The verse and its meaning · Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 7 · Those Who Turn to Him

Four Kinds of Worshippers

Bhagavad Gita 7.16

चतुर्विधा भजन्ते मां जनाः सुकृतिनोऽर्जुन। आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ

Meaning · English

Four kinds of people who have done good come to worship me, Arjun, best of the Bharatas: the one in distress, the one who wants to know, the one who wants some gain, and the one who is established in knowledge.

Krishna sorts the people who turn to him into four. The word sukritinah means those with good deeds behind them: su is good, kriti is a thing done. He says that only people with this store of good action come to him at all. Then he names their reasons. The arta is the one in distress, hurting and in need of help. The jijnasu is the one who wants to know, from jna, to know. The artharthi wants artha, meaning wealth, results, something useful. The jnani already stands in knowledge. Notice what he does not do. He does not rank them by purity here, and he does not turn away the person who comes only because of pain or want. Each of them is still worshipping, and each is counted as doing good. The reason he gives the list is that people come from very different places: need, curiosity, ambition, clear sight. The verse asks the listener to see honestly which of these is bringing him. On the commentators: Shankara reads the first three as seekers who are still moving toward knowledge, with the jnani as the one who has arrived. Ramanujacharya reads all four as true devotees, differing in what moves them. Madhva stresses that devotion itself is what marks them out. All three agree the verse names four real motives.

Four people walk into the same village well at different hours. One is parched and desperate, one wants to learn how deep it goes, one fills buckets to sell, and one simply loves the water. The well is the same for all. The four visitors are the four reasons people come to God.

1. Tonight, before sleep, sit for two minutes and recall the last time you turned to God, a prayer, or a quiet moment. 2. Ask yourself which of the four brought you: pain, a question, a wish, or plain love of the thing itself. 3. Name it in one word, without judging it. Write it on paper if that helps. 4. Do this again in a week and see whether the reason has changed.

A woman sits in a hospital corridor at two in the morning while her father is in surgery. She has not prayed in years, yet she is murmuring words she half remembers. She might feel embarrassed that fear is what brought her there. The verse gives her a plain answer. Krishna counts the distressed among those who worship, and counts them as people with good behind them. So she need not first sort out her motives or wait until her faith is tidy. She can notice that fear is the reason, let the prayer be what it is, and stay with it. Later, once the night has passed, she may find that other reasons are present too: a question about what matters, or simple gratitude. Ordinary experience bears out that people tend to turn inward at the moments when they are most stretched, and that the reason for turning often shifts over the years. The limit is clear. The verse does not promise her father will recover, and it does not ease the waiting. It also does not replace the surgeons or the doctors she must rely on.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Why Some Turn Away · Bhagavad Gita 7.15
• Next: Devotion Without Asking · Bhagavad Gita 7.17
• All of Bhagavad Gita · Ask Krishna about it

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