9.31 kshipram bhavathi dharmAthmA

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

Chapter 9

<< Chapter 9 verse 30

SlOkam – Original

kshipram bhavathi dharmAthmA SaSvachchAnthim nigachchathi |
kaunthEya prathijAnIhi na mE bhaktha: praNaSyathi ||

word-by-word meaning

(Though one who is engaged in devotion towards me, has bad conduct)
kshipram – soon
dharmAthmA bhavathi – he becomes fully engaged in bhakthi yOgam (having his hurdles removed).
SaSvachchAnthim – permanent elimination of bad conduct
nigachchathi – attains well.
kaunthEya! – Oh son of kunthI!
“mE bhaktha – the devotee of me (who is sarvESvara)
na praNaSyathi – never perishes”

(this principle)
prathijAnIhi – (you yourself) declare

Simple Translation

(Though one who is engaged in devotion towards me, has bad conduct) soon he becomes fully engaged in bhakthi yOgam (having his hurdles removed). He well attains the permanent elimination of bad conduct. Oh son of kunthI! you yourself declare “the devotee of me (who is sarvESvara) never perishes”.

Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam

‘Speedy becomes he a holy soul, and flies to eternal rest. Promise Me, Kaunteya! that My Bhakta (beloved) perisheth not.'[2. Cp: XVIII-65, Bh: Gi: where the Lord makes the promise to Arjuna: ‘Prati-jāne priyo `si Me’. In this verse, Arjuna’s pledge is asked.]

Through love to Me, loving for love’s sake, and ecstatically transported by that love as he is, he is soon shorn of all sin; the humours of rajas and tamas are rooted out; and he speedily becomes a holy soul (dharm-ātma), that is to say, he soon becomes of a mind exclusively devoted to My worship with all its auxiliaries, unobstructed. It is this devotion which was alluded to at the commencement: viz., ‘of this Dharma (Path of Virtue), Parantapa!’ (Bh: Gi: IX-3), by the term Dharma.

Such a person goes to an eternal state from which there is no return, —a state where all effort contrariwise to reaching Me ceases.

Do you Kaunteya! give Me assurance as to the certitude of this opinion of Mine that, whoso is My loving votary, he perishes not, albeit his demeanour vitiated with inimical factors. The great virtue of loving devotion is such that all the army of opposition is destroyed, and having reached the eternal position of non-obstructiveness (or freedom), the devotee becomes speedily, deeply, imbued with love for Me.

>> Chapter 9 verse 32

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