Give Me thy heart! adore Me! serve Me! cling in faith and love and reverence to Me! So shalt thou come to Me!
The Gita's climactic verse -- Krishna's final appeal -- tests each translator's theological nerve. Arnold makes it intensely personal: 'Give Me thy heart! adore Me! serve Me!' -- Victorian devotional passion that expands the Sanskrit far beyond its two lines. Wilkins renders it as rational counsel: 'Forsaking every duty, come unto me alone for shelter' -- eighteenth-century sobriety that strips the emotional urgency. Telang stays legalistic: 'Forsaking all duties, come to me as your sole refuge' -- sarva-dharmAn as a legal category. Swarupananda, reading through Shankara, writes 'Relinquishing all dharmas take refuge in Me alone' -- where 'dharmas' becomes metaphysical rather than merely ethical, implying the transcendence of all conceptual frameworks.
The grand synthesis: Krishna has taught karma, bhakti, and jnana. Now he distills everything into one final command. Abandon all other duties and take refuge in Me alone. I will deliver you from all sin — do not grieve. This is his "deepest word, last and best," spoken to Arjuna as the most beloved friend.
The Gita’s supreme verse (charama shloka): the final, most intimate appeal from God to the individual soul. The climax of all 700 verses.