I am the same, equal, in all beings. To Me none is hateful and none dear. I am like fire: as fire does not take away the cold of those who stand far off, but takes it away for those who draw near, so I favour devotees and not the others. But those who worship Me, the Lord, with devotion are in Me, by their very nature, not by reason of any passion of Mine; and in them too I dwell, by My very nature, not in the others. By this there is no aversion in Me toward those others. Hear the greatness of devotion to Me.

Toward all beings, abiding as god, animal, man, and unmoving thing, abiding in utterly higher and lower forms by caste, by shape, by nature, and by knowledge, I am the same in being one to be resorted to. No one is hateful to Me, none to be cast off as a thing to recoil from, with the thought 'this one, by caste, shape, nature, knowledge, and the rest, is low, so he is not to be resorted to'; and no one, by the excess of caste and the rest, is dear to Me, none to be drawn in, with the thought 'this one, by caste and the rest, is utterly high, so as joined with that he is to be resorted to'. Rather, those who, by an exceedingly great love for Me, since they gain no holding-up of themselves without the worship of Me, having the worship of Me for their single purpose, worship Me, they, whether high or low by caste and the rest, abide in Me, as it pleases them, as though endowed with qualities equal to Mine; and I too am in them as though they were higher than I.

Then, since He has fondness and the rest, would He give a great fruit to some slight devotee, and the contrary to some contrary person? To that Krishna says, 'I am the same'. Then devotion would serve no purpose; to that He says, 'those who worship'. 'They are in Me, and I too in them' means, 'they are in My power, and I in theirs'. So the Paingi supplementary hymns say, 'those who worship the supreme Person, He is in their power, and they are in Mine'. They are indeed always in His power; even so, there is a difference by its being deliberate or not deliberate, as in the case of Uddhava and the rest, and of Shishupala and the rest. This is said in that same text, 'one who is first in His power without deliberation comes again into His power, by meditation, deliberately'.