Two verses near the end of chapter 9 startle most readers. The Lord says that a person of very bad conduct, if he worships Him with undivided devotion, is to be regarded as righteous. A careful reader asks three things at once. How firm is the word "undivided"? How soon is "quickly"? And does this not give bad conduct a free pass?

The short answer comes first. The promise does not depend on the past; it depends on a whole turning in the present. And the second verse says the person becomes righteous, which is why the passage cannot be read as an excuse for conduct. It shuts the door on no one, and it also says what walking through the door involves. Below we take the words, then each verse, then the hard questions, and last the questions the verses raise, with their answers from the Gita and the tradition.

The two verses and the words that carry them

Six points hold the first verse together.

"Even if." The Lord does not soften the conduct. He calls it very bad and lets it stand. What follows is said about the hardest case, not about a flattering version of it.

"Undivided." Devotion with no second support beside it. This is the same quality that, earlier in the chapter, earns the promise to carry what a devotee lacks and to keep what he has (Gita 9.22). The same condition is attached here to the worst case.

"Worships." The word is in the present tense. The verse speaks of a person who is turning now, not of one who intends to turn some day.

"Is to be regarded as righteous." This is a verdict on how he is to be seen. It is not a statement of what he already is.

"Because he has resolved rightly." This is the stated ground. The verdict rests on the resolve, not on the old record.

And the first word of the second verse: he "becomes" righteous. Becoming takes time, and that is where the answer to the third question is already hidden.

What each verse adds

9.30: the verdict rests on the resolve

The Lord does not ask for a list of conduct. He looks at which way the person is facing today. The Gita's teaching on action says something similar: what counts is what has been settled within, not only the visible result.

There is also a close companion earlier in the chapter. The smallest gift, a leaf or a flower, is accepted when it is given with devotion (Gita 9.26). Here the worst conduct is accepted when it is turned with devotion. In both, the measure is the same: not how large the thing is, but the heart that offers it.

The resolve can be tied to a thought from chapter 2. On the path of action the resolved mind is one, while the minds of the unresolved have many branches and no end (Gita 2.41). Undivided devotion rests on that single resolve. A divided mind gives no direction to anyone, so the first mark of a "right resolve" is that it is one.

9.31: two promises and a declaration

The first promise concerns conduct: he quickly becomes righteous. The second concerns the inner life: he reaches lasting peace. Bad conduct is often driven by a restless wish to get or to keep, and lasting peace takes the place of that restlessness. Then the Lord tells Arjuna to declare boldly that His devotee never perishes. A promise that is made to be proclaimed is not a private word. And the phrase "My devotee" matters: the claim to be a devotee rests on the Lord's side, not on the person's record.

"Never perishes" does not mean that no hardship comes. To perish is to lose both the way and the goal. Two verses elsewhere say the same: no one who does good comes to a bad end (Gita 6.40), and no effort on this path is lost (Gita 2.40). Against these stand those in the same chapter who have no faith in this teaching and return to the road of birth and death (Gita 9.3). The difference is faith and direction, not the weight of past deeds.

There is a witness for "quickly" from the other side too. In chapter 12 the Lord speaks of those who offer all actions to Him, hold Him as the highest goal and worship with undivided yoga. For such devotees, whose minds are fixed on Him, He soon becomes their deliverer (Gita 12.6–7). So the speed is not only the speed at which the devotee changes; it is also the speed at which the Lord lifts him.

9.32: no birth or station blocks the way

The verse names those whom the society of the time counted as lower: people of births that were looked down on, women, merchants and servants. The Lord says that they too, taking refuge in Him, reach the highest goal. The verse reports a classification in order to remove it as a barrier; it does not take a side on the classification itself. What it says is only that none of these labels stands in the way of the goal. The same thought appears elsewhere: the knower sees one self in a learned brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste (Gita 5.18), and the Lord Himself is equal toward all beings (Gita 9.29).

9.33: if these can, how much more the virtuous

The argument runs from the harder case to the easier. If these can reach the goal, how much more virtuous brahmins who are devoted and royal sages. It does not rank anyone. It removes a doubt: the virtuous are not on a different road, and those who are not virtuous are not shut out. Then the call: this world is not lasting and gives no lasting happiness, so having come into it, turn to Me. That sentence is not despair about the world. It is an invitation: what does not last cannot carry the whole of a life.

