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.


Text

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.

Purport

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.”