Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 9, Verse 32
मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्युः पापयोनयः।
स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम्।।
स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम्।।
māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye ’pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ
striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim
also searched as "mam hi partha vyapashritya ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah"
Translation
By taking refuge in Me, even those of evil birth, women, Vaisyas, and Sudras, attain the supreme state.
Vāṇi's rendering
All who take shelter in me — whatever birth the world calls low, women, traders, servants — reach the highest goal.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| माम्mām | me |
| हिhi | indeed, for |
| पार्थpārtha | Arjuna, son of Pṛthā |
| व्यपाश्रित्यvyapāśritya | having taken shelter, having leaned wholly upon |
| येye | those who |
| अपि'pi | even (api, joined to ye by sandhi) |
| स्युःsyuḥ | may be |
| पापयोनयःpāpa-yonayaḥ | born of a birth counted sinful or low |
| स्त्रियःstriyo | women (striyaḥ before the soft sound) |
| वैश्याःvaiśyās | traders, merchants (vaiśyāḥ) |
| तथाtathā | likewise, and also |
| शूद्राःśūdrās | servants, labourers (śūdrāḥ) |
| तेte | they |
| अपि'pi | even they (api, joined to te by sandhi) |
| यान्तिyānti | go, reach |
| पराम्parāṁ | highest, supreme |
| गतिम्gatim | goal, destination |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 Verse 32 mean?
It means the highest goal has no entrance exam. Krishna lists the groups his society excluded — those called low-born, women, traders, servants — and says plainly that they too reach the supreme destination. The one condition is vyapāśritya: taking shelter in him. Birth decides nothing about where you can arrive.
What is the meaning of 'mam hi partha vyapashritya ye pi syuh papa yonayah'?
Literally: those who take shelter in me, Pārtha, even if born of what is called a sinful womb. The force sits in vyapāśritya — a leaning of the whole weight, not a gesture. Krishna makes shelter the sole entry, and then names precisely the people everyone assumed were barred.
Is this verse insulting to women and to those born in certain communities?
Krishna is naming the exclusions of his time, not endorsing them. The sentence he builds ends in parāṁ gatim — the highest goal — and every group he names is inside it. He is dismantling the barrier by walking straight at it. The offence belongs to the old order, not to the promise.
If birth does not matter, what actually does?
Shelter. Not knowledge, not ritual competence, not the accident of family. Krishna asks for the turning of the whole self toward him, and that turning is available to anyone still breathing. Whatever you carry as disqualification — your history, your work, your body — it does not appear in his list of conditions.
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Commentary
Krishna names the people his own age had locked out. Women, traders, servants, and anyone the world has filed under low birth — he says them out loud rather than leaving them to be inferred. The gate he opens is not a concession; it is the whole architecture. Shelter is the only qualification, and shelter is available to anyone with a heart. Arjuna, born to every advantage, is being told his advantages count for nothing here. Neither do your disadvantages. Whatever you were handed at birth — the name, the body, the ledger of what people expect of you — none of it stands between you and the highest goal.