#1 worldwide · 4.7Yada yada hi dharmasya
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत । अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदाऽऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥
“Whenever there is a decline of dharma and a rise of adharma, I manifest myself.”
Krishna’s promise to appear whenever dharma declines. It was searched about 1.2 times as often as karmanye vadhikaraste worldwide and 1.3 times as often in India.
In India the searches around it are “sloka”, “meaning”, “in hindi”, “in english” and “ringtone”, which suggests many people look it up after hearing it. Ahrefs lists 1,070 different phrasings of it in Indian searches, against 478 for karmanye vadhikaraste, and puts both “yada yada hi dharmasya” and “yada yada hi dharmasya sloka” above 10,000 searches a month there.
Read 4.7 with word meanings →#2 worldwide · 2.47Karmanye vadhikaraste
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
“You have a right to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not become the cause of the result, and do not cling to inaction.”
The most common search around it in India is the full first line, “karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana”, followed by “sloka” and “meaning”.
It is the verse people search for by its words. Of the Google searches that showed our site and named one verse, 88% of the impressions for 2.47 came from its Sanskrit words; for almost every other verse it was a number. It is also the verse visitors most often land on when they arrive from outside the site: 47 browsers since May (English and Hindi pages counted separately, about 15 of them from one Reddit thread), against 26 for 1.1, the next.
A film with the same title adds a small share of searches; “movie” scores 10 on Google’s related-search scale where the full line scores 100.
Read 2.47 with word meanings →#3 worldwide · 11.32Kalo ’smi, or “Now I am become death”
कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः । ऋतेऽपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे येऽवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः ॥
“I am Time, the great destroyer of worlds, here to end all beings. Even without you, the warriors standing in the opposing ranks will not survive.”
Krishna, in his universal form, tells Arjuna he is Time, the destroyer of worlds, and that the warriors facing him will fall whatever Arjuna does. J. Robert Oppenheimer said the line came to his mind at the first nuclear test in 1945, in his own wording, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”, and the 2023 film Oppenheimer put it on screen.
Worldwide it scores 88 on our index, third overall behind 2.47, and almost all of that is the English line; the Sanskrit barely registers. In India it scores 1.3. Some of the English searches are about the video game Fallout 76, which uses the phrase.
Read 11.32 with word meanings →#4 worldwide · 4.8Paritranaya sadhunam, sambhavami yuge yuge
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् । धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय संभवामि युगे युगे ॥
“For the protection of the righteous, for the destruction of wrongdoers, and for the establishment of dharma, I appear age after age.”
The verse after 4.7: Krishna says why he comes, to protect the good, end wrongdoing and restore dharma, age after age. The two verses are usually recited together, and many people know this one by its last words, “sambhavami yuge yuge”. It scores 24 worldwide, a clear third among the Sanskrit lines.
Read 4.8 with word meanings →#5 worldwide · 2.23Nainam chindanti shastrani
नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः । न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः ॥
“Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it, and wind cannot dry it.”
Weapons cannot cut the self, fire cannot burn it. Part of Krishna’s first answer to Arjuna’s grief in chapter 2, and often quoted when someone has died. Index 6.4 worldwide, 3.8 in India.
Read 2.23 with word meanings →#6 worldwide · 18.66Sarva dharman parityajya
सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज । अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥
“Abandon all duties and take refuge in Me alone. I will free you from all wrongdoing; do not grieve.”
Krishna’s last instruction: let go of every other duty and take refuge in him. Sri Vaishnavas call it the charama shloka, the final teaching. Index 6.0 worldwide. It is also one of the verses people most often look up by number; searches such as “bg 18.66” showed our site in Google 180 times this year.
Read 18.66 with word meanings →