Chapter 12 · Verse 20·Spoken by Krishna
ये तु धर्म्यामृतमिदं यथोक्तं पर्युपासते।श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेऽतीव मे प्रियाः
ye tu dharmyāmṛitam idaṁ yathoktaṁ paryupāsate śhraddadhānā mat-paramā bhaktās te ’tīva me priyāḥ
But those who hold to this immortal teaching, just as I have declared it, who have faith and look to me as the supreme goal, those devotees are exceedingly dear to me.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
his is the closing verse of the chapter, and Krishna uses it to gather everything He has just said into one point. The verses before this (roughly 13 to 19) laid out a long list of marks of the ideal devotee: hating no being, friendly and compassionate, even-minded in pain and pleasure, content, steady, and so on. Here Krishna sums up that whole list and attaches its reward. He calls the list 'dharmyamrita', which can be unpacked as 'the nectar (amrita) of dharma (right way of living)'. The commentators agree the verse is a deliberate conclusion, a tying-off of the chapter, not a fresh teaching.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Madhvācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The phrase 'dharmyamrita', nectar of dharma, is explained in two complementary ways that most commentators accept. First, this body of dharma is called 'nectar' (amrita, literally 'the deathless') because it is the means to immortality, to liberation; living by these qualities leads one out of death and rebirth. Some add a second sense: it is 'nectar' because it is sweet, to be tasted and relished like the gods' draught of immortality. Either way, the point is that the catalogue of qualities is not a dry rulebook but a life-giving, liberating discipline.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The verse names three inner conditions of the one who is dear. First, he must follow this dharma-nectar 'as it has been described' (yathokta), exactly as Krishna laid it out, not a watered-down or partial version. Second, he must do so 'with faith' (shraddha), trusting the teaching. Third, he must hold Krishna, the Lord, as supreme (mat-parama): the Lord is his highest goal and refuge, the one thing to be attained. The commentators stress that the practice, the faith, and the God-centeredness must go together; it is the devotee marked by all three who is meant.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The climax of the verse is the word 'atiiva', exceedingly. Such a devotee is not merely dear to the Lord but exceedingly dear, dear above all. Several commentators note that this fulfills and explains an earlier hint in the Gita (7.17, 'the knower is exceedingly dear to Me'): what was only suggested there is now spelled out and concluded here. The Lord Himself, before the practice is even undertaken, names the affection that will follow it, so the seeker can be sure the path is welcomed. This is the strongest expression of divine love offered in the chapter.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
Because the Lord declares such a devotee exceedingly dear, the commentators draw a practical conclusion: this dharma-nectar is to be taken up with effort by anyone who seeks liberation and longs to reach the supreme abode. Several note a subtle point here: in the fully realized soul these very qualities arise naturally, by themselves, and are simply marks or symptoms of his realization, not means he labors at. But for the seeker who is still on the way, the same qualities become a discipline to be practiced deliberately, as the means to that realization. So the same list functions two ways depending on where one stands: spontaneous fruit in the perfected, chosen practice in the aspirant.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the verse as the seal of the chapter and indeed of the whole middle group of six chapters, whose theme is the discrimination of the word 'tat' (That), the supreme reality. For them the Lord one holds as supreme is the imperishable Self (akshara), Brahman without distinctions, the unconditioned, identical with one's own true Self; the worship here is finally the knowledge of that supreme truth. They make a careful structural point: the qualities (hating no being and the rest) are by nature spontaneous symptoms in the one who has already realized the Self, arising effortlessly once Self-awareness has dawned, and so are not means. Yet for the seeker of knowledge the very same qualities are to be cultivated by effort as the means to that knowledge. They see the verse pointing forward: with these qualities ripened, the seeker moves from meditation on the conditioned Lord to contemplation of the unconditioned, through hearing, reflection, and deep meditation, until direct realization and liberation follow. Some add that the chapter has thereby expounded the meaning of 'tat' in both its conditioned (saguna) and unconditioned (nirguna) aspects.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators read the 'dharma-nectar' as the discipline of devotion itself (bhakti-yoga), worshipped in the manner taught earlier in the chapter ('having entered the mind into Me, those who worship Me'). They draw out a precise double meaning in 'amrita': this discipline is both the bringer-to-the-attainment and equal to the thing attained, that is, the practice is itself of the same sweet nature as the goal it leads to, so means and end are not split apart. One of them dwells especially on the affective force of the closing: the verse 'fastens the chapter's gift'. The catalogue of marks is the practical instruction given to the candidate; the Lord Himself then names the response that follows, raising it to the highest pitch, exceedingly dear. The candidate need not wonder whether his practice is welcomed, for the Lord has declared, before the practice is even begun, that the one who undertakes it is exceedingly dear to Him.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
These commentators give a distinctive word-analysis. They take 'dharma' itself to mean Vishnu: that which has Vishnu for its object, and which does not deviate from Vishnu-centered duty, is 'dharmya'. The 'dharmya-nectar' is then this Vishnu-directed practice, which is 'nectar' (amrita) as the destroyer of the round of death and rebirth; the word 'amrita', literally 'not-dead', uses the negative particle in the sense of contrariety, marking it as the very opposite of death. One of them clarifies that this dharma is not some unseen merit but the present practice, the limb of the worship of the Lord, which is both what the engaged one does and the means by which one who has ceased from bondage is freed. They also parse 'shraddadhana', the faithful, from 'shrat' (faith) plus the root meaning 'to hold': those who hold faith.