181. The Starting Point

Krishna says, "Those who fix their minds on Me, worship ME (in the manifested Form) endowed with Shraddha (trust), I consider them to be the best in yoga" (12.2). Though this answer is specific to Arjun, it broadly applies to all of us. Secondly, Shraddha is the foundation for any spiritual journey. Krishna immediately clarifies that the path of the Formless or Unmanifest is also a path to reach him. He says, "But those who worship the Formless aspect of the Imperishable, the Indescribable, the Unmanifest, the All-pervading, the Incomprehensible, the Unchanging, the Eternal, and the Immutable; by restraining their senses and possess evenmindedness in every circumstance, such persons, rejoicing in the welfare of all beings, also attain Me" (12.3-12.4).  He compares both paths and says, "For those whose minds are attached to the Unmanifest, the path of realization is full of difficulties. Worship of the Unmanifest is exceedingly difficult for embodied beings" (12.5). Any journey starts from our current position. A journey to Delhi from Chandigarh would be in one direction and the same from Agra would be in the opposite direction. Similarly, our journey to Paramatma depends on our current position. Broadly, our present condition is that we are in the midst of attachment (includes hatred) to things, people, feelings, memories and belief systems. This leads to multiple minds, often contradicting each other (polypsychic) -one for each attachment. The journey is from multiple minds (attachments) to one attachment to the Paramatma in the Form (manifested). Finally, even this attachment gets dropped to be one with Paramatma. This background helps us understand 'fixing the mind on Krishna' (12.2) as having one pointed mind towards Paramatma from multiple attachments. While advising the path of Form (manifested), Krishna understands our difficulties with attachment and hence, guides us to fix the mind towards him with Shraddha.