VIII: 22

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 8, Verse 22

"This highest of states

Can be attained, Arjuna,

By unswerving devotion to me,

Within whom all beings dwell

And by whom all this is pervaded.

Paramahansa Yogananda:

The sole gift a human being may present to the Infinite Giver is love.  To bestow that gift on God, or miserly to withhold it, is our only private power.

Father Bede Griffiths: 

The whole point of Bhakti (devotion) is that it is to be centered on God.  In him and by him, this Universe is "spun out,' like a spider spinning its web.  This can be compared to St. Paul's conception of Christ as the Person in whom all things "hold together."  This Highest Person in whom all these things and beings exist is the Purushottam, and he can be quickened in the heart by love.

St. Francis of Sales:

Many have asked for a secret way to wholeness, but there is not secret way except undivided love for God.  You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running and to work by working.  In the same way, you learn to love by loving.

Sri Krishna Prem:

Above our heads, like the Full Moon, shines forth that higher level of our being, whom we can see beckoning to us, drawing our hearts with her beauty.  The best and easiest means to make the ascent is for aspirants to offer themselves in love and devotion to that which is above their present level of consciousness.  Loving devotion is the easiest and surest way by which people can transcend their limitations.  This is the great force which will carry you out of your egoic self.

These lines of Percy Shelley describe the rapture of the soul soaring towards the Light.

Lamp of Earth!

Where'er Thou movest,

Dim shapes clad with brightness,

Souls whom Thou lovest,

Walk upon the winds with lightness,

Till they fail, as I am failing,

Dizzy and lost, yet unbewailing!