Devotion is essentially the disposition of our heart to love and serve Krishna. And from that devotional desire, all auspiciousness emerges, as the Bhagavad-gita indicates in its four nutshell verses (10.08-11).

The Gita conveys first the supreme position of the object of devotion (10.08) and the absorption of the devoted (10.09). It then (10.10-11) outlines how such devotional desire removes inauspiciousness. Krishna gives the devoted the intelligence to come to him (10.10). That is, when we strive to serve him lovingly, he helps us overcome the misconceptions that prevent our consciousness from rising to the levels mentioned earlier: understanding him to be the Absolute Truth (10.08) and becoming absorbed in him (10.09).

The next verse (10.11) declares that Krishna from within the heart destroys the darkness of ignorance with the torchlight of knowledge. Intriguingly, this verse refers to knowledge and heart together. Knowledge is usually thought of as a function of the head, while the heart is usually thought of as the seat of emotion. By its paradoxical juxtaposition of knowledge and the heart, the Gita points to the special nature of this knowledge. It is the knowledge of the heart, knowledge about the most worthy object of our love. When this special knowledge illumines our heart, we see clearly that Krishna alone is the best object for our love – everything else is meant to be not a competitor to Krishna, but a pointer to him. Being guided by such knowledge, we increasingly concentrate our love on him, thus becoming purified. We break free from our attachments to impure things and connect our devotionally dovetailable attachments with him.

Thus, devotion makes our head clear, freeing it from various misconceptions, and our heart pure, freeing it from various misdirections, thereby enabling us to march straight and swift towards Krishna.

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