Gita 07.18 – Krishna is so hungry for love that he deems those who become his devotees charitable

Thank you Udara is magnanimous charitable this verse is continuing Krishna's description of the four kinds of people who surrender who approach to him and start rendering bhakti so all of them are magnanimous all of them are great souls, all of them are charitable Ramacharya in his commentary explains that how is it that the lord who is normally considered Udara, it is he who is charitable it is he who is merciful so how is it that the lord is saying that the conditions the souls who are just beginning to practice bhakti most of them except for the jnani, they are not even very serious fixed devotees so how is it that they are being called Udara it is because Krishna is so hungry for devotion that he feels without devotion that I am starving so Krishna feels grateful to any soul who offers bhakti to him, no matter what the reason that soul may be offering bhakti, even that soul is not offering because of love but because of self-centered concerns still the soul, Krishna appreciates at least the soul is coming to me and is offering devotion to me so Krishna being hungry for devotion, being thirsty for devotion feels grateful to that soul because love Krishna is the supreme controller and he controls everything except one thing and that is our heart and that's why he considers that if if we offer our heart's devotion to him then he is then we we are offering him something that he cannot get otherwise he cannot control the heart and that's why he feels immensely grateful to that soul who offers him bhakti and thus Krishna feeling grateful calls your devotee as charitable, just as when we receive some gift from someone which we have no means to give we have no means to get otherwise and which we very much want then we feel grateful to that person and we consider, oh how charitable you are so like that Krishna is saying that oh all these souls who are who are pious and they've come to me and they are they are they are practicing bhakti unto me they are all they are all wonderful devotees they are all such charitable souls because they are offering that which I am longing for and that which I cannot get otherwise that is the love of their heart so by this usage and by this explanation of this usage we can understand, we can get a endearing glimpse into the heart of Krishna and thus feel our own heart attracted to that wonderful divine heart so Krishna is doing a balancing act here now first he listed all the four categories of people in the same way without specifying anyone as special in 16th verse then he said that oh among them the Jnani is special very special and then now in the 18th text Krishna says oh but all of them are great souls, all of them are magnanimous and then again he says yeah but all of them are magnanimous still among them also the Jnani is special Jnani tvaatmayi vame matam this is a very intimate level of connectedness Krishna is saying that the Jnani is like my own self Jnani tvaatmayi vame matam Jnani is like my own self and Vishwanath Chakrathakar explains quotes here in the Bhagavad Gita in this Bhagavad Gita commentary that actually the Supreme Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that my devotees are my pure devotees are more dear to me than my own very self and thus that level is higher than this level so Jnanis are, Krishna says they are as good as myself and the Bhaktas the pure devotees are more dear to me than my very self astitah sahi yuktatma astita so the astha is faith astita is situated at one place by one's faith astita sahi yuktatma which a person is engaged in yoga is connected with me by the astha of the heart astita sahi yuktatma mam eva anuttam amgatim understanding me to be the anuttam gatim certainly uttama uttama is that which is beyond the darkness of tama transcendental we could say anuttama is the is actually the top most great is transcendental mam eva anuttama amgatim yogi is situated in me and yogi aspires to come closer to me making me not the yogi here the jnani the jnani wants to come to me making me come closer and closer to me making me the top most god eva anuttama amgatim so thus krishna underscores the point that the yogi the top most the jnani is very dear to him and krishna conveys to us the sweetness that reigns the sweetness of love that reigns supreme in his heart and that makes him speak such heart warming endearing heart melting expressions of love wherein he calls even the even the self centered devotees even the immature devotees the non not yet pure devotees even then he calls them magnanimous and the top most devotee and those who are on the path to the top most devotion those who are seriously practicing bhakti dhyan is as equivalent to my own self so for us the pure devotion may be far away but by hearing how krishna is so loving towards his devotees we can aspire at the very least to aspire for pure devotion why should we deprive ourselves of the endearing world of love that krishna is revealing through these words so we can enter into krishna's circle of love by trying to serve him and love him to the best of our capacity and thus one day we will also delight in endless eternal ecstatic pure love for krishna.