Arjuna said: Who are the most excellent in the knowledge of yoga — those devotees who are always absorbed in You, or those who worship the Imperishable, the unmanifest?

Arjuna poses the central question of Bhakti Yoga: is it superior to worship Kṛṣṇa in His personal form (saguṇa) or the impersonal Brahman (nirguṇa)? This duality between the manifest (vyakta) and the unmanifest (avyakta) reflects two distinct spiritual paths.

The Vedic tradition contemplates both paths. The impersonalists (jñānīs) seek merger into the akṣara brahma — the ultimate Reality without attributes. The devotees (bhaktas) find fullness in relationship with the personified Divine.

Kṛṣṇa will answer throughout the chapter that both attain liberation, but the path of bhakti is more accessible for embodied human beings.