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Plate 161

Kṛṣṇa Instructs Arjuna

A "iuna inquired,"O Kṛṣṇa, which are considered to be more perfect: chose who are alvays - properly engaged in Your devotional service, or those who worship the impersonal

Brahman, the unmanifested?"

Lord Kṛṣṇa replied, "Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect. But those who control the various senses and, being equally disposed to everyone, fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed, and immovable—the impersonal conception of the Absólute Truth—such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.

"For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied. But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Pṛthā—for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.

"Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt."

Painting by JADURĀṆĪ-DEVĪ DĀSĪ (1979)

Kṛṣṇa Instructs Arjuna