अनपेक्षः शुचिर्दक्ष उदासीनो गतव्यथः ।
सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ।। १२.१६ ।।

anapekṣaḥ śucir-dakṣa udāsīno gata-vyathaḥ |
sarvārambha-parityāgī yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ || 12.16 ||

Step by step Krishna presents the subtler refinements a devotee must imbibe and display:

The devotee, who is free of expectations, pure outwardly and inwardly, efficient, moderate and impartial, free of any strong afflictions, keeps away all sense of doership in all that he does or proposes to do, is dear to the Supreme.

Krishna thus includes anapekshata as another virtue. It means non-desiring, non-expecting. This single quality is worth contemplating upon throughout one’s life. Devotion makes one rest upon the Supreme, with full reliance. As Supreme is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, where is the need for one who relies upon the Supreme, to wish for or desire anything any time? Is not the Supreme wise and competent enough to look after our needs and fulfillment? Only when the mind is rid of desires, it becomes pure. Such a pure mind alone becomes worthy of inviting the right blessings and fruition every time.

To be clean inwardly and outwardly is a definite corollary of devotional life. There should be no lethargy in this. A devotee should keep his residence, place of work and the articles he uses, clean and tidy. Cleanliness extended to mind and intelligence implies straightforwardness, openness and innocence in all ways. This is the real spiritual quality that graces the seeker.

With regard to life and interactions, the devotee should always preserve an attitude of evenness, keeping preference or prejudice attentively away. Impartiality thus becomes a constant note in the devotee. To overreact to any event, person or action, is not proper. Likewise to lament or grieve for anything done, not done or being done is also not devotional. Human mind becomes the best when it is steeped in flexible harmony and integration.

Krishna stipulates something more as an inevitable corollary of devotional life. Devotee should be a sarva-arambha-parityagi, he says. This dictum must be understood with clarity. What does it mean? At no time should a true devotee feel that any event or undertaking in his life depends upon him, and he has to do it somehow. To arrogate to oneself the causality of an action and to foster doership about it is wrong. Normally such doership is not easy to remove from the mind. Dutifulness always infects the mind.

The philosophy of action, as explained earlier (3.27,28, 4.18,19, 6.1, 5.15,16) makes it clear that one must shun the feeling of kartrtva and bhoktrtva with regard to anything whatsoever. This does not mean that the devotee will not be doing anything. In fact, he will be doing much more than what any other ordinary person will. Many benevolent activities of larger magnitude may result from him. But at no time should he suffer any kind of torment, thinking that he is the doer, sufferer or enjoyer. This is a unique spiritual loftiness or refinement. Not to foster any doership and at the same time to do all that is necessary, even with greater sacrifice and risk, is the call for a true devotee!

It is significant that Krishna enjoins all these as characteristics of a true devotee. By doing so, he emphasizes that a devotee must ensure goodness, propriety, moderation and excellence in his own character and behaviour. In other words, Krishna insists that a devotee or seeker should be one in whom the best of human excellences and virtues are present. Devotion should elevate one to a model man or woman, whom others will look to for inspiration. The devotee who becomes a repository of these virtues, mental and intelligential excellences, truly pleases the Creator. Naturally, it is for the earnest devotional seeker to enlist himself in this category of beautiful humans.