Sanskrit
उदाराः सर्व एवैते ज्ञानी त्वात्मैव मे मतम् । आस्थितः स हि युक्तात्मा मामेवानुत्तमां गतिम् ॥ १८ ॥
udārāḥ sarva evaite jñānī tv ātmaiva me matam āsthitaḥ sa hi yuktātmā mām evānuttamāṃ gatim
Translation
Noble are all these, but I hold the wise as verily Myself; he, Self united, is fixed on Me, the highest Path.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna’s claim escalates past verse 17’s mutual affection: the wise devotee isn’t just dear to him, he “hold[s] the wise as verily Myself” — a near-identification, softening the subject-object gap the other three types named in verse 16 still operate within. The distressed, the knowledge-seeker, and the wealth-seeker approach Krishna as a separate goal to reach, while the wise devotee’s own self is already, per this verse, indistinguishable from that goal.