Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 12, Verse 1
अर्जुन उवाचएवं सततयुक्ता ये भक्तास्त्वां पर्युपासते।येचाप्यक्षरमव्यक्तं तेषां के योगवित्तमाः।।
arjuna uvāca
evaṁ satata-yuktā ye bhaktās tvāṁ paryupāsate
ye cāpy akṣaram avyaktaṁ teṣāṁ ke yoga-vittamāḥ
also searched as "evam satatayukta ye bhaktas tvam paryupasate"
Translation
Arjuna said: Which of these has greater knowledge of yoga—those devotees who meditate on You, ever integrated, or those who meditate on the Imperishable and the Unmanifest?
Vāṇi's rendering
Some love and worship you, always joined to you. Others seek the formless imperishable. Which knows yoga best?
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अर्जुनarjuna | Arjuna |
| उवाचuvāca | said |
| एवम्evaṁ | in this way — as you have just described |
| सततयुक्ताःsatata-yuktāḥ | constantly joined, never off the thread |
| येye | those who |
| भक्ताःbhaktāḥ | lovers, devoted ones (sandhi: bhaktāḥ + tvām becomes bhaktās tvām) |
| त्वाम्tvāṁ | you |
| पर्युपासतेparyupāsate | sit close and serve, worship all around |
| येye | those who |
| चca | and (sandhi: ca + api becomes cāpi) |
| अपिapi | also |
| अक्षरम्akṣaram | the imperishable, what never wears away |
| अव्यक्तम्avyaktaṁ | the unmanifest, what shows no form |
| तेषाम्teṣāṁ | of those two |
| केke | which ones |
| योगवित्तमाःyoga-vittamāḥ | best knowers of yoga |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12 Verse 1 mean?
Arjuna asks Krishna a comparison. Some worship you with form, constantly joined in love; others reach for the akṣara, the imperishable without form. Which of them knows yoga best? It is the question that opens the whole chapter on bhakti, and Arjuna asks it because he genuinely does not know.
What does evam satatayukta ye bhaktas tvam paryupasate mean?
It describes those who stay constantly joined to Krishna and sit close in worship — paryupāsate suggests attending all around, the way one waits near someone loved. Arjuna sets them beside those who seek the formless, and asks which path carries a person further.
Is devotion to a form lower than meditation on the formless?
Arjuna assumes one must be higher. Krishna's answer in the verses following does not scold him for asking — it simply says the formless road is harder for embodied beings, because a body reaches for what it can hold. Neither road is condemned. One is nearer to how you are made.
Why does Arjuna ask this question right after the cosmic form?
Because he has just seen both at once — the vast, unspeakable expanse and the friend standing beside his chariot. Having seen them, he wants to know where to put his attention now. That is not idle theology. It is a man asking what to do tomorrow morning.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna has just seen the form that swallowed worlds, and his first question after it is practical: which way is better? Two roads. One holds a face, a name, someone to love. The other releases all form and rests in what cannot be spoken. Arjuna wants to know which traveller arrives. Notice he asks Krishna — the one wearing the form — so the answer is already leaning, and Krishna will not pretend otherwise. But the question is honest, and it is yours every time you suspect your plain loving is somehow smaller than another's silence. Ask it out loud, the way he did.