Bhagavad Gita · Raja Vidya Raja Guhya YogaChapter 9, Shloka 32 (9.32)
Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्
मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्युः पापयोनयः
स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम्
॥ 9.32 ॥
māṃ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye'pi syuḥ pāpayonayaḥ
striyo vaiśyāstathā śūdrāste'pi yānti parāṃ gatim
Translation
"O Partha, all who take refuge in me — whether they are 'of sinful birth' (those whom society regarded as low-born), women, vaishyas or shudras — they too attain the supreme goal."
A clear note for the reader: This verse is spoken in the social language of its time. This book's position is stated plainly here: to regard any gender, caste or birth as "sinful birth" is unacceptable. The core message of the verse — no one is turned away from the Lord's door — supports this very position.
Interpretation
The commentators differ in how they read this verse. We present them honestly, in their own words — because hiding them would also be a kind of dishonesty.
Shankaracharya reads "pāpayonayaḥ" as a qualifier of women, vaishyas and shudras: pāpā yoniḥ yeṣāṃ te pāpayonayaḥ pāpajanmānaḥ; ke te iti? āha — striyaḥ vaiśyāḥ tathā śūdrāḥ; then: te'pi yānti gacchanti parāṃ prakṛṣṭāṃ gatim — they too attain the highest goal.
Acharya Ramanuja reads it the same way: striyo vaiśyāḥ śūdrāḥ ca pāpayonayaḥ api māṃ vyapāśritya parāṃ gatiṃ yānti. (Note that at 9.29 it is Ramanuja himself who says the Lord rejects no one by regarding them as "low" on the basis of birth, form, nature or knowledge — see 9.29.)
Madhusudana Saraswati takes "papayoni" as a separate category — pāpayonayo'ntyajās tiryañco vā jātidoṣeṇa duṣṭāḥ — and, from the standpoint of the scriptural entitlements of his time, also calls women, vaishyas and shudras "lower" (vedādhyayanādi-śūnyatayā nikṛṣṭāḥ). His conclusion: te'pi yānti parāṃ gatiṃ.
Shridhara Swami also takes it as a separate category: pāpayonayaḥ syuḥ nikṛṣṭajanmāno'ntyajādayo bhaveyuḥ; and he says that devotion duṣkulān apy anadhikāriṇo'pi saṃsārān mocayati.
Abhinavagupta takes "papayoni" to mean animals, birds and reptiles (pāpayonayaḥ paśupakṣisarīsṛpādayaḥ) and criticises those who read this sentence as praise of the twice-born alone and so limit the liberation of women and others — they are bhagavataḥ sarvānugrāhikāṃ śaktiṃ mitaviṣayatayā khaṇḍayantaḥ — shrinking the Lord's power of grace, which extends to all.
Anandagiri (commentator on Shankara's bhashya) sums it up in one sentence: bhaktyadhikāre jātiniyamo nāsti — in the entitlement to devotion there is no rule of caste.
AI-assisted draft translation — under review.