Verse 12.1

Verse 12.1: Arjuna spake: “Thus, ever steadied in Yoga, the devotees who seek Thee in service, and those likewise who (seek) the Unmanifest Immutable: of these, which ones are the best knowers of the Yoga?” (20)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Then the son of Pandu, the greatest amongst the heroes, and the very emblem of victory in the ‘Soma’ dynasty, thus spoke to Lord Krishna.

“Oh have you heard (what I said)! You made available for me, the vision of the Omniform: it was wonderful and my mind got frightened at it. Being accustomed to (seeing) your Krishna form, I (my life) thought of taking its protection: but the God censured me and told me not to do so. But manifest or non-manifest, both these are your own forms, the former attainable by devotion and the latter by Yoga (discipline). Both these are ways of approaching your paradise (Vaikuntha), while the manifest or the non-manifest are only the two thresholds there. The fineness of a bar of gold weighing a hundred tolas is the same as that of a piece, weighing only one ‘Wal’ (vāla—about l/50th of a tola) out of it tested separately.

Thus the value of the manifest, a simple entity, and of the all-pervading non-manifest, is one and the same. The same degree of power (to confer immortality) as is found in an ocean of nectar, can be found in a single mouthful (cūla) taken out of a nectar wave. My mind has reached this conviction definitely. Yet I ask this question, Oh the Master of the Yoga, only with the object to know whether the Omniform, you had for a little while assumed, was a real thing or only an assumed guise. But (there are) such ones as perform all actions solely on your account, and to whom you are the greatest of all, and who have also surrendered their minds to devotion, and who in all these ways worship you, chaining you to their heart and soul.

And (there are likewise others) men of knowledge who worship, with the conception that they themselves are He (the Deity), and He is they themselves (sohambhāva [sohambhāve]), (they are) also that, which is beyond the sacred syllable ‘Om’ (the mystic name of the Hindu triad) which is unsecurable even by the clear faculties of speech, and which is uncomparable, and which is immutable and non-manifest, beyond description, and without a place. O Anant, now do tell me, which of these—those steadied in Yoga, or the devotees that seek you in service—are considered the best knowers of Yoga.”

At these words of Kiriti, the Lord of the universe felt pleased and said,

“You know best how to question!”