Bhagavad Gita 12.19

tulya-nindā-stutir maunī

santuṣṭo yena kenacit

aniketaḥ sthira-matir

bhaktimān me priyo naraḥ

 

Alike in praise and blame,

Silent, content in any frame;

Needing no home, steady in soul,

Dear to you, complete and whole.

 

My dear Lord, life in this material world leaves me perpetually unsettled.
I am constantly searching, according to my own ideas, for what feels safe, stable, and strengthening—what I call home. Yet time inevitably pulls me away from the things, places, people, activities, and even worldviews that once felt like home. Many of these losses are subtle and distant, stretching back years, decades, even lifetimes, beyond my ability to trace or explain. All I know is that I no longer feel at home—even in the place I call home.

O infallible Lord, you alone are the enduring, enriching home of my heart.
When I fix my heart on you through bhakti, I discover the shelter that releases my heart from all its pains.

Those devoted to you, O Lord—the supreme guide and the supreme goal—may have no lasting home in this world, yet their hearts are forever at home in you alone. Bless me to follow in their luminous footsteps.

When I feel disconnected, disoriented, or distressed, let me not become lost in analyzing old wounds and present pains. I need only turn to you, and in you I will find the lasting relief my heart is seeking.

***

12.19 One who is equal to … fame and infamy, who is always free from contaminating association, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn’t care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and who is engaged in devotional service – such a person is very dear to Me.