Sanskrit
चतुर्विधा भजन्ते मां जनाः सुकृतिनोऽर्जुन । आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ ॥ १६ ॥
caturvidhā bhajante māṃ janāḥ sukṛtino'rjuna ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha
Translation
Fourfold in division are the righteous ones who worship me, O Arjuna; the suffering, the seeker for knowledge, the self-interested and the wise, O Lord of the Bhâratas.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The fourfold taxonomy of worshippers — the distressed, the knowledge-seeker, the wealth-seeker, the wise — is one of the chapter’s most quoted structures. All four are called “righteous” (sukṛtinaḥ) in the same breath; this isn’t a hierarchy of who’s permitted to worship but a hierarchy of who’s ripening fastest, which verses 17-18 spell out immediately.