# BH Gita Ch 12 - Bhakti Yoga

By [Prabhat Kumar](https://dylit.info/user/prabhatdylit6)

[Bhagavad Gita at Work](https://dylit.info/presence/Bhagavad-Gita-at-Work/67b2b145fbcd67203fde76c9) > [Ch12-Bhakti-Yoga](https://dylit.info/channel/Ch12-Bhakti-Yoga/680fa7965f927126d6e7554d)

Verse 1-5 Yoga: The process of taking you from lower level of understanding to higher level. The certain knowledge is yoga and certain knowledge is not yoga. Hey Keshav, please tell me which is better between the one who meditates on the form (saguna Brahman) and the one who meditates on formless (achintaye – nirguna Brahman). Saguna Brahman is the first step of the process to reach Nirguna Brahman. All questions and answers are done in Dwait. When your questions are related to the external world – then you realize saguna Brahman. When I start focusing on internal items, then we start realizing my thoughts, ideas, activities of my mind and bodies. Concentration and Meditation Concentration is related to the state of self-forgetfulness (forget who I am?). Your mind gets focused on one object. Meditation is related to the Self-awareness (True Nature – Aham Brahmasmi). You go beyond the mind. “Tulsidas explained fire hidden inside a piece of wood is Nirguna Brahman. Fire out of the wood is Saguna Brahman.” While you can focus on Me (Saguna Brahman) with shraddha, you need to move beyond Me to increase awareness and eventually reach Nirguna Brahman. Bhakti-yoga is the one which is related to making progress from your current state to another state. 1.      -  Arth 2.      -  Artharth 3.      -- Jigyasu 4.       -- Gyani (Jnana) Quantity of thoughts (sewa bhava, amount of vasanas have to be reduced), Quality of thoughts (shraddha and Bhakti), and Direction of thoughts (Gyan/Jnana) determines your actions – positive and negative. Understand your nature and perform your action with knowledge (Self and self). Your dharma state changes with time. Your karma defines you as a father, son, husband and so on. Verse 6-12 Mad karma and Mad-parayan Background: some pandit (Pandurang Shastri) talked about Ram Rajya. Then, people asked, let’s see how Ram Rajya looks like? He thought that this Ram Rajya is not available in India. So, how can I show this to others. How can we create Ram Rajya? So, he started working for one hour with focus on Bhagawan. He started going to fisher’s community and asking them how you are doing? After a while they said we are devoting one hour to Bhagawan. Slowly, fishermen started devoting one hour for Bhagawan and started collecting money. That money was used to create a Boat. Slowly, they created 18 boats and used that money to pay for education. Also, created a place of worship inside the house. In our daily activities, we can devote certain time for Bhagawan (other’s benefit). This is called mad karma , where you are not the owner of the work, nor you are the owner of the results of work. There is a process to reach Me. Who am I? is the focus of this chapter.