Sanskrit
इदं ते नातपस्काय नाभक्ताय कदाचन । न चाशुश्रूषवे वाच्यं न च मां योऽभ्यसूयति ॥ ६७ ॥
idaṃ te nātapaskāya nābhaktāya kadācana na cāśuśrūṣave vācyaṃ na ca māṃ yo'bhyasūyati
Translation
Never is this to be spoken by thee to anyone who is without asceticism, nor without devotion, nor to one who desireth not to listen, nor yet to him who speaketh evil of Me.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Immediately after the highest teaching comes a restriction: never speak this to one without austerity or devotion, unwilling to listen, or hostile to Krishna. It’s a gatekeeping clause in the oldest sense of wisdom literature — the text insists some teachings do real harm when handed to someone unprepared to receive them, and it states readiness in terms of disposition rather than status, in contrast to the birth-based sorting the chapter opened with.