भक्तियोग

Bhakti yoga is the path in which a seeker’s mind rests in God through love, faith and surrender. Verse 6.47 calls the best of all yogis the one who with faith fixes the inner being on the Lord and worships with love. In 12.1-2 Arjuna asks how the devotee of the personal form compares with the seeker of the unmanifest, and Lord Krishna names steadfastness and supreme faith as the mark.

Notice that the devotee is called best among yogis. Devotion does not stand against action or knowledge; it is more like the spirit that completes yoga.

One common misreading is that devotion is only emotion. In verse 12.8 the understanding is to be placed in the Lord together with the mind, so devotion has room for thought. Another is that a devotee should drop duties. In the Gita devotion turns action into an offering; it does not remove it.

The tradition counts it as a fourth path beside action, knowledge and meditation, but the Gita itself shows them woven into one another.