“Which is your favorite Bhagavad-gita verse?”

“Which is your favorite Bhagavad-gita verse?” This was a question a podcast host asked me during a recent interview on my UK visit. I paused because I have always found this question difficult to answer. “For me, the Bhagavad-gita’s verses are not just sources of wisdom,” I replied. “Many of them are like close personal friends. When I recite them, remember them, or reflect on them, I feel as if I am transported somewhere else—as if I am in the presence of something, or Someone, wonderfully familiar, divinely comfortable, supremely secure. In that presence, the world’s dualities and uncertainties don’t seem to matter so much. “When I study the Bhagavad-gita, I see myself as a spiritual seeker, not as a spiritual consumer picking a favorite brand off a shelf. So rather than saying which verse is my favorite, I would prefer to say which verse I presently find especially meaningful and enriching.” My jovial-looking host had asked the question with a broad smile on his face, but hearing my reply, his expression softened and he grew thoughtful. “Sure,” he said in a softer voice. “Please go ahead.” “At present, I am finding Bhagavad-gita 18.76 especially sheltering and strengthening.” In that verse, Sanjaya tells Dhritarashtra: rājan saṁsmṛtya saṁsmṛtya saṁvādam imam adbhutam keśavārjunayoḥ puṇyaṁ hṛṣyāmi ca muhur muhuḥ “O King, as I repeatedly remember this wondrous and sacred conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, I rejoice again and again.” “What moves me about this verse,” I continued, “is how our connection with Krishna can keep working internally even when it doesn’t seem to be working externally. “Krishna spoke the Gita to Arjuna, and Arjuna was transformed—he began confused about what he should do and ended convinced about doing Krishna’s will. But Sanjaya was simultaneously narrating that same message to Dhritarashtra, and Dhritarashtra’s heart remained unmoved. Sanjaya could understandably have become dejected, thinking, ‘Why hasn’t my delivery of Krishna’s message worked on his head and heart?’ “Instead, Sanjaya focuses on how that message has worked on his own head and heart. Remembering Krishna’s words makes him jubilant. “I find that deeply meaningful for my own service. When I speak Krishna’s message, what I say is not always received the way I hope. Sometimes the turnout is poor. Sometimes the audience has flat expressions throughout. Sometimes I wonder if my words are landing at all. “Even if I feel disappointed before the talk or after the talk, during the talk I almost always feel enlivened as I start speaking about Krishna’s message. To me, that is a small demonstration of the principle Sanjaya illustrates here: even if we don’t have outer success in our service in terms of making a visible difference, we can still have inner success in terms of Krishna making an invisible difference in our heart.” As I finished my answer, I looked at the host. He seemed to be taking in what I had said. After a few moments, he nodded and moved on to the next question. Remembering Before Rejoicing Later, when I reflected on my answer, another dimension of Sanjaya’s words began to open up for me. During the podcast, I had focused primarily on Sanjaya’s emotion. I had appreciated how he had remained upbeat and not become discouraged even though his delivery of Krishna’s message had not produced the desired external result. But I had wondered whether hṛṣyāmi—“I rejoice”—seemed almost too strong a word. If our service doesn’t produce the result we hoped for, we may learn to accept that peacefully. We may even feel grateful for having had the opportunity to serve. But why would we feel thrilled? My attention went to the words that precede hṛṣyāmi: saṁsmṛtya saṁsmṛtya—“remembering again and again.” Recently, as I have started writing experiential articles, I realized that I have unknowingly been doing something like saṁsmṛtya saṁsmṛtya: remembering experiences from my past systematically and deeply. During such remembrance, I have tried to crystallize what I learned from those experiences and articulate those realizations into shareable reflections. During this whole process of recollecting, there have been more than a few moments when I too have felt thrilled. Experiences that might otherwise have remained scattered memories have begun to reveal patterns of Krishna’s presence and guidance that I hadn’t noticed earlier. I felt thrilled as it registered in me that I could see something of myself in Sanjaya—or, more precisely, something of Sanjaya’s experience in my own. By engaging in saṁsmṛtya, I was beginning to understand more experientially his hṛṣyāmi. It struck me that this saṁsmṛtya principle could work in two distinct ways: remember the experience and remember to experience. Remember the experience meant recollecting what had happened in the past. I was already doing this through these articles: revisiting past experiences and noticing the hidden thread of Krishna’s presence that I had overlooked during the rush of the moment. Remember to experience meant appreciating what was happening in the present. Perhaps I could also do that by becoming more conscious and present in the moment itself. When I speak, I could become more attentive to smaller, subtler things: a particular expression on someone’s face while I answer a question; a thought that comes to me while answering it; a memory that unexpectedly surfaces; or some new connection that comes to light while I am speaking. Feeling humbled and grateful at realizing these two modes of recollection, I offered a prayer: My dear Lord, please make my heart open to whatever it is You want me to experience. Let my expectation of how my service should lead to results not close my heart to whatever You may be offering me through that experience. Like Sanjaya, may I find thrill in recollecting the mysterious and marvelous ways You are working through me and on me. *** 18.76 O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous and holy dialogue between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, I take pleasure, being thrilled at every moment. The post “Which is your favorite Bhagavad-gita verse?” first appeared on Chaitanya Charan Das, Bhagavad Gita ISKCON .