9.34: four commands and one union

Fix your mind on Me, be My devotee, worship Me, bow to Me. The four commands claim four parts of a person: thought, feeling, action and body. Then the promise: joining yourself to Me in this way and holding Me as your highest refuge, you will come to Me. The same words return at the end of the Gita, with a new line added: "you are dear to Me" (Gita 18.65).

The question of wrong across the whole Gita

The question of wrong comes up three times in the Gita, and these verses are a stopping place among them. First is Arjuna's fear that killing will bring only sin (Gita 1.36). Then he asks why a person does wrong even against his will, and the answer is desire and anger (Gita 3.36–37). At the end comes the promise of freedom from all wrong, with the words "do not grieve" (Gita 18.66), and Arjuna says that his delusion is gone and his doubts are over (Gita 18.73).

The verses of chapter 9 stand at the point where the cause of wrong is known and the final promise has not yet been given. They say what a person who is truly weighed down by wrong should do first: turn. The rest of the promise follows behind that turning.

Parallels inside the Gita

How the commentators read it

The commentators fall into two streams on one question: how can "very bad conduct" and "undivided devotion" belong to one person?

One stream says that the bad conduct belongs to old habit or an earlier time. The turn has already been made, and conduct is following it. "Worships" points to a turning that is going on, and "quickly" is the speed of the change. On this reading the verse catches the moment in which the past and the future are both plainly visible.

The other stream says that lapses of old habit may still occur, and that the Lord counts the person by his resolve, not by the lapse. On this reading the verse stresses that a right resolve can exist alongside a lapse, and that the resolve is what matters.

Both streams agree on one thing: the verse does not endorse bad conduct. They differ only on when the change shows.

Hard questions and direct replies

Does the passage excuse bad conduct?

No, and the words of the verse are the answer. The Lord says "even if", which grants that the conduct is bad, and then says the person "becomes" righteous. What has to become is not yet; so bad conduct is not presented as something that can remain. Two other verses make this firm. One who drops the rule and acts on whim gains neither success, nor happiness, nor the highest goal (Gita 16.23). And the devotee's marks are the absence of hatred, friendliness and kindness (Gita 12.13). Devotion that leaves conduct untouched has not completed its turn.

How can one person be of very bad conduct and wholly devoted?

The Gita does not call it impossible. It knows that a person is pulled into wrong even against his will, as if driven by force, and it names the force: desire and anger (Gita 3.36–37). Someone whose road has passed through this pull may still make the right resolve; conduct follows later. The two streams above part exactly on how long that "later" is.

Who is to regard him as righteous?

The verse names no one: "is to be regarded" can be said to anyone. For others it is a caution not to close a door on someone who was bad yesterday and has turned today. For the person himself it is a support: he need not weigh himself by the old record. The verse does not choose between these, and both fit its sense.

Does "quickly" mean the results of earlier acts vanish?

What binds a person is released. The two verses promise righteousness and lasting peace, and the release from bondage is promised alongside them: the fire of knowledge burns all actions (Gita 4.37), and the Lord frees from all wrong (Gita 18.66). What happens to results already visible in a life is taken up in the last section, in the answers to the questions the verses raise.

Does 9.32 accept the ranking of people?

No. The verse does not endorse the ranking; it takes it out of the way as an obstacle. Those whom the society of the time held low are told that they too reach the highest goal by taking refuge. Elsewhere the Gita adds that the Lord is equal toward all (Gita 9.29) and that the knower sees one self in all (Gita 5.18). Here the verse's task is to remove the barrier, and it does exactly that.

Does "never perishes" contradict the return of those without faith?

No; they are the two ends of one thing. One who walks this path with faith does not lose his effort (Gita 2.40, Gita 6.40). One who has no faith in this teaching does not reach the Lord and returns (Gita 9.3). The test is faith and direction, not a history of conduct, and the person in these verses turns by that faith.

Is this unfair to those who were good all along?

No, because the passage takes nothing from good conduct. For devoted and virtuous people this road is called even easier (Gita 9.33), the Lord is equal toward all beings (Gita 9.29), and those who strive through many births reach the highest goal (Gita 6.45). The Gita also says that all devotees are noble (Gita 7.18). The promise lowers no one. It keeps open a door for the one who had been thought to stand outside.

Is remorse a condition of this promise?

The promise rests on resolve, and a right resolve already includes leaving the old pattern and facing the Lord. The measure of guilt is answered elsewhere in the Gita: a person should not let himself sink (Gita 6.5), and should put grief down (Gita 18.66). As much regret as strengthens the turning is good; harsh self-punishment is not what the promise asks for.

