Is the Gita 18.66 exclusivist or inclusivist in spirit?

The question is based on this article:

Krishna focuses on where we want to go, not where we have been

Is Krishna’s focus in this verse on the point that we surrender to him alone or on that our past doesn’t matter?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, question is the Bhagavad Gita 18.66 exclusivist or inclusivist in its spirit it tells us to give up all varieties of dharma and surrender to Krishna so it seems to be focusing exclusively on surrender yet in one of your Gita Delhi articles you mentioned that it focuses more on how Krishna is ready to welcome everyone else, whatever one may be doing, to his fold, so what is the exact import of this verse answer the Bhagavad Gita, this verse certainly we could say its exclusivist in the sense that it is telling us to do one particular thing but its inclusivist in the sense that everybody can do it so whatever one may be doing one can surrender to Krishna and that’s the meaning of that whatever sinful activities one may have done in the past Krishna says I’ll free one from their sinful reactions and actually if you look at the flow of the Gita 18.56 18.57 there also the same word is Vyapashraya Ashraya is taking shelter which is similar to surrendering Sharanam is in 18.66 so basically both the four verses are talking similar and there if you look at the linear flow of the Gita Krishna is telling that you can take shelter of me whatever be your occupational duty whatever work one is doing one can take shelter of him so of course if one is doing occupational duties which involve some kind of sinful activities then over a period of time one should give them up but it is not that one has to give them up to take shelter of Krishna even a person who is engaged in some sinful business can still start telling Hare Krishna and start doing Krishna Bhakti and by the higher taste and conviction that one gets by Bhakti one will eventually give it up so here the emphasis of Krishna is inclusivist in the sense that don’t think that your sinfulness should be a deterrent should stop you from taking shelter of me no matter of whatever you are you take shelter of me and one aspect of taking shelter would be that one will give up the sinfulness and ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣeṣyāmi I’ll free you from sinful reactions this can mean now we know that our sinful reactions come in two ways one is that sufferings come in our life and Krishna will minimize the karmic reactions that come upon a devotee definitely that’s his promise over here but along with that we know also that sinful reactions come in terms of increased sinful desires when we do something wrong then those wrong desires keep coming back to us again so Krishna when he is saying I’ll free you from sinful reactions he is telling also that I’ll free you from that reaction of the stronger material desires which keep attacking so if we focus on mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja of taking shelter of Krishna then even the trouble that we get because of our past conditionings the complications that have come because we have been habituated to doing a particular kind of activity repeatedly and then we desire that I want to give it up that giving up will become easier because Krishna will purify us of the desires which made us do those activities so if somebody is involved in some sinful profession and decides to change over to some other profession that’s a difficult transition but it’s possible if one is not too caught up with considerations of oh I had a big position in society based on this business how can I give it up and take up something else so what will happen is that obsession with material things and the attachment to material enjoyment Krishna will free one from that also so even a doctor says take this medicine and whatever disease you have whatever complication that will be dealt with by the disease is the doctor being exclusivist or inclusivist no the doctor is primarily being compassionate assuring the patient that you will be cured so similarly Krishna is saying that if you take shelter of me you will become free from sinful reactions whatever be the nature of those sins from the past so in that sense the essence of this verse is a compassionate call of love Krishna out of his love is urging the devotees and all souls who are potential devotees to surrender to him and to not let the past baggage weigh them down when they are coming towards him so in that sense the verse we could say in the background it is saying it’s inclusivist that whatever one has done still one can come and we could say in its prescription it is exclusivist that one has to do this only but then this Krishna is recommending this because that is the universal principle that is taught in all the Goel’s Vedas religions that we have to devote ourselves to God so in that sense it’s also universalist it’s not exclusivist so but rather than going into these categories one focuses on the compassion of Krishna that is manifesting through this verse where he is ready to turn a blind eye towards our past indiscretions and is ready to offer us his shelter compassionately and freeing us from the consequences of our past indiscretions thank you