To advance on the devotional path, we need both eyes and wings. The eyes help us see the spiritual world of love that is invisible to our material eyes. And the wings enable us to rise to the lofty level of selfless love for Krishna.

The Bhagavad-gita offers us eyes through its philosophical wisdom, and wings through its devotional practices. How both these gifts bless us is conveyed in the Gita (10.10) through a meaning-packed compound word: buddhi-yoga (the yoga of wisdom). To grasp the dynamics of these two gifts, let’s unpack this word in two ways:

1. The yoga that awards buddhi: When we serve Krishna by engaging in devotional service or the yoga of love (yoga), he grants us the wisdom and the vision (buddhi) to see beyond the material reality that usually occupies our eyes and minds. This philosophical vision helps us focus our attention on the eternal spiritual reality, a world of endless love. Within this world, the Gita reveals the highest reality to be the all-attractive, all-loving Supreme Being, Krishna.
2. The buddhi that awards yoga: When we use this philosophical vision to serve Krishna and fulfill his benevolent purposes in this world, he purifies us and awakens within us the selfless spiritual love necessary for entering his world. Devotional practices thus act like wings that, by Krishna’s mercy, enable us to rise to the thrilling heights of the world of eternal love. There, we are forever united with him in an ecstatic relationship of love – a love that is the culmination of all yoga.

Thus, the Gita’s philosophical wisdom gifts us the eyes to see Krishna’s world of love and its devotional practices grant us the wings to fly to that world.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 Text 10

“To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.”