Questions the verses raise, answered from the Gita and the tradition

Four things are not spelled out in these two verses: how quickly "quickly" is, what happens to the results of acts already set going, how others should treat such a person, and how the damage is mended. The Gita answers each of them elsewhere, and the Indian tradition has drawn the answers out further. Here they are one by one.

How long does "quickly" take?

The Gita's answer is that the beginning is immediate and the pace depends on how whole the turning is. Being counted as righteous waits on nothing (Gita 9.30–31). The Lord's side is quick as well: those whose minds are fixed on Him He soon delivers (Gita 12.6–7). For full perfection the Gita says that the one who has become perfect in yoga finds knowledge within himself in time (Gita 4.38), that the restless mind is brought under control by practice and detachment (Gita 6.35), and that one who keeps striving reaches the highest goal through many births (Gita 6.45). So the answer is a sequence, not a number: the turn now, the change following it, and no moment in between at which the person is abandoned (Gita 6.40).

The Bhagavata tradition shows the same thing in the story of Ajamila. A brahmin had fallen into bad conduct. At the end of his life, calling his son Narayana, he spoke the Lord's name, and the tradition treats that as the moment of his turning. In the story he afterwards left everything and gave himself to worship. The point is that the turning can come in a moment, while the life after it takes its shape from that moment.

What happens to the results of earlier acts?

The Gita answers in two parts. First, the part of a result that binds is cut. As a blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes, so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions (Gita 4.37); one who acts, offering his actions to the Lord, is not touched by wrong, as a lotus leaf is not touched by water (Gita 5.10); and offering frees from the bonds of good and bad results (Gita 9.28). At the end the Lord Himself says He will free from all wrong (Gita 18.66).

Second, for the outcomes already present in a life, such as a broken friendship or a ruined name, the Gita's way is to mend the next act without being bound to its fruit (Gita 2.47). One stream of the tradition explains it this way: actions are of three kinds, those stored up, those now bearing fruit, and those yet to be made. Knowledge and devotion burn the stored ones and keep the new ones from clinging, while the fruit already in motion must be lived through, but without bondage, as an arrow already released does not stop, yet the archer is free of its weight.

The Bhagavata also gives a comparison: penance alone is like an elephant's bath. It comes out of the water and throws dust over itself again, because the root is unchanged. Devotion changes the root, and that is why it lasts. Freedom from wrong, then, is not only a settling of accounts but a change of desire.

How should others treat such a person?

The first answer is in the verse: he is "to be regarded" as righteous, that is, seen as a good person (Gita 9.30–31). The rest of the Gita turns that into a way of feeling. The yogi who has the same regard for friend, enemy, the good and the sinful is called the best of all (Gita 6.9); the knower sees one self in all (Gita 5.18); and the devotee's marks are no hatred toward any being, friendliness and compassion (Gita 12.13), and evenness toward friend and foe (Gita 12.18). The conduct that follows is friendship and compassion, not hatred and not shutting the person out under his old name.

The tradition names the company of the good as the greatest support here: one who has turned should find people who do not call him by his old name, among whom his new resolve can take root.

How is the damage mended?

The Gita gives a whole order of steps. The first is the turning itself, in the form given at the end of this chapter: the mind on the Lord, devotion, worship, bowing (Gita 9.34). The second is to do actions in a spirit of offering (Gita 9.27). The third is to overcome the force behind the wrong: first bring the senses under control, remember that beyond the mind is the intellect and beyond the intellect the self, and steady the mind by the intellect so as to destroy desire, the enemy (Gita 3.41–43). Practice and detachment support this (Gita 6.35), and the marks of the devotee show the direction (Gita 12.13). Mending toward the one who was hurt takes the same form: friendliness where there was hatred, compassion where there was harshness.

In the Bhagavata tradition the support is remembering the Name and taking refuge in the good, so that the change becomes a habit and does not remain an elephant's bath.

So none of the questions these verses raise is left empty. The verse gives the direction, the rest of the Gita gives the way, and the tradition gives examples and support.

What this reading rests on

The verse meanings here follow the site's verse data. No named commentary was consulted; the two streams are given unnamed.

Where to read more

The same promise returns at the end of the Gita (Gita 18.65, Gita 18.66); it is taken up in The Final Counsel. The conduct that devotion leads to is described in The Devotee Dear to the Lord. The verses just before are in A Leaf, a Flower, a Fruit, Water and The Steadfast Devotee and Divine Care. For a plainer account of the same verses, see the simple reading.