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the verse as the Lord rounding off His teaching by declaring the special dearness of the one fixed in grace-given devotion (pushti-bhakti) over the one fixed merely in the path of rule and limit (maryada), who takes the imperishable as Self. For them the 'dharma' that is not departed from is the dharma of loving service, and the devotees are 'divine-natured souls' who follow it out in faith, taking the Lord as their sole refuge. One of them stresses the universality of the opening word 'ye' (those who): there is no restriction by caste or any other condition; any fortunate ones whoever they may be, single-pointed in the Lord and trusting His word as true, become dear, indeed dearer to Him than their own self. One contrasts the two paths plainly: on the path of unmanifest worship within rule there is pain, while on the path of grace-given devotion to Krishna there is happiness.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators read the verse as the Lord summing up, together with its fruit, the whole body of devotional qualities He has described, and declaring the reward to those who long to grasp the teaching fully. One develops a striking point from the word 'but' (tu): the devotees described earlier are each founded in this or that single good quality, but those who long for all of those various good qualities together, the practitioners who crave the full relish of devotion, are superior even to those already perfected, and that is precisely why the word 'exceedingly' is used. Another stresses that these qualities are not the ordinary worldly traits but qualities born of devotion and of the peace devotion brings, since the Lord is pleased by devotion, not by mere qualities. One reads the worship as taking refuge in the discipline, the means of attainment, as though it were the Lord Himself, the thing to be attained, so that the Lord is then utterly mastered by such love. The Marathi commentary widens it warmly: those who hear this nectar-sweet teaching and turn it into living self-experience, giving it a permanent place in the heart, are the true devotees and yogins, and the Lord feels an eternal longing for them; they themselves become holy places of pilgrimage.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators read the verse as the Lord's description of His most beloved devotee and the close of the chapter on devotion. One underlines that the devotee, the man of wisdom, and the yogi all share the same fundamental characteristics, so the verse fulfills and concludes the earlier promise that the wise one is exceedingly dear (7.17). One brings a careful resolution of an apparent contradiction: the Lord says here that such a devotee is exceedingly dear, yet elsewhere (9.29) He says He is the same to all, with none dear and none hateful; this is no real conflict, since the one statement is made from the standpoint of devotion and worship of the perceptible Lord, while the other is from the standpoint of metaphysics and the doctrine of causality. The most expansive of them offers a developed teaching of his own: he distinguishes the still-striving seeker-devotee (sadhaka) from the perfected devotee (siddha), and argues that the verse means the seeker is especially dear, even more than the perfected one. The seeker still needs faith (shraddha), since he has not yet experienced the ever-present Lord, while the perfected one no longer needs it; the seeker labors to draw the Lord's nectar-teaching into himself, taking the perfected devotee's qualities as his model. This commentator gives three tender reasons the still-striving devotee is exceedingly dear: he trusts and takes refuge in the Lord without yet having attained Him, so the Lord is doubly bound to him; he is like a small unaware child, who is naturally dearer than the grown, knowing son; and since the Lord has not yet granted him direct vision, the Lord still feels Himself in the seeker's debt.
Swami Sivananda · Mahatma Gandhi · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If the Lord is equal to all, with none dear and none hateful, how can He call some devotees exceedingly dear here?
The contradiction is only apparent, and dissolves once you see that the two statements are made from two different standpoints. When the Lord says He is the same to all, He speaks from the standpoint of metaphysics, of the ultimate cause that underlies and is equal in everything; from that height there is no playing of favorites. When He says here that the devotee is exceedingly dear, He speaks from the standpoint of the living relationship of devotion and worship. Both are true at once on their own levels.
Lokmanya Tilak
Notice too that nothing arbitrary is going on. The Lord does not love some and reject others by whim; He names a condition open to anyone. Whoever follows this dharma-nectar with faith, holding Him as supreme, becomes dear, and the opening word 'those who' carries no restriction of caste or birth: any fortunate soul whatever, single-pointed in Him, qualifies. So the 'exceeding dearness' is not partiality but the natural warmth that meets a heart turned wholly toward Him.
Śrī Puruṣottama · Vallabhācārya
And the dearness is best understood as relational rather than as the Lord's withholding love from anyone. The closeness grows from the devotee's side, drawn out by his faith and self-surrender; the Lord, met with such love, is as it were mastered by it and bound to the one who trusts and takes refuge in Him without yet having attained Him. This is why what was only hinted earlier, that the knower is exceedingly dear, is now stated outright: the same divine love that is equally available becomes 'exceeding' precisely where a devotee has wholly opened to it.
Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śaṅkarācārya
Contemplation
Take heart from where this leaves the ordinary seeker. You do not have to already be perfect to be dear to the Lord; the still-striving devotee, the one who keeps trying, is here called exceedingly dear, even above the one who has arrived. So treat the long list of qualities (verses 13 to 19) not as a test you have failed but as your model and framework: hold the marks of the perfected devotee before you as your ideal, and let them slowly draw into you as you lean on the Lord. The practical key is wholeness. Take the teaching 'exactly as stated', not a convenient fragment of it, because a practice still mixed with its opposite stays unfinished, and the mixture quietly breeds pride in the little you have done. You may not yet feel full compassion for every being, but see to it that there is not the slightest cruelty in you; that much is in your hands. And when, despite your effort, some unworthy impulse arises, do not ignore it: uproot it at once, and if you cannot, pray it away with real longing before the Lord. Above all, keep taking refuge; the verse underlines this threefold. Once you are truly His, the Lord's grace carries the practice forward of itself, the obstacles dissolve, and you are drawn, as a child is drawn, into the love of the One who already counts you exceedingly dear.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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