A careful reader of these four verses meets a question. The Lord calls all four kinds of devotee people of good deeds (Gita 7.16) and then calls all of them noble (Gita 7.18). Yet He names one of them the best and says that this one is His very Self (Gita 7.17, Gita 7.18). Are the other three lesser? And how can the Lord, who is equal to all beings (Gita 9.29), call anyone dearer?

The answer is short. Everyone is welcome; what differs is nearness. The wise devotee is nearest because he wants nothing from the Lord except the Lord, and the love runs in both directions. His rank rests on a relationship, not on a score.

Here we take the four verses one at a time. Then we put the five objections a careful reader raises and answer each one directly. Last, we set the passage beside other parts of the Gita and answer the questions these verses raise from the Gita and the tradition. These verses follow the discussion of "The Illusory Energy and Surrender", where we saw that the pull of illusion is hard to cross alone and that some people do not turn to the Lord at all (Gita 7.14–15). Here the subject is those who do turn, and what turns them.

The four verses read closely

7.16: four reasons, one turning

The Lord says that four kinds of good people worship Him: the one in distress, the one who wants to know, the one who wants something, and the wise (Gita 7.16).

The first point is that "good people" is said of all four. The one who comes with a want gets the same name as the wise one. The verse does not describe three unfinished people and one finished one. It says that all four have turned to the Lord, and in this verse turning is the mark of merit.

The second point is the word for worship. It is wider than ritual. It covers calling out, remembering, serving, turning the face towards the Lord. That is why the person who cries out in trouble and the person who asks for a favour fall inside it.

The third point is the shape of the list. The verse names four things that bring a person: pain, a question, a want and understanding. It does not say that they are steps to be taken in order. It does not say whether they are four people or four moods that pass through one person. Both are true to life, and the text rules out neither.

7.17: why the wise one is called the best

Among these, says the Lord, the wise one is the best. He is always joined to Me and his devotion is to the One alone. I am exceedingly dear to the wise, and he is dear to Me (Gita 7.17).

The wise one has three marks: he knows, he is always joined, and his devotion does not scatter. Notice what follows the word "best". The Lord gives a reason, and the reason is not a list of virtues. It is mutual love. I am dear to him; he is dear to Me. "Best" here names a nearness that has been built from both sides.

7.18: why the wise one is called My very Self

The next verse first guards the three left behind by the last one: all of these are noble. Then it explains why the wise one was called best: the wise one is My very Self, this is My view. His mind is joined to Me, and he stands in Me alone as his highest goal (Gita 7.18).

Two things are clear. "This is My view" tells us that the Lord is giving His own estimate, not laying down a rule. And the wise one stands in the Lord as his final aim, not as a means to something else. For the other three the Lord is also a means: a way out of trouble, an answer, a granted wish. For the wise one He is the destination.

7.19: where this ends

At the end of many births, the Lord says, the person of wisdom takes refuge in Me, knowing that Vasudeva is everything; such a great soul is very rare (Gita 7.19).

Refuge is the same turning that was the way across illusion earlier in the chapter (Gita 7.14). So the wise one's last step is the very step the first devotee could have taken on the first day. The difference is in how fully he knows. "Vasudeva is everything" has been prepared already in this chapter: the whole world is strung on the Lord like pearls on a thread (Gita 7.7). One who sees this finds nothing left outside the Lord. Chapter 6 says the same of the one who sees the Lord everywhere and everything in the Lord (Gita 6.30).

What "very rare" means is taken up in the fifth objection below. For now: the rarity is in seeing completely, not in being welcomed.

Objections and replies

Does the Lord love some devotees more than others?

No, and the Gita answers this itself. In chapter 9 the Lord says that He is equal to all beings. No one is hateful to Him and no one is dear in the sense of being favoured. But those who worship with devotion are in Him, and He is in them (Gita 9.29).

That settles the matter. No door on the Lord's side is shut to some and open wider to others. The one who turns further comes nearer. The sun is the same for every house, but the room whose window is open fills with light. The verses of chapter 7 say the same: I am dear to the wise one, and he is dear to Me (Gita 7.17). The love is mutual, and what builds it is the wise one's own undivided devotion.

A verse in chapter 4 states the rule in plain words: however people approach Me, so do I respond to them (Gita 4.11). Whoever comes with only his sorrow is answered in his sorrow. Whoever comes for the Lord alone finds the Lord.

Is the wise one a fourth kind, or where the others arrive?

The text presses neither view, but its words settle a few things.

First, "among them" places the wise one in the same list. He is a devotee, not a rival to devotion. His two marks, being always joined and devoted to the One, are marks of devotion. So knowledge and devotion are not two roads here. Chapter 18 shows the same: through devotion one comes to know the Lord in truth and, knowing Him, enters Him (Gita 18.55). Devotion is itself a way of knowing. Chapter 11 puts it more firmly: only through undivided devotion can the Lord be known, seen and entered (Gita 11.54).

Second, the four are not presented as steps in a fixed order. Arjuna himself shows why. In chapter 2 he is both in distress and asking to be taught: he is the Lord's pupil, he has come to Him for refuge, and he asks what is certainly good (Gita 2.7). One verse holds two of the four. In chapter 4 he learns how the inquirer proceeds: humility, the right question and service (Gita 4.34).

Two streams of commentators lean differently here. One takes the wise one as the devotee in whom love and understanding have become one, so that his devotion is the form his knowledge takes. The other takes him as the knower who sees no gap between the self and the Lord, and for whom devotion is how he lives. Both agree that he is nearest to the Lord and asks nothing else of Him.

