Text 21
arjunaḥ preyasaḥ sakhyuḥ
kṛṣṇasya virahāturaḥ
ātmānaṁ sāntvayām āsa
kṛṣṇa-gītaiḥ sad-uktibhiḥ
arjunaḥ — Arjuna; preyasaḥ — of his dear; sakhyuḥ — friend; kṛṣṇasya — Lord Kṛṣṇa; viraha — because of the separation; āturaḥ — distressed; ātmānam — himself; sāntvayām āsa — consoled; kṛṣṇa-gītaiḥ — with the song sung by Lord Kṛṣṇa (the Bhagavad-gītā); sat-uktibhiḥ — with the transcendental words.
Arjuna felt great distress over separation from Lord Kṛṣṇa, his dearmost friend. But he consoled himself by remembering the transcendental words the Lord had sung to him.
According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Arjuna remembered such verses from the Gītā as:
nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam
(Bg. 7.25)
“I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency (yoga-māyā), and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.”
Similarly, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has mentioned the Gītā verse mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te pratijāne priyo ’si me (Bg. 18.65): “You will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.” He has also quoted from the Svarga-parva of the Mahābhārata as follows:
dadarśa tatra govindaṁ
brahmaṇe vapuṣānvitam
tenaiva dṛṣṭa-pūrveṇa
sādṛśyenopasūcitam
dīpyamānaṁ sva-vapuṣā
divyair astrair upaskṛtam
cakra-prabhṛtibhir ghorair
divyaiḥ puruṣa-vigrahaiḥ
upāsyamānaṁ vīreṇa
phālgunena su-varcasā
yathā-svarūpaṁ kaunteya
tathaiva madhusūdanam
tāv ubhau puruṣa-vyāghrau
samudvīkṣya yudhiṣṭhiram
yathārhaṁ pratipedāte
pūjayā deva-pūjitau
“There Yudhiṣṭhira saw Lord Govinda as the Absolute Truth in His original, personal form. He appeared just as Yudhiṣṭhira had seen Him before, with all the same characteristics. He was glowing brilliantly with the effulgence coming from His own body, and He was surrounded by His transcendental weapons — the disc and so on — which appeared in their fearsome personified forms. O descendant of Kuntī, Lord Madhusūdana was being worshiped by the effulgent hero Arjuna, who also appeared in his original form. When these two lions among men, who are worshipable by the demigods, noticed the presence of Yudhiṣṭhira, they approached him with proper respect and offered him worship.”