Even if you are the most sinful of all the sinful, of all the doers of sin a sinner beyond measure, you will cross over all wickedness, the whole ocean of sin, with the mere boat of knowledge, making knowledge alone your boat. Here, for the seeker of liberation, even merit is called sin. How does knowledge destroy sin? An illustration is given.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Even if you are the worst sinner of all sinners, you will cross over the whole ocean of the heap of wrong, in the form of guilt, gathered before, by the boat alone that is knowledge regarding the self.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Krishna again praises knowledge, which is the instrument, with three verses.