Gita 09.32 – Bhakti brings universality to spirituality

Bhagavad Gita 9.32 mam hi bhartha vyapashitya ye pisyu papayona naya sthriyo vaisyastha shudras Krishna speaks here about the inclusiveness of bhakti in another way in the previous text previous two texts rather in 30 and 31 he talked about how bhakti can elevate even those who succumb to grievous misdeeds he said in 30 and 31 he said now in this verse he talks about those people who whose misdeeds are not accidental whose deficiencies are actually inherent and he says bhakti can elevate even them also mam hi bhartha vyapashitya those who take shelter of him ye pisyu papayona naya even if they be sinful sthriyo vaisyastha shudras even if they were born in sinful birth papayona naya and includes among them the women we will discuss about the positioning of these women shudras vaisyas they all attain the supreme destination so here the stress of this verse is that bhakti can elevate even those who are conventionally considered unqualified that is the that positive point is the stress of this verse the universally salvific potency of bhakti is what is stressed but often the controversy seeking contemporary mind which often wants to find faults with traditional wisdom zeros in on the point that this seems to be like a sexist and a casteist slur that sthriyas women are called papayona and vaisyas and shudras are also called papayona actually we have to be careful to differentiate between what is said in scripture and what is taught by scripture everything that is said in scripture is not necessarily scriptural teaching because sometimes scripture may just offer a nominal tip of the hat to something which is prevalent at that time without necessarily endorsing that school of thought because when scripture is revealed at a particular time in a particular ethos so the whole point of this verse if you look at Krishna stress Krishna is offering a nominal tip of the hat to the prevailing notions about the relative lack of qualification of vaisyas shudras and women and then he is going on stressing his universalist message that everybody can be delivered by bhakti just as scripture contains the atheistic proclamations of Hiranyakashipu so what is said in scripture is not necessarily what is taught by scripture Hiranyakashipu's words saying say that there is no supreme being they are not the teaching of scripture so similarly that Shri Vaishya Shudra Papayona this is not the teaching of Bhagavad Gita just a point that was a notion that was prevalent at that time and Krishna is just mentioning it casually to stress the point that normally those who are low born they have to go through a gradual and laborious process to rise to the level of becoming devotees and for ultimately attaining perfection so they have to rise to a good amount of level to practice the Vedic Karmakanda and then Vedic Yajnas Vedic modes of self-realization, method of self-realization and then eventually they get elevated so it's a long laborious process which often extends over multiple lifetimes but here Krishna is stating that right from where people are if they take shelter of him they can attain perfection so his stress is on the universality of the message of Bhakti universal salvific potency of Bhakti and different Acharyas have read this verse differently Vishwa Prabhupada reads it as the Papayonaya who are of three categories Shri Vaishya and Shudra but other Acharyas have read it as describing four categories Papayonaya, Shri Vaishya and Shudra Papayonaya is not a category but it is a it is not a describer for the three categories rather it is a category in itself and this reading actually makes sense because normally Vaishyas are not considered Papayonaya by any standard Vaishyas can get Gayatri Mantra and they become Dvija so Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaishya all three of them become Dvija usually of course this tradition varies according to some places and times but overall Vaishyas participate very actively and responsibly in the so the essential point here is that anyone and everyone can be elevated by the process of Bhakti and we could read this as these four or four distinct categories Shri Vaishya, Shudra and Papayonaya still someone may argue that oh but still it is a casteist or sexist statement because Shriyas and Shudras and Vaishyas are put in the same category as Papayonaya so here Papayonaya would refer to people who are born entirely outside Varanashram who are below Shudras also so if this verse puts Shriya, Vaishya, Shudra in the same category because they are mentioned in the same list so we can say they belong to the same category and it puts them in the level of the at the same level as the sinful people then that we need to know that our present situation is determined by our past action if somebody is low born in this lifetime that is not by arbitrary chance or divine fear that is by one's own karma from a previous life and that doesn't mean that we don't have free will, in fact Bhakti maximizes our free will by connecting us with the omnipotent divine will and how one can whatever one may have done in the past how one can transcend its influence is what is stressed in this verse by Bhakti by Krishna that is stressed by conveying the power of Bhakti to him and beyond any sectarian considerations Bhakti brings universality to the process of spirituality equality and universality by giving everyone opportunity to become elevated and liberated and such is the glorious potency of Bhakti.