Bhagavad Gita 18.69
न च तस्मान्मनुष्येषु कश्चिन्मे प्रियकृत्तमः । भविता न च मे तस्मादन्यः प्रियतरो भुवि ॥
na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ / bhavitā na ca me tasmād anyaḥ priyataro bhuvi
Translation
Among humans there is no one who performs a more pleasing service to me than such a person, nor shall there be on earth anyone dearer to me.
Reflection
Whose dear teacher were you, and whose dear teacher might you yet become?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eighteen
An unusually strong commendation. The teacher who transmits this teaching to fit students is priya-krittama, the doer of the most pleasing service. There has not been and will not be anyone dearer to Krishna on earth, priyataro bhuvi. The line places the work of transmission at the very top of the bhakti economy. Above private practice, above accumulated knowledge, above ritual observance, sits the one who carries the teaching forward into living students. The Gita knows it must travel beyond Arjuna; the verse honors and incentivizes that travel. Notice the absence of qualification. No conditions of caste or station; only the conditions of bhakti and audience just named.