same chapter that one doesn’t have to worry about other things like whether one is dying at the right time or not, Lord will make sure that for a devotee everything will work out right. 

9th chapter Krishna has focused on most confidential knowledge i.e. knowledge of Pure devotional service which works in various ways. Various glories of pure devotional service are described, first Krishna’s position is described, then various kinds of people, the Mayavadis the Ananys Bhaktas and then the three kinds of Jyana Yogis are described Eaktvena Prithatvena Bahudha, then how devotional service elevates one beyond inherent faults and other faults, and how devotional service is easy to perform and how it gives eternal results all these are discussed in the 9th chapter, 

10th chapter talks about Vibhuti Yoga before this Krishna talks about how rare it is to know Him, and how we can know Him through process of Bhakti Yoga which attracts His mercy, and Chatur Sloki BG comes up, after that Arjuan speaking not in a questioning mood but in an acknowledging mood.

Arjuna is able to transcend from the darshan which he gets in 11th chapter, Krishna said whatever you wanted to see now or in future I will show you, 

10th chapter shows how Krishan pervades nature after Arjuna accepts Krishna’s glory and to help materially minded people think of Krishna.

11th chapter Krishna reveals the Virata Rupa. And there is offering of prayers and obeisances to Virata Rupa. Then At the request of Arjuna Virata Rupa disappears then become the Vishnu Murti the four handed form and then returns back to His two handed form. And there also the conclusion is Bhakti is the best way. 

12th chapter gives another conclusion that does Bhakti leads to Jyana or Jyana leads to Bhakti. At this point Krishna says that practicing Bhakti is better than practicing Jyana that means worshiping personal AT is far better than worshiping impersonal AT because it is so much difficult. 

Then Krishna discussed about accommodating people who are doing devotional service at multiple levels. 

Then there is section which talks about various qualities and if we develop those qualities we endears to Krishna, so in this way the Bhakti chapter section ends and next chapter beings with Arjuna’s question so that will be the fourth chapter in which the main discussion begins with Arjuna’s question 10 (after Krishna stops speaking from 11th verse), 11, 12.

In this way the glory of Bhakti Yoga is established and then Arjuna will begin another chapter i.e. 13th chapter with question, then Krishna will start talking about Jyana Yoga and how Jyana will lead to Bhakti.

End of transcription.