History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.188

v7.c91.188

Gītā does not expressly enumerate all these nine modes of bhakti, but most of them can be gathered from various passages of the Gītā such as IX. 14, 26, 27 and from passages in other Purāṇas. For example, the Viṣṇupurāṇa¹⁵⁷³ says 'whatever be the expiatory rites, consisting of austerities, deeds of charity &c., to remember Kṛṣṇa is superior to them all' and 'that repetition of His name with bhakti is the best solvent of all sins, as fire is of metals'. In the Bhāgavata¹⁵⁷⁴ it is said 'whatever the devotee does by his body, speech, mind, organs of sense, by his intellect or by his soul or by the force of temperament that he follows—all that he should offer to Nārāyaṇa who is highest'. This is entirely in line with Gītā IX. 27 and may be called '*dāsya-bhakti*', while Arjuna's bhakti is '*sakhya-bhakti*', as Lord Kṛṣṇa himself speaks of him as 'my devotee and a friend' (Gītā IV. 3). It appears that the Gītā regards the performance¹⁵⁷⁵ of the duties of his station in life by a *bhakta* as worship (*arcana* or *pūjā*) of God 'worshipping by the performance of one's duties (without an eye to the fruit or rewards of them) God from whom the world springs and by whom all this world is permeated, a man obtains perfection (and not only by offering flowers or by reciting the name of God).