What the Bhagavad Gita says about devotion
The most socially consequential verse in the Gita is 9.32, which says that anyone at all who takes refuge reaches the highest goal, including the people the ritual system of the time shut out. No qualification by birth, learning or ceremonial purity is required. That single sentence is a large part of why the book travelled so far beyond the circles that produced it.
9.26 shows what is being asked for, and the answer is almost nothing. A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water. What is specified is not the value of the offering but that it is offered with love.
The structural surprise comes at the end. You might expect devotion to be the beginner's route and knowledge the advanced one. 18.54 reverses it: having become calm and steady, the person then attains the highest love. And 18.55 says it is through love that he comes to know Krishna as he actually is, which makes devotion the instrument of knowing rather than a reward for having known.
The verses 19
7.16
Four kinds of good people turn to me, Arjuna: the one in trouble, the one who wants to understand, the one who wants something, and the one who knows.
7.17
Of these, the one who knows stands out - always joined, devoted to one thing only.
8.22
That supreme person, within whom all beings rest and by whom all this is spread out, is reached by devotion given to him and to nothing else.
9.13
But the great souls, Arjuna, taking refuge in the divine nature, worship me with undivided mind, knowing me as the imperishable origin of beings.
9.14
Always speaking of me, striving, firm in what they have undertaken, bowing to me with love, always joined - so they worship.
9.22
For those who think of me with nothing else beside, who stay near me, always joined - I carry what they need to get and what they need to keep.
9.26
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water - whoever offers that to me with love, I take it.
9.29
I am the same toward all beings.
9.34
Keep your mind on me.
11.54
But by devotion to me and nothing else, Arjuna, I can be known in this way, and seen as I am, and entered into.
11.55
Whoever does my work, who holds me highest, who is devoted to me, free of attachment, without enmity toward any being - that person comes to me, Arjuna.
12.2
Krishna said: Those who settle their minds on me and worship me, always joined, with the highest faith - I consider them the most joined of all.
12.6
But those who give all their actions over to me, who hold me as highest, who meditate on me with undivided practice and worship me…
12.7
… for them I become the one who lifts them out of the ocean of dying and being born, before long, Arjuna, since their minds have entered me.
12.8
Place your mind in me alone, let your reason rest in me.
12.20
Those who take up this nectar of the lasting way, just as it has been told, with faith, holding me as the highest - those devotees are exceedingly dear to me.
18.55
Through love he comes to know me as I am and how much I am.
18.65
Keep your mind on me, love me, offer to me, bow to me.
18.66
Let go of all duties and come to me alone for shelter.