10.14.8: tat te nukampam...

tat te 'nukampam su-samikshamano

bhunjana evatma-kritam vipakam

hrid-vag-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te

jiveta yo mukti-pade sa daya-bhak

My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.

About the verse:

1. This verse is the most quoted verse by Srila Prabhupada
2. VCT says that this verse verse describes Bhakti

This verse talks about how devotees accept reversals in their lives - they simply tolerate the reversals thinking them to be reactions to their past karma. They remain in Krishna Consciousness and continue doing their services and constantly offer obeisances to the Lord thanking Him for His mercy. They think that whatever they are suffering right now is only due to their past karma . Krsna being very merciful has reduced the reaction to a token actually they deserve worse. A devotee who behaves like that is eligible for liberation.

Why is this verse so important?

Tolerance is considered as the most important quality for a devotee as stated by Srila Prabhupada(BTG 1987 -A Body Free of Suffering). True tolerance appears when one is in the spiritual conception of life thinking that whatever is happening is like the appearance and disappearance of summer and winter months, I cannot change it. All the difficulties that are happening are under the Lord's control. Because of these events I should not get entangled and I should focus only on my progress in devotional service and not in correcting this.If I am in the material conception, I will get affected by it and will take some action only to get further entangled. The insult, hurt etc is actually affecting my false ego. However my position as a servant of the Lord cannot be taken away.

In fact the fourth verse that Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita is the verse matra sparsas tu kaunteya "O son of Kuntī, the non permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."

They arise from sense perception which is again on the material platform and thus we should not be disturbed.This verse on tolerance is considered as the key to the Bhagavad Gita.If we remain with this attitude we can understand everything else in the Bhagavad Gita.

If one remains in such a spiritual conception then one can make progress in bhakti as such an understanding situates one in humility,frees one from the bodily conception of life and controller-ship.Thus the false ego is dissolved. However if one remains on the material platform - one is not humble enough to accept the reversals as reactions to their karma, one clings to the false ego that I am the enjoyer and nobody can harm me. Thus one remains in the bodily conception of life, nurturing the false ego forever.

Thus this verse is of significance as it situates one on the platform of humility and acceptance of the supremacy of the Lord and one's minuteness in relation to the Lord and his plan.This is a fertile ground for Bhakti.