Bhagwad Gita - Post 89

Verse 16

Chaturvidhaa bhajante maam

Janaah sukritino’rjuna;

Aarto jijnaasurartharthee

Jnaanee cha bharatarshabha.

Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna! They are the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the wise, O Lord of the Bharatas.

Humans who are sukritino meaning righteous and virtuous surrender to the Supreme Lord, are of four classes distinguished by their different grades of virtue. 

In the order they are given, each succeeding class is more superior to the preceding one due to being more elevated and exalted making it more meritorious. The four are:

ARTHA

When we are in distress, when we are in a state of utter poverty, when we are in a dying condition, when we are suffering from an incurable disease, when we are harassed up to the point of death, and when there is no help coming from anywhere and sorrow is hanging on our heads, we cry to God for help. 

These are one kind of devotee: they love God and cry to God because they are in grief, and they want God to redress all the sorrows in which they are sunk. 

Perhaps if they were well off — very healthy, wealthy, and all was well with them in this world — the idea of resorting to God might not have arisen in their minds. Nevertheless, God is very kind, compassionate and so gracious as to accept that even these people are His devotees, though they have come to Him only for material gains in the sense that they want only redressal of sorrow, and if they are free from sorrow they shall be highly satisfied. 

Draupadi and Gajendra are examples of Artha-Bhaktas. When Dussasana dragged her before the court of the Kauravas and pulled her sari, Draupadi cried for Krishna in order to guard her respect. 

Gajendra called on Narayana when a crocodile was dragging him in water.

JIGNASU

There are other devotees who do not cry for God to remove their suffering in the world. They are the jignasu—those who want wisdom of life. 

Learning sometimes evokes a desire to worship Saraswati and such other Goddesses. Those who want power, domination and might worship Lord Siva and such other Gods, and so on. 

Those who are jignasus are lovers of knowledge — of insight into the reality of things. We may even say they are lovers of spiritual knowledge. They crave that God should bless them with this wondrous wisdom.

It is described in the Devi Mahatmya that there were two devotees of Devi. One was a king and the other a Vaisya, a trader. When Devi appeared before them and asked them what boon they wished for, the king said, “I want to regain my kingdom, which I have lost.” But the Vaisya said, “I want wisdom of life.” Devi blessed both of them with the purpose for which they had worshipped her. 

Hence, there are devotees who are jignasus — who want wisdom, knowledge, acumen, intelligence, genius, and spiritual realization, and for that purpose they worship God. 

Uddhava was a Jignasu. He was dissatisfied with the world and got wisdom from Sri Krishna. This is recorded in the Bhagavatam.

ARTHARTHI

These devotees want material gains — wealth, prosperity in this world socially or even politically. 

Artha means material value. But some interpreters of the Bhagwad Gita feel that here, perhaps, artha has some other meaning, because there appears to be a gradual ascent in the sequence of the devotional spirit that is mentioned; and as a jnani is supposed to be the best, he would be mentioned last. The distressed is mentioned first, and the one who seeks knowledge is supposed to be the second.

Naturally, we cannot say that the seeker of knowledge is inferior to the one who asks for redressal of sorrow. So, there seems to be a superiority of the grade of devotion in each succeeding stage, especially as the last one is supposed to be the best. 

Thus, we should infer from this sequence that the third type, which is artharthi, cannot be a person who seeks material gains, because that would be inferior to the previous type, who seeks knowledge. 

Sugriva and Dhruva were Artharthi-Bhaktas. Sugriva wanted to drive away Vali. Vibhishana wanted to put an end to Ravana.   

If we carefully observe, these bhaktas are not the one who pursued God only for material wealth. Though their purpose might be a little selfish at surface level, yet, the ultimate motive was only to destroy evil.

JNANI

But the Lord says that the jnanis are the best of the devotees because he does not want anything from God. He has ceased to have any kind of expectation from the world and does not have any kind of ulterior motive. 

The devotee / Sadhaka who wants only God / Self-realization, and wants nothing else  from God or through God, is the jnani. Anybody who wants something from God or through God is a lesser devotee. 

The Jnanis are the one who approach the sanctum sanctorum  of the temple of the Spirit, demanding nothing, expecting nothing, carrying with them only themselves as their offerings. 

Suka-Maharshi was a Jnani-Bhakta. He was a Brahma-Jnani of the highest type. He realized that everything was his own Self. He taught the Srimad-Bhagavatam to Parikshit.

They offer themselves as an oblation in a pure spirit of love-inspired total self-surrender. The only cry in their heart is that the Spirit should end their sense of separation and accept them back into the embrace of the Lord, to be made one with Him. 

Ramana says on  Self-surrender,

"If one has entirely surrendered oneself, is there any part left to ask for Grace. Surrender yourself unreservedly and the Higher Power will reveal itself. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root thought ‘I’ or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the Higher Power. These are the only two ways for realization. 

......One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and also require a Higher Power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery, go into the source and merge into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered."

Love.