Bhagavad Gita 2.10

tam uvāca hṛṣīkeśaḥ7

prahasann iva bhārata

senayor ubhayor madhye

viṣīdantam idaṁ vacaḥ

 

“The Lord of the senses spoke with a gentle grace,

A knowing smile playing upon his divine face.

Between the armies, standing, calm and bright,

He solaced Arjuna, who was lamenting his plight.”

 

O my Lord, many are the times when I feel lost and lonely, confronted with the perplexities of life. At those times when nothing I do seems to be working, I cannot help but wonder—do you, O Lord, know my plight?

If you do know my suffering, then why do you not step forward to stop it? If instead of stepping forward to help me, I came to know that in those moments, you were smiling while I was suffering—O Lord, how would I be able to maintain my devotion to you?

Bless me to remember, O Lord, that you are never smiling because I am suffering. It is through my suffering that I am becoming more open to your calling. You know my pain, you feel my pain, and you want to heal my pain. Indeed, you stand ready and eager to free me from all pain.

Let me remember your smile amid my suffering as a sign of your confidence and competence—that you can tackle any and every problem, no matter how gigantic it seems to me. May your smiling face, O Lord, never reduce my faith in your magnanimity. Let it always reinforce my faith in your capability.

***

02.10 O descendant of Bharata, at that time Kṛṣṇa, smiling, in the midst of both the armies, spoke the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna.