Chapter 29: Explanation of Devotional Service by Lord Kapila(1-2) Devahûti said: 'Dear master, You described the specific characteristics of the material and personal nature of the complete reality, the way they in the analytical philosophy of [Sânkhya] yoga are discussed as being the primary ones. Please elaborate now at length on the path of bhakti yoga that one calls the ultimate purpose.
(3) Dear Lord, please describe to me and for the people in general, the different stages of life and forms of material existence, for someone may by the knowledge of them become completely detached.
(4) And what about the nature of Eternal Time, [the drive of nature,] the form of the Supreme Lord, of You as the ruler over all the other rulers, under the influence of whom the common people act piously?
(5) You have appeared as the sun of the yoga system for the sake of the living beings attached to material actions whose intelligence is blinded by false ego and who, fatigued of having no one to turn to, for a long time slumber in darkness.'
(6) Maitreya said: 'Appreciating the words of His mother, oh best of the Kurus, the great and gentle sage, contented and being moved by compassion, said the following.
(7) The Supreme Lord said: 'Devotion in the discipline of yoga so diverse in its appearance, knows many paths, oh noble lady, ways proving how people follow their own course in line with their natural qualities.
(8) What one does out of love for Me in a spirit of violence, pride and envy or out of anger with a fractional view, is considered as acting in the mode of ignorance.
(9) He who worships Me with idols in a sectarian way and aims at material things, fame and opulence, is in the mode of passion.
(10) Someone entertaining an alternative view is in goodness when he worships Me with offering the results of his actions or when he for the sake of transcendence desires to be free from karma [profit-minded labor].
(11-12) In case of an uninterrupted flow of thoughts in the direction of Me who is present in everyone's heart - just like the water of the Ganges that continuously flows towards the ocean - and when one wishes to hear about My qualities only without losing oneself in ulterior motives, one may speak of an exhibition of pure devotional service, of bhakti unto the Supreme Person.
(13) Without being of My service, pure devotees will not accept it - not even when being offered these - to live on the same planet, to have the same opulence, to be a personal associate, to have the same bodily features or to be joined in oneness [the so-called five forms of liberation of sâlokya, sârshthi, sâmîpya, sârûpya and ekatva or sâyujya].
(14) When one by means of this bhakti yoga - which one calls the highest platform - succeeds in dealing with the three modes of nature the way I explained it, one attains My transcendental nature.
(15) When one performs one's duties without attachment to the results one is stronger [in one's yoga] and when one without unnecessary violence [without eating meat e.g.] is regular in the performance of one's yoga exercises one will find happiness.
(16) Being in touch [with the ritual of] seeing, offering respect, doing mantras and being of a positive approach with My benevolence and abode, and thinking of Me as being present in all living beings, one is of detachment by the mode of goodness.
(17-19) By means of sense control and proper regulation [yama and niyama, the does and don'ts of yoga *], being of the greatest respect for the great souls, being compassionate with the poor and by being friendly in association with like-minded souls; by hearing about spiritual matters, chanting My holy names, being straightforward, by association with civilized people and not entertaining false ego, the consciousness of a person who with these qualities is dutiful towards Me is completely purified. No doubt he by simply hearing about My excellence will directly reach Me.
(20) The way the sense of smell catches the aroma that is carried from its source by means of the air, similarly consciousness by means of yoga catches the Supreme Soul who is free from change.(21) A mortal human of worship for the deity but with no respect for Me who, in the form of the Supersoul, is always situated in every living being, is nothing but a hanger-on.
(22) Someone who in worship of the deity has no regard for Me as the Supreme Ruler and Supersoul present in all beings, is in his ignorance only offering oblations into the ashes.
(23) He who offers Me his respects but is envious when others are present, lives in his campaigning against others with his opposing view in enmity and will never find peace of mind.
(24) Oh sinless one, I am certainly not pleased when they who manage to worship Me in My deity form with all paraphernalia, are not of respect for other living beings.
(25) One has to worship the idol of Me, the Lord, and such, for as long as one is of profit minded labor [is building up karma] and not of the realization that I reside in one's own heart and in the heart of others.
(26) In the form of death I shall create fear in those who discriminate with regard to the body of themselves and that of others [who discriminate according to race and sex].
(27) One should therefore, with charity, respect and in friendship regarding everyone as an equal, propitiate Me, the One True Self abiding in all.
(28) Living entities are better developed than inanimate objects, better than entities with life symptoms, oh blessed one, are entities with a developed consciousness and better than those are they who developed sense perception.
(29) Among them, those who developed taste are better than those who [only] developed a sense of touch and better than they are those who developed a sense of smell. Even better are those creatures who developed the faculty to hear.
(30) Better than those are the ones distinguishing differences of form and those who have teeth in both their jaws are better than these. Those who have many legs are superior to them. Of them the four-legged creatures are the ones better developed while the two-legged ones [the human beings] are even better.
(31) Among human beings a society with four classes is the better one and of those classes the brahmins are developed the best. Among the brahmins the better one is he who knows the Vedas and of those the one who knows its purpose is even better [viz. to know the absolute of the truth in three phases: brahman, paramâtmâ and bhagavân].
(32) The one who puts an end to all doubts is better than he who knows what the purpose of the Vedas is and the brahmin among them who performs his duty is better than him. He who is free from worldly attachment is still better and the one who performs his righteous duty not for himself alone is the best developed of them all.
(33) Therefore I know of no greater being than a person who with a dedicated mind has offered all of his actions, wealth and life without any reservation to Me and with persistence is of service without any other interest.
(34) Such a one who regards the Supreme Lord, the Controller of the individual soul, as having entered all the living beings by His expansion in the form of the Supersoul [the Paramâtmâ], is therefore mindfully of respect for his fellow creatures.
(35) Oh daughter of Manu, someone can attain the Original Person by following either of these two paths of bhakti and mystic yoga separately that I have described.
(36) This [original] form of the Supreme Lord of Brahman [the Supreme Spirit] and Paramâtmâ [the personalized local aspect] is the transcendental, ethereal personality of the primal reality [pradhâna], the most important person, all of whose activities are spiritual.
(37) [Natural] time, known as the divine cause of the different manifestations of the living entities, constitutes the reason why all living beings who consider themselves as existing in separation, from the greatest on, live in fear.
(38) He who from within enters all the living entities, constitutes the support of everyone and annihilates [them again] by means of other living beings, is named Vishnu, the enjoyer of all sacrifices who is that time factor, the master of all masters.
(39) There is no one specially favored by Him, nobody is his friend or enemy. He cares for those who are attentive and of those who are inattentive He is the destroyer.
(40-45) He for whom the wind out of fear blows and this sun is shining, for whom out of fear Indra sends his rains and the heavenly bodies are shining; He because of whom out of fear the trees, creepers and herbs each in their own time bear flowers and produce their fruits; He afraid of whom the rivers flow and the oceans do not overflow, because of whom fire burns and the earth with her mountains does not submerge; He because of whom the sky provides air to those who breathe and under the control of whom the universe expands its body of the complete reality [mahat-tattva] with its seven layers [**], He for whom out of fear the gods of creation and more, in charge of the basic qualities of nature, within this world carry out their functions according to the yugas [see 3.11], He of whom afraid all the animate and inanimate beings find their control; that infinite, final operator of beginningless Time is the unchangeable Creator who creates people out of people and by means of death puts an end to the rule of death.'
