कथञ्चन स्मारणमेव तेषा-
मवेहि तज्जीवनदानमेव ।
तेषां यतो विस्मरणं कदाचि-
त्प्राणाधिकानां मरणाच्च निन्द्यम् ॥
न सम्भवेदस्मरणं कदापि
स्वजीवनानां यदपि प्रियाणाम् ।
तथापि केनापि विशेषणेन
स्मृतिः प्रहर्षाय यथा सुजीवितम् ॥
kathañcana smāraṇam eva teṣām
avehi taj-jīvana-dānam eva |
teṣāṁ yato vismaraṇaṁ kadācit
prāṇādhikānāṁ maraṇāc ca nindyam ||
na sambhaved asmaraṇaṁ kadāpi
sva-jīvanānāṁ yad api priyāṇām |
tathāpi kenāpi viśeṣaṇena
smṛtiḥ praharṣāya yathā su-jīvitam ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.129–130)
[Bhagavān to Nārada:] “Understand that somehow producing remembrance of them [i.e., those who are dear] is to give [those endowed with prema] life itself because any sort of forgetfulness of them who are more [dear] than one’s very life is more contemptible than dying [for those endowed with prema]. Although forgetting those who are as dear as one’s very life is never possible, still any sort of special remembrance [of them] is as great a joy as an abundant life.”