Gita Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve pointed to the super glory of devotion to God and also explained the different forms of spiritual disciplines and the qualities of the devotees. chapter is entitled: The Path of Devotion.
Verses 12. 1 – 12.20
Arjuna inquired about the relative perfection of the two types of Yogis: those engaged in devotional service and those in worship of the impersonal Brahman, the non-manifest. Krishna replied the person whose mind is fixed on God’s human form and always engaged in worshiping God with great and transcendental faith, was the most perfect. But the one who finally achieve me is the person worshiping the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed, immovable and impersonal concept of the Absolute Truth of God in the non-manifest form that lies beyond sense perception of the senses, by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone and engaged in the welfare of all. Those with minds attached to the non-manifest form, progress is very difficult to achieve. God delivers liberation more quickly to the unfailing devotee who worships, submits all activities to God and engages in devotional service, always meditating on God. One just needs to fix the mind on God and engage the intellect in God to live in God.
If one is unable to fix the mind on God without deviation, then one can practice the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga and develop a desire to attain to God. If one cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then one can just try to work for God to start with.
If one is unable to work for me, then one can try to perform activities giving up all results of work and remain focused on the self. If one cannot even practice giving up the results of actions to God, then one can engage in the cultivation of knowledge.
Better than the pursuit of knowledge is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action as renunciation brings peace of mind.
Persons very dear to God have the following characteristics’ (a) the person who is not envious but kind to all living beings, who does not think himself a proprietor of his actions, who is free from ego and equally unperturbed by both happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and whose mind and intellect are aligned in attachment to God, (b) the person for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anxiety, who is steady in happiness and distress, (c) A devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, (d) the one who neither grasps pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, (e) the one who is equal to friends and enemies, who accepts honor and dishonor equally, remains indifferent to heat and cold, and find no difference between happiness and distress or fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who does not care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, and (f) the person who follows the path of devotional service and who completely engages with full faith to strive to reach God.