Sanskrit
श्रद्धावाननसूयश्च शृणुयादपि यो नरः । सोऽपि मुक्तः शुभांल्लोकान्प्राप्नुयात्पुण्यकर्मणाम् ॥ ७१ ॥
śraddhāvān anasūyaś ca śṛṇuyād api yo naraḥ so'pi muktaḥ śubhāl lokān prāpnuyāt puṇya-karmaṇām
Translation
The man also who, full of faith, merely heareth it unreviling, even he, freed from evil, obtaineth the radiant worlds of the righteous.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The ladder’s lowest rung: even someone who merely hears this teaching, full of faith and without cavil, is freed from evil and reaches “the radiant worlds of the righteous.” Total surrender at verse 66 remains the highest attainment, but the text is explicit that faithful listening alone still yields something real — a deliberately inclusive close to a teaching that opened, forty chapters back, by sorting people sharply along guna and varna lines.