Page 164 - Wisdom Unfurled

Lord declares that those who fixing their mind on Him worship Him ever steadfast are the best versed in Yoga in His opinion. He also clarifies that those who worship the unmanifest imperishable controlling their senses and having even mindedness, also verily reach Him. But the path of worshipping the Unmanifest is quite difficult for the embodied souls. He assures that He saves surely those whose mind is set on Him, who worship Him resigning all actions in Him, regarding Him as the supreme Goal and meditating on Him with single minded yoga. He exhorts Arjuna to fix his mind on Him only, place his intellect in Him and assures that without any further doubt he would, as a consequence, abide in Him ever after (BG-XII 1-8).
The Lord gives in great detail the attributes of the real devotee in BG- Chapter XII (Sl. 13-20).
Devotion- means or end
In this context we should note that devotion is only a means and not an end in itself. There is a great temptation amongst great devotees to be satisfied with their devotional practices and the elevated moods of joy and bliss of the company of the Lord which result on account of their steadfast devotion to the Lord. Many of them even pray that they do not mind having repeated lives in whichever womb (even as a worm for instance), world-even hell does not matter as long as the Lord’s name is on their lips or form provided only they have the opportunity to worship Him and perform various services (kainkarya) to Him. Some of them have also expressed, no doubt from the higher pitches of their devotional mood and also perhaps as poetic exaggeration that they would like to be born even as inanimate objects, such as a blade of grass in the temple premises or the stepping stone at the entrance to His sanctum sanctorum which will be stepped upon continuously by the tender and pure feet of the exalted lovers of God. Being such a step he would like to enjoy for ever the sight of the beautiful red coral like mouth of the Lord of the Seven Hills (the last referred is actually part of the hymn composed by the great azhwar Kulasekhara). As discussed in depth in the article already referred to on Devotion (BP V3), these psychological states constitute various buffer stages on the path of the steep ascent from knot 2 to 3. The aspirant should hold the ultimate goal in sight always, keep the craving alive for attaining the same and push on hard towards the objective treating all the experiences as divine gifts and as a part of bhoga, feeling grateful towards the Master for the same and be prepared to renounce them for movement to the next higher stage in the ascent. The Master has been critical of the attitude of the devotee who would like to be born repeatedly just so that he could keep enjoying that condition and not willing to part from the enjoyment the state offers and worse wishing for birth in lower forms of life including the