Dvaita

This school sharply restricts who the verse can be talking about. It cannot mean that genuine devotion coexists with very bad conduct in ordinary human beings. Citing the Shandilya branch of the Samaveda, Vishnu Purana, the Moksha-dharma, and the Bhagavata, it holds that devotion and great evil conduct do not in fact dwell together in one place, because great devotion is itself the cause of bad conduct subsiding. The swift becoming-righteous 'through knowledge' happens only among the gods (the moon and the rest), their portions (such as Sugriva), and great sages (such as Vishvamitra), since for them devotion can coexist somewhere with apparent lapses. An ordinary very-evil-doer who seems devout is to be inferred a hypocrite of crooked, deceitful mind; one in whom the thirst for wealth and base conduct is present has no real devotion in him. The basis is that conduct is the means to knowledge, knowledge and devotion are invariably linked, and where one is absent the other is too, so devotion, direct experience of the Lord, and dispassion toward all else arise together as a single set.

Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha

Bhakti

Here the swiftness is read as immediate and inward. The present-tense verbs ('becomes,' 'goes') instead of the future show that the very instant after the wrong act, the devotee remembers the Lord, feels remorse ('Alas, there is no one as low as I, staining the community of devotees'), and at once becomes righteous; 'ever' is read as 'again and again' going to that remorse and peace. Even if the visible reform takes time, the righteousness already exists in subtle, seed form because devotion has entered the mind, just as a powerful medicine already works while the fever's burning still lingers and dwindles. The lust and anger that mark such a devotee's lapses are therefore powerless, like the bite of a serpent whose fangs have been drawn; even mid-lapse he is one of pure inner faculty. One source presses the identity further: the devotee is not merely on his way to becoming like the Lord but is already united with the Lord's essence the moment his mind reaches out in intense faith, like one lamp kindled from another and no longer markable off from it, so that he already lives in the Lord's life and eternal peace.

Śrīla Viśvanātha · Sant Jñāneśvar

Śuddhādvaita

This school frames the obstacle as low birth and the deep stamp of the dark and restless qualities, and the verse as the merciful Purushottama's power to uplift even the most fallen. By the greatness of the later worship (bhajana) of the Lord's own form, even the 'sin of birth' is torn up by the root and the man becomes one whose self is dharma; the lasting peace he reaches is the Lord himself, attained in the devotee's own inmost form. The devotee's faults do not destroy him; rather his faults themselves perish, while the Lord, pleased simply by the proclaiming of his devotee's greatness, underwrites the safe carrying-through. This is read as the special 'pushti' (grace-nourished) force of the verse: once the bond of exclusive devotion is set, the Lord's pledge stands above the devotee's record, and his grace lifts women, the low-born, and all who merely come into connection with him.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Modern

These voices guard against a misreading. One insists the verse does not mean the Lord loves an evil-doer as an evil-doer, or licenses sin: it means only that once the mind is firmly turned toward the Supreme, the man can no longer keep doing evil, gradually becomes a pious soul, reaches perfection, and by that perfection his sin is finally destroyed; this is the path of devotion working the same effect the earlier chapter promised for karma-yoga, and it shows the Lord's even-handedness toward all beings. The other grounds the swiftness in the soul's own nature: the individual self (jiva) is a part (amsha) of the Supreme and is therefore ever pure; bad-soul-ness was never original but an incidental overlay that entered only through entanglement with the world (samsara). The moment the seeker turns and his self-sense (ahamta) changes, that entanglement falls away and the original purity simply stands forth uncovered, for the Lord never withdraws what was eternally the devotee's.

Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas

Advaita Vedānta

This school reads the verse straightforwardly as the supreme assurance and presses the logic of the prior verse: how can dharma-mindedness arise while ill conduct is still present? The answer is the speed of the change, 'quickly,' and the ceasing of ill conduct that is the very 'tranquillity' named here. The devotee whose inmost self is offered to the Lord does not perish even though his mind was once smitten by ill conduct, because the greatness of devotion to the Lord settles the matter. One source dramatizes it: as if angered, swayed by compassion for devotees, the Lord has Arjuna proclaim with disdain and pride that no devotee of Vasudeva perishes however ill-conducted, fallen, or unfit, citing the well-known cases of Ajamila, Prahlada, Dhruva, and Gajendra the elephant-king, and the scripture that says nothing inauspicious ever befalls the devotees of Vasudeva.

Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri

Viśiṣṭādvaita

This school reads the worship as love-driven and single in purpose, aimed at no other end than the Lord. By it the devotee's sin is shaken off and his rajas and tamas uprooted entirely, so he swiftly becomes righteous of self and single-minded in worship, free of obstacles. Notably, it identifies this very worship with the 'duty' (dharma) named at the chapter's opening. The 'lasting peace' is the everlasting, never-returning ceasing of the conduct that obstructs reaching the Lord. The pledge is read precisely: one who has merely begun the devotion, even mixed with obstructing conduct, does not perish; rather, by the greatness of devotion, the whole brood of obstructions is destroyed and he swiftly becomes one of full devotion. The 'pratijanihi' is the Lord's solemn assurance, given as a proclamation Arjuna is to carry forward to all candidates.

Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika