Meaning
Supreme God Krishna spoke
But those who worship the One {Formless God} that is Omnipresent, Indeterminate, Unchangeable, Constant, Immovable, and beyond the scope of the human intellect, (12:3)
By maintaining complete control over all their senses, remaining equanimous in all situations, and being devoted to the welfare of all beings, they also attain Me. (12:4)
Sanskrit
श्रीभगवान् उवाच
सन्नियम्येन्द्रियग्रामं सर्वत्र समबुद्धयः ।
ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मामेव सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥
Word-by-word
सम्-नियम्य इन्द्रिय-ग्रामम्, सर्वत्र सम-बुद्धयः—
ते प्राप्नुवन्ति माम्-एव, सर्व-भूत-हिते-रताः।।
Commentary
The following verse of the Rām-charit-mānas caries a reflection of this Gitā verse: “Sagunahi agunahi nahin kachhu bhedā. Gavahin muni Purāna budh Bedā. Agun aroop alakh aj joi. bhagat prem bas sagun so hoi.” —“There is no distinction between the Divine Being in a personal form and the Divine in formlessness. The Formless Divine assumes a personal form out of love for devotees.” ^1
A note on "being devoted to the welfare of all beings: This verse is essentially for Meditative Yogis and Knowledge Yogis who seek Formless God (Brahm). Most of them are not householders but renunciant ascetic monks. Look at the beauty of the Bhagavad-Gitā and the Bhagavad-Dharma ("Bhagavadism")—the religion based on the Bhagavad-Gitā—that the Lord asks even the renunciant ascetic monks not to retire from doing good to others. The Lord does not ask the monks to completely forget the interest of others and focus only on their meditative spiritual practice. Buddha was also a Meditative Yogi who practiced and taught meditation to obtain Nirvāna. But in the Dhammapada, he says: "Do not harm your self-interest in the slightest bit for doing good to others. Knowing the glory of self-interest, one should remain focused on meditative practice for Nirvāna.^2 Notice the significant difference between Buddhism and Bhagavadism! Not that Buddha was not benevolent or that he did not want his followers to be compassionate. But he did not wish for the spiritual practice of Nirvāna to be affected in the slightest measure by activities prompted by benevolence. On the other hand, Bhagawān Krishna turned all acts of charity and generosity into an instrument of Nirvāna and God-realization, just by dedicating those acts of benevolence to God (12:6), or by doing good to others on behalf of God, by becoming God's direct agent (12:10). If Bhagawān Krishna had such instructions for renunciant ascetics, what would be His message for the householders!
If a Meditative Yogi or Knowledge Yogi is found with even a tiny bit of birth-based sense of "untouchability,"^3 then understand that he is not going to get God-realization {unless he became equally disposed toward all humans}.
The Bhagavad-Gitā was uttered long before the birth of Jesus. It is surprising that the followers of Jesus first started a worldwide organized mission for philanthropy, even though the Bhagavad-Gitā gave clear instructions for working for the welfare of others. Even when the Holy Books of non-Indic origins contain instructions for doing good to others, their concept of doing good is essentially limited to doing good to humans. On the other hand, the Bhagavad-Gitā repeatedly asks one to do good to all sentient beings, not only humans. Therefore, the faithful followers of the Holy Gitā must organize a worldwide mission to spread the great message of the Bhagavad-Gitā and stand up for doing good to all living beings in all countries in an organized fashion. Surprisingly, the commentators of the Bhagavad-Gitā shied away from bringing out the true import of this verse and other such verses of the Holy Gitā.
Footnotes