Still your mind in me, still your intellect in me, and
without doubt you will be united with me forever.
If you cannot still your mind in me, learn to do so
through the regular practice of meditation. If you
lack the will for such self-discipline, engage yourself
in my work, for selfless service can lead you at last to
complete fulfillment. If you are unable to do even
this, surrender yourself to me, disciplining yourself
and renouncing the results of all your actions.
Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical
practice. Better than knowledge is meditation.
But better still is surrender in love,
because there follows immediate peace.
That one I love who is incapable of ill will, who
is friendly and compassionate. Living beyond
the reach of “I” and “mine” and of pleasure and
pain, patient, contented, self-controlled, firm
in faith, with all their heart and all their mind
given to me – with such as these I am in love.
Not agitating the world or by it agitated, they
stand above the sway of elation, competition,
and fear: that one is my beloved.
They are detached, pure, efficient, impartial,
never anxious, selfless in all their undertakings;
they are my devotees, very dear to me.
That one is dear to me who runs not after the
pleasant or away from the painful, grieves not, lusts
not, but lets things come and go as they happen.
That devotee who looks upon friend and foe with
equal regard, who is not buoyed up by praise nor
cast down by blame, alike in heat and cold, pleasure
and pain, free from selfish attachments, the same
in honor and dishonor, quiet, ever full, in harmony
everywhere, firm in faith – such a one is dear to me.
Those who meditate upon this immortal
dharma as I have declared it, full of faith and
seeking me as life’s supreme goal, are truly my
devotees, and my love for them is very great.
Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita titled The Way of Love, translated by Eknath Easwaran. The Bhagavad Gita (“Song of the Lord”), is one of India’s best-known scriptures, a masterpiece of world poetry on which countless mystics have drawn for daily practical guidance. The Gita is a dialogue between God, and his friend and disciple Arjuna, a warrior prince who represents anyone trying to live a spiritual life in the midst of worldly activity and conflict.