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Adhyāyas / Bhakti Yogaḥ / verse 20

Mūla — the verse

Gita Press numbering
ये तु धर्म्यामृतमिदं यथोक्तं पर्युपासते। श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेऽतीव मे प्रियाः
ye tu dharmyāmṛitam idaṁ yathoktaṁ paryupāsate śhraddadhānā mat-paramā bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ
Anuṣṭubh(!!) irregular in source

Translation

Swami Gambhīrānanda · follows Śaṅkara-bhāṣya

But those devotees who accept Me as the supreme Goal, and with faith seek for this ambrosia—nectar in the form of virtue—which is indistinguishable from the virtues as stated above, they are very dear to Me.

हिन्दी अनुवाद — Swami Tejomayānanda

जो भक्त श्रद्धावान् तथा मुझे ही परम लक्ष्य समझने वाले हैं और इस यथोक्त धर्ममय अमृत का अर्थात् धर्ममय जीवन का पालन करते हैं, वे मुझे अतिशय प्रिय हैं।।

Pronunciation — Vaamshii

from Vaamshii
ये तु धर्म्या मृतमि दम् (!!)
यथोक् तम् पर्यु पासते
श्रद् दधाना मत् परमाः (!!)
भक्तास् तेऽ तीव मे प्रियाः
॥ २० ॥
Read each split group as one breath-unit; hyphens join pādas kept whole for the meter or a compound word. Symbols: # upadhmānīya (visarga before p/ph), % jihvāmūlīya (visarga before k/kh), ऽ avagraha (an elided a). Full method →

Word by word

padārtha
yewho
tuindeed
dharmaof wisdom
amṛitamnectar
idamthis
yathāas
uktamdeclared
paryupāsateexclusive devotion
śhraddadhānāḥwith faith
mat-paramāḥintent on me as the supreme goal
bhaktāḥdevotees
tethey
atīvaexceedingly
meto me
priyāḥdear

Themes

from The Thematic Companion to the Bhagavad Gītā

Meaning — Questions & Solutions

from Q&A with KnA
12.13–12.20The characteristics of the Yogin — and hence of a Guru, an Avadhūta, and the pattern for a seeker.

The chapter closes with the long, tender portrait of the devotee “dear to Me” — a checklist not for testing others but for growing oneself, and a description of what the goal looks like when it walks about in a human body. He is: without hatred toward any being, friendly and compassionate, free of “mine” and of egoism, even in pain and pleasure, forgiving; ever content, self-controlled, of firm resolve, his mind and intellect given to Me (12.13–14). He is one “by whom the world is not agitated, and who is not agitated by the world”, free of elation, impatience, fear and anxiety (12.15). He is unconcerned, pure, capable, indifferent, untroubled, renouncing every undertaking (for its fruit); who neither rejoices nor hates, neither grieves nor craves, renouncing good and evil alike (12.16–17); the same to friend and foe, in honour and dishonour, in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, free from attachment; to whom blame and praise are equal, content with whatever comes, homeless-hearted, of steady mind (12.18–19). Read the list slowly: it is at once the description of a jīvanmukta, the marks by which one may recognise a true Guru or Avadhūta, and the very qualities a seeker is asked to cultivate. Every trait is a form of samatva — the one equanimity, wearing many faces (recall 2.48, 5.18, 6.32). And K ends: “those who follow this nectar-law of righteousness (dharmyāmṛtam), full of faith, holding Me supreme — those devotees are exceedingly dear to Me” (12.20). The whole of Yoga, in the end, is to become someone God could love in this way.