Chapter 18 · Verse 71·Spoken by Krishna
श्रद्धावाननसूयश्च श्रृणुयादपि यो नरः।सोऽपि मुक्तः शुभाँल्लोकान्प्राप्नुयात्पुण्यकर्मणाम्
śhraddhāvān anasūyaśh cha śhṛiṇuyād api yo naraḥ so ‘pi muktaḥ śhubhāl lokān prāpnuyāt puṇya-karmaṇām
And the person who simply listens to this with faith and without scorn, he too is freed and attains the blessed worlds of those who do virtuous deeds.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
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Convergence
his verse names a third person and the reward that comes to him. The previous verses described what comes to the one who teaches or recites the Gita and the one who studies it; now Krishna turns to the simple hearer, the person who merely listens while someone else recites. The commentators read the verse as completing a sequence: speaker, student, and now hearer each receive a fruit, so that no role connected with the Gita is left out.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas
Krishna sets only two conditions on the hearer, and both are inward attitudes rather than learning or skill. The first is shraddha, faith or trusting reverence: the listener takes what he hears with genuine regard. Ramsukhdas puts it vividly, saying the shraddhavan takes what he hears with a heart fuller of reverence than even what he sees with his eyes. The second is anasuya, freedom from fault-finding or cavilling: the hearer does not pick the recitation apart with complaints like 'why is this person reciting?' or 'he is reciting it wrongly,' but listens with an open, approving heart. Several commentators stress that anasuya is named as a safeguard precisely because a faithful listener is tempted to find fault, and that very fault-finding would spoil the hearing.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas
The little word 'api' ('even' or 'merely') carries the heart of the verse: even mere hearing is enough. The reader is not asked to understand the meaning, to study formally, or to master the text. Bare listening, when joined with faith and absence of fault-finding, already brings the reward. The commentators read the 'even' as an implied comparison: if so much comes to one who only hears, how much more must come to one who actually grasps the meaning. Sivananda and others draw this out: much more is gained by the one who understands the teaching, lives in its spirit, and practises it.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
The reward is that the hearer too is freed and attains auspicious worlds. He is freed from sins, and he reaches the praiseworthy, auspicious worlds belonging to those of meritorious action, the punya-karmanam. Several commentators specify these as the worlds won by those who have performed the great sacrifices, such as the fire-oblation (agnihotra) and the horse-sacrifice (ashvamedha). The word 'too' (in 'he too') ties his reward back to the speaker and student: the mere listener shares in the same kind of fruit.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar
Divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita
This reading specifies what the hearer is freed from and where he goes in devotional terms. The sins from which he is freed are precisely the sins that obstruct devotion, the inner blocks to loving God. And the auspicious worlds he attains are read as the gatherings or company of the meritorious, understood as the Lord's own devotees. So the listening cleanses the obstacles to bhakti and brings the hearer into the fellowship of those devoted to Him.
Rāmānujācārya
Advaita Vedānta
This reading uses the verse to draw out the teacher's duty. After stating the hearer's reward, it explains that the Lord then asks (in the verses following) whether the disciple has truly grasped the teaching; if not, the intent is to make him grasp it by some further means. The point drawn out is that it is the teacher's responsibility to take up additional effort and bring the disciple all the way to the goal, not to stop at a single hearing.
Śaṅkarācārya
Bhakti
This reading expands the bare promise into vivid imagery and a fuller account of the hearer's journey. The sins flee in confusion at the sound of the Gita, as wild animals scatter before a forest fire or darkness vanishes when the sun rises. The merit of hearing is counted as equal to performing as many horse-sacrifices as there are syllables of the Gita entering the heart through the ears. And the journey is mapped out: the hearer first halts in heaven, enjoys its pleasures to his content, and ultimately comes to join the Lord himself. It adds that both hearers and reciters secure this most joy-giving fruit.
Sant Jñāneśvar
A Seeker Asks
If merely hearing the Gita without understanding it already frees a person and wins auspicious worlds, why bother to study its meaning or live by it?
The verse does promise real fruit to the bare hearer, but the word 'even' is a comparison, not a stopping point. By saying that even mere hearing is enough, Krishna implies how much more comes to one who actually grasps the meaning; the small case is named precisely to point beyond itself to the greater.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vedānta Deśika · Swami Ramsukhdas
The commentators are explicit that understanding, living the teaching, and practising it bring far more than hearing alone. Much more is gained by the one who understands the Gita, lives in its spirit, and practises its instructions.
Swami Sivananda · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrī Puruṣottama
Hearing is best understood as the first seed, not the whole harvest. From hearing comes reflection, from reflection comes deep meditation, and from that comes direct realization; the very seed of the path is laid in the first right hearing, which is exactly why one goes on from hearing to understanding and practice.
Swami Ramsukhdas
The two conditions also show that even the simplest hearing is not passive or careless. It requires real faith and a heart free of fault-finding, which is itself an inner discipline; the path is opened down to the very simplest so no one thinks the Gita beyond his reach, yet the door one walks through is genuine reverence.
Vallabhācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Rāmānujācārya
Contemplation
Take heart from how low the threshold is set. You do not need long study, formal training, or a grasp of every meaning before the Gita can begin to work in you. The one thing asked is the inner posture: listen with faith, taking the words in with more reverence than you give to what your own eyes see, and listen without hunting for the smallest fault in what you hear. When those two are present, the Gita is so alive with the Lord's own feeling that that feeling enters even the simple listener's heart. And hearing is not a dead end but a beginning: from hearing comes reflection, from reflection comes deep meditation, from deep meditation comes direct realization. The very seed of the whole path is laid in the first true hearing, so listen as a true hearer and let the seed be planted.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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