The trouble is the greater. Although for those given to the works of Me and the rest the trouble is indeed great, it is the greater for those whose self is the Imperishable, who see the supreme Self, on account of the giving-up of the conceit of the body. For those whose thought clings to the unmanifest, the goal that is the unmanifest, of the nature of the Imperishable, is reached, with difficulty, by those who have a body, who have the conceit of the body; and so the trouble is the greater. What is the conduct of the worshippers of the Imperishable I shall say later on.

But for those whose minds are attached to the unmanifest, the toil is the greater; for the unmanifest course, the working of the mind whose object is the unmanifest, is gained with pain by the embodied, by those joined with the conceit of the body as the self; for the embodied take the body itself for the self. The Lord states quite plainly the being-the-most-joined of those who worship the Blessed One.

Then how are your worshippers the highest? To that Krishna says, with 'the toil'. 'The unmanifest course is reached with pain': 'course' (gati) is the path. The sense is that the path to attaining Me by way of the worship of the unmanifest is reached with pain. Without the whole array of means, the highest worship, the utter restraint of all the senses, the buddhi that is even toward all, the delight in the welfare of all beings, the exceedingly good conduct, right devotion to Vishnu and the rest, there is no direct realization of the unmanifest; and without that there is no grace of Vishnu. Even when that grace is present, without a complete worship of the Lord there is no release; while, even without the worship of the unmanifest, release does come about for the worshippers of the Lord. So this is the more toilsome path; that is the sense. Even so, for those who have made the unmanifest a thing of direct realization, the worship of the Lord becomes easy, and that is its purpose. And even there, with the same effort one spends on the direct realization of the unmanifest, or with less, if one worships the Lord, the direct realization of the Lord Himself comes about; so the second is the greater. Where there is a falling-short in the restraint of the senses and the rest, the goddess does not come to full grace even for one who worships much; but the Lord, of His own accord, by His effort, gives those means to one who has devotion, and so there is ease for the devotees in the worship of the Lord, while elsewhere the toil is greater. All this is conveyed by the words 'worship', 'restraining well', and 'the greater'. The Madhucchandas branch of the Samaveda says, 'those devotees who are exceedingly devoted to Vishnu, exceedingly conquerors of the senses, joined with right conduct, and even-minded, who worship her, to them the goddess is seen, and not to others; and she, seen, being herself devoted to Vishnu, having given them worship, cuts off all obstacles; worshipping that Vasudeva and knowing Him, thence one comes to utter peace'. And the Ayasya branch of the Samaveda says, 'the God will become gracious, together with the unmanifest; for as much as His grace, just so much, no doubt of it. But the great Lord is not pleased by the grace of her alone; when He is pleased, the being-pleased of all surely follows. Though the worship of her be greater, yet He is the giver of qualities, and He alone is the giver of release, and not the unmanifest or any other'. And there is the word of Shri in the Moksha-dharma, 'wishing for the state of being My self, they strive for the supreme Self' (Mahabharata 12.228.20), and 'in one ever devoted to dharma, of great understanding, devoted to Brahman, truth-speaking, modest and of a giving nature, I ever dwell' (Mahabharata 12.228.26). 'Higher than the great' is Brahman alone. So the Lord has said it with reasoning, 'if it be said that He speaks, no, for He is the wise one; the setting-out is of three alone, and so is the question', and the rest; and this is established from the masculine gender in the word 'Him'. The being-higher-than-the-great does belong to one who is higher than the unmanifest, so the Agniveshya branch says, 'beginningless and endless, higher than the great, fixed' (Katha Upanishad 1.3.15), and 'higher indeed is the God, the much-invoked, than the great'. Nor is the unmanifest form rejected by the Lord, since it is established in the Bharata and elsewhere; and in 'of the grasping set down in the figure of a body' and the like, having rejected the principal one well known to the Sankhyas, it is the Vedic unmanifest that is spoken of. So the Saukarayana scripture says, 'the one in bodily form, of the bodiless Vishnu, because she is dear, she is the bringing-forth of the world'. The distinction is that the goddess swiftly gives great lordship to those of good vows, while the God does not. So the supplementary hymns of the Rigveda say, 'knowing the golden-hued goddess, lotus in hand, the sovereign of all, who pervades the insentient, and that she is herself such, Shri gives great glory to those of good vows within a month, but the God does not'.