Chapter 18 · Verse 76·Spoken by Krishna
राजन्संस्मृत्य संस्मृत्य संवादमिममद्भुतम्।केशवार्जुनयोः पुण्यं हृष्यामि च मुहुर्मुहुः
rājan sansmṛitya sansmṛitya saṁvādam imam adbhutam keśhavārjunayoḥ puṇyaṁ hṛiṣhyāmi cha muhur muhuḥ
O King, recalling again and again this wondrous, sacred dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, I rejoice over and over.
Word by Word
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
Synthesis · a glossed leaf
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
his is Sanjaya speaking to King Dhritarashtra, and these are nearly the last words of the Gita. Sanjaya was the charioteer's narrator who, by a special gift, could see and hear all that passed between Krishna (called here Keshava) and Arjuna on the battlefield. Now, looking back, he tells the blind king: recalling this dialogue again and again, at every moment, I rejoice again and again. The Sanskrit doubles its words on purpose. 'Samsmritya samsmritya' (remembering, remembering) and 'muhur muhuh' (again and again, moment after moment) are repeated to show that both the remembering and the joy keep returning without stop.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Sanjaya calls the dialogue both 'adbhuta' (wonderful, marvellous) and 'punya' (holy, meritorious). These two words carry the verse's weight. 'Adbhuta' marks the conversation as something out of the ordinary, not the kind of teaching one could reach by usual means. 'Punya' means it produces merit and removes sin. Several commentators stress that this power works not only for the one who took part but even for anyone who simply hears it: the mere hearing destroys a multitude of sins and turns the mind toward God.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
The joy is not a single burst but a standing condition that renews itself. Each time the memory returns, the delight returns with it. The verse states this directly with its doubled phrasing, and the commentators read it as a self-feeding cycle: remembrance kindles joy, and that joy makes Sanjaya remember yet again. This is why the rejoicing is described as happening at every moment.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vedānta Deśika · Sant Jñāneśvar · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vallabhācārya · Lokmanya Tilak
The joy is felt in the body, not only in the mind. The verb 'hrishyami' (I rejoice, I am gladdened) is read by some as a thrill that makes the hair stand on end, the visible mark of rapture. The remembering is also described as springing from inner agitation or eagerness, so the doubling of words reflects a real stirring of feeling, not a calm report.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrī Puruṣottama
Divergence
Bhakti
This school reads Sanjaya's joy as more than the pleasant glow of a striking memory. It is the lasting taste of one who has been admitted, by another's grace, to a teaching he could never have reached on his own. The accent falls on grace and on the permanence of the delight: not a passing pleasure but a settled relish that stays.
Vallabhācārya
Modern
This voice locates the source of Sanjaya's wonder in the dialogue's specific message: that the highest spiritual attainment can be reached even while doing a terrible deed like fighting a war, and that every person, in every situation, can accomplish his own deliverance. A man at the very edge of duty and death was brought to complete self-surrender, so the door is open everywhere. The householder, the servant, the soldier, the merchant, each in his own circumstance can do the same. What Sanjaya keeps recalling, on this reading, is the universality of the path.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Bhakti
This source paints the experience as a rhythm of being overcome and recovering. The moment Sanjaya utters the word 'King,' he is struck with wonder and falls into ecstasy, like a jewel hidden by its own brilliance. He recalls the dialogue whenever he regains his senses, but the very remembrance overwhelms him again and he loses awareness once more, and so it keeps turning, again and again.
Sant Jñāneśvar
A Seeker Asks
If Sanjaya only narrated this dialogue and was not its student, why does he, and not Arjuna, end the Gita drowning in joy?
The verse and its commentators point to the dialogue itself as the source of the joy, not to any special standing of the listener. The conversation is called holy and meritorious because its very hearing destroys sin and turns the mind toward God. So even one who merely received it as a narrator is reached by its power.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Swami Sivananda · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
One reading holds that Sanjaya's delight is precisely the gratitude of someone admitted by grace to a teaching he could not have reached on his own, which makes the listener's joy fitting rather than strange.
Vallabhācārya
Another reading finds the cause of his wonder in the message itself: that anyone, in any condition, can attain the highest deliverance. That truth applies to a narrator as much as to a warrior, which is why the joy belongs to whoever holds the teaching in mind and recalls it again and again.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Vedānta Deśika
Contemplation
Notice that Sanjaya's joy comes not from being present at the battlefield but from recollecting the dialogue afterward, again and again. The same response is available to you. The candidate who returns to the Gita in memory, turning it over and over, can be brought to the same repeated joy that Sanjaya describes. The teaching is not sealed in the past. To recall it is itself to taste it.
Sit with this · Vedānta Deśika
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