This is one of the most compassionate passages in the Gītā, meeting the seeker exactly where he is: If you cannot fix the mind steadily on Me (12.9), then seek to reach Me by the Yoga of repeated practice (abhyāsa-yoga). If you are unable even in practice (12.10), then be intent on doing works for My sake — mere action offered to Me will also bring perfection. If you cannot do even this (12.11), then, resorting to union with Me, renounce the fruit of all action, self-controlled. And K ranks the rungs frankly (12.12): knowledge is better than mere practice, meditation excels knowledge, and the renunciation of the fruit of action excels meditation — for from such renunciation, peace immediately follows. The genius of the passage is that no one is left out. The strongest may rest wholly in Him; the weakest need only give up grasping at results. Every temperament, every level of capacity, is handed a rung it can actually reach. This graded fallback is the Gītā at its most humane.