Bhagavad Gita 11.14

tataḥ sa vismayāviṣṭo

hṛṣṭa-romā dhanañjayaḥ

praṇamya śirasā devaṁ

kṛtāñjalir abhāṣata

 

Trembling before that form, blazing,

Arjuna, eyes widening, hair rising

Bowed before the God he saw,

Hands joined tight, he spoke with awe.

 

My dear Lord, Arjuna, on beholding your majestic, all-pervading universal form, is overwhelmed by extraordinary emotion. At the start of the Gita, he was also overwhelmed, but that intense emotion initially disconnected him from you. In contrast, his present emotion has arisen from a direct perception of your majesty. At the end of the Gita, he declares that what he is experiencing is not powerful emotion, but a profound calm that enables him to focus single-mindedly on his service to you.

Through Arjuna’s range of emotional and non-emotional experiences, O ever-accessible Lord, help me appreciate that emotion is not the essence of devotion to you; connection with you is. Whenever any emotion I experience deepens my absorption in you, let me be grateful for that emotion. Whenever any service I am called to do requires me to be calm and careful, subordinating my emotion for the sake of your mission, help me accept and embrace that non-emotional state of absorption in you.

O Lord of all experiences, let me neither run toward pleasant emotions like ecstasy nor run away from unpleasant emotions like anxiety. Let me walk toward you, march toward you—indeed run toward you—with an attitude of service. Bless me to prioritize connection over emotion, and thus remain always in your service, through whatever situations and emotions may come upon me during my life’s journey.

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11.14 Then, bewildered and astonished, his hair standing on end, Arjuna bowed his head to offer obeisances and with folded hands began to pray to the Supreme Lord.