Does "My very Self" mean the wise one is the Lord?

This is the closest word of nearness in the passage, and there are two ways of taking it. Each is given here with equal confidence.

One stream reads it as non-difference: between the knower and the Lord no distance remains, and the wise one is the Lord's own being. The other reads it as the highest closeness of love: the Lord counts him as His own self, as one counts oneself, and the two remain two within the love. Each stream draws on the same words of the passage, the mutual dearness (Gita 7.17) and the standing in the Lord alone (Gita 7.18).

On this all agree: the passage names no closer relation. The Gita itself holds both senses together. The living being is the Lord's own eternal part (Gita 15.7). The one who sees Him everywhere is never lost to Him (Gita 6.30). Those who worship Him with devotion are in Him and He in them (Gita 9.29). So the nearness is true in being and true in love.

Is it wrong to call the one who wants something good?

It does not, because the want here is brought to the Lord Himself. The verse says "worship Me". He asks the Lord, and the Lord meets him as he comes (Gita 4.11). That is why the Gita does not shut him out.

After this passage chapter 7 turns to people whose desires carry them to other deities, and says what comes of that. It is a separate discussion, taken up under "What We Worship, We Become". What matters here is only that all four are accepted first, and that no devotee is turned away for bringing a want.

Does "after many births" leave no hope in this life?

No. The verse tells how rare complete seeing is; it does not impose a delay. The great soul who sees all in the Lord is very rare, but the Lord's welcome does not depend on that rarity.

The Gita says the same elsewhere. In chapter 6 the Lord says that one who does good never comes to a bad end (Gita 6.40), and that the one who keeps striving, purified, is perfected over many lives and reaches the highest goal (Gita 6.45). Effort already made is not lost; it carries forward. And the moment of refuge can come on any day, because the turning was already given in this chapter (Gita 7.14). In this life anyone can take the first step.

The passage beside the rest of the Gita

Three things come out of the table. First, the Lord's answer follows the way a person comes (Gita 4.11). Second, knowing is completed in devotion (Gita 11.54, Gita 18.55). Third, the "devotee dear to Me" of chapter 12 and the "wise one dear to Me" here look like two names for one condition. The person who is not thrown about by joy or sorrow, and not tied by craving, is dear to the Lord. The wise one is dear for the same reason: his wanting has been taken up into the Lord.

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

Four questions rise from these verses: whether the four kinds are four people or four reasons in one person, how one passes from one kind to another, what "My very Self" means, and how long "many births" is. The Gita answers all four.

Are the four kinds four people, or four reasons in one person?

The Gita's answer is both. The Lord responds to people in the way they come to Him (Gita 4.11). So the four kinds are the four reasons that bring someone to Him on a given day: distress, a question, a want and understanding. One person can carry several together. Arjuna in one verse is both in distress and a pupil asking to be taught (Gita 2.7), and at the end his delusion is gone and his doubts are over (Gita 18.73). Over a lifetime the same person may pass through all four.

The Bhagavata tradition speaks of a journey from devotion with a reason to devotion without one: it begins for some cause and, as it ripens, becomes love for its own sake.

How does one pass from one kind to another?

The Gita's answer is by staying joined. The wise one is "always joined" (Gita 7.17), and to devotees who are constantly joined the Lord gives the yoga of understanding by which they come to Him (Gita 10.10). In chapter 12 He sets out steps for drawing near (Gita 12.8–11), and chapter 4 names the way of learning: humble service, the right question and attendance (Gita 4.34). So the way from one stage to the next is to stay with the Lord and to receive what He gives by serving and asking.

The Bhagavata tradition counts nine forms of devotion, such as hearing, singing and remembering, through which this joining ripens.

What does "My very Self" mean?

The three verses above give the Gita's answer: the living being is the Lord's part (Gita 15.7), he is never separate (Gita 6.30), and the two stand in each other (Gita 9.29). The tradition reads these in three streams: one of non-difference, in which no distance remains; one of part and whole, in which the two are inseparable; and one of the closest love, in which the two remain two. All three agree that the wise one is nearest to the Lord.

How long is "many births"?

The Gita answers not with a number but with how the pace behaves. The full sight that "the Lord is all" comes at the end of many births, and such a great soul is rare (Gita 7.19). Yet the effort of one who takes refuge is never wasted and carries forward through many lives (Gita 6.45). The one who turns wholly quickly becomes righteous (Gita 9.31), and the Lord soon becomes his deliverer (Gita 12.7). So what counts is not a number of years but how whole the turning is. In the tradition, good company and remembering the Name are held to shorten the distance.

So no question these verses raise is left empty. The verses give the four reasons and the nearness of the fourth, the rest of the Gita gives the relationship, the way and the pace, and the tradition reads them in streams.

A three-week practice

In the first week, write one line each evening: what brought the Lord to mind today? Pain, a question, a want, or only a turning of the face towards Him? Do not judge. Just name it.

In the second week, do the same and watch which reason returns most often. The Gita does not call it wrong (Gita 7.16). It is where you start today.

In the third week, sit for one minute a day with no request, no complaint and no petition. Only face Him. Notice what changes in the mind after that minute. Being joined begins in small pieces like this.

Conclusion

The question was this: if all four are called good and noble, why is one called best and "My very Self"? The answer is nearness. The Lord turns no one away, but the one who asks nothing of Him except Himself is closest, and that love runs both ways. So come for whatever reason you come, and come. And may the day arrive when the coming itself is all you ask. The same truth appears in chapter 9:

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