Sanskrit
भक्त्या मामभिजानाति यावान्यश्चास्मि तत्त्वतः । ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा विशते तदनन्तरम् ॥ ५५ ॥
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ tato māṃ tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram
Translation
By devotion he knoweth Me in essence, who and what I am; having thus known Me in essence he forthwith entereth into the Supreme.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Bhakti is now credited with the thing pure knowledge alone couldn’t deliver — knowing Krishna “in essence” (tattvatah) and, on that basis, entering the Supreme. Bhakti is worth naming plainly, since no dedicated concept page exists for it in this collection: it denotes something more specific than generic reverence, a devotional relationship of love and surrender to a personal Krishna, distinct from jnana’s analytical self-inquiry and karma’s disciplined, detached action, and here declared the final gate through which even Brahman-knowledge must pass to become complete.