CHAPTER 1
ARJUNA VISHAADA YOGA
Chapter 1, Verse 1
dháčtarÄáčŁáčra uvÄca
dharmakáčŁetre kurukáčŁetre
samavetÄ yuyutsavaáž„
mÄmakÄáž„ pÄáčážavÄĆ caiva
kim akurvata sañjaya
Dhritarashtra asks: On the field of Kurukshetra, the field of the working out of the dharma, gathered together, eager for battle, what did they do, O Sanjaya, my people and the Pandavas?
Dhritarashtra asks Sanjaya what is happening in the war, what is happening on the battlefield. This verse starts with the word âDharmakshetraâ. âDharmaâ means righteous, âkshetraâ means the field - the field of righteousness. Kurukshetra: âkuruâ comes from âkuâ, âkriyaâ, to do, to act, to work; âkshetraâ is the working field. Dhritarashtra asks, âWhat are my sons and the Pandavas doing?â
The moment Dhritarashtra uses the words âDharmakshetraâ, âKurukshetraâ, he knows automatically that the place, the battlefield is not just a normal place. The battlefield is a holy place.
This Kurukshetra was not just a normal place where they had chosen a field to have a war. It was a place where dharma was fulfilled. It was a place where one was liberated. Thatâs why it is said that whoever dies at Kurukshetra, even nowadays, is elevated into higher spheres, or liberated according to their merit, their punya. Kurukshetra is also referred to as Punyakshetra, because on this field one gets good merit, good punya.
What was this field where the war happened? The war has different meanings. One of the meanings of this war is life, where the âgoodâ side fights with the ânot goodâ side. This war is not outside, it is also happening inside the human body. Your physical body is the Dharmakshetra. You have incarnated to do your dharma in this field. Thatâs the Dharmakshetra. Life in itself is also Dharmakshetra. You have come to fulfil the Divine purpose. When you are in tune with your true Self, you realise what is your true purpose in life: to attain the Lotus Feet of the Lord, to attain His Grace. And thatâs what the word âDharmakshetraâ is reminding you. Do your dharma! Awake! This dharma can be done with the greatest gift which God has given - this field, this body. And when you start doing your dharma, youâll get good merit, youâll get good punya! But, if you run away from your dharma, then you turn towards the dark side.
In this verse, Dhritarashtra refers to his sons, gathered on this battlefield. This battlefield represents the battlefield of life. On the battlefield of life, you have both: the âgoodâ and the ânot goodâ. Dhritarashtra says, âmy peopleâ, meaning his sons and the Pandavas, and asks, âWhat are they doing?âDhritarashtra had a hundred sons and the Pandavas were the five sons of his brother, Pandu. And now, there was war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
What does the blind king represent? This blind king, Dhritarashtra, represents the mind - the mind which is blind and wants to stay blind. The mind is hanging on to the outside so much that it has power only when it is focused on something exterior: on the material, on relationships, on gaining this or gaining that. This is the nature of the mind. The mind is blind. When Dhritarashtra asks, âWhat are my sons doing?â, donât think that he is very concerned about the Pandavas. He is only concerned about his sons. He is more bothered about, âWhat will I gain?â Somebody with a crooked mind will always try to find what he will gain. This is avariciousness.
Before, he was not concerned about the war, but when he sees that he will lose something, then his mind feels threatened, his mind starts to react. In his mind he has doubts and asks, âWhat is happening? Now that Bhishma has fallen down, what is the reaction of my sons? What is the reaction of the Pandavas? Surely, this must cause a reaction in their minds. With the fall of Bhishma, did my sons realise that they have to change or not?â The mind is always the same. The mind thinks, thinks, thinks, and thinks, but when you try to control it, what happens? Itâs a fight, right? It rebels!
He continues to inquire: âWill there be changes happening to my people and the Pandavas?â Both families were from the Kuru dynasty. But the king refused to recognise the Pandavas. The mind doesnât recognise the good qualities which are present in oneself. The mind can only look towards the senses, looking always towards the outside. The Self, the positive qualities which are present inside, are not comprehended by the mind. So, then Sanjaya continues saying:
Chapter 1, Verse 2
sañjaya uvÄca
dáčáčŁáčva tu pÄáčážavÄnÄ«kaáč
vyĆ«ážhaáč duryodhanas tadÄ
ÄcÄryam upasaáč
gamya
rÄjÄ vacanam abravÄ«t
Sanjaya says: Then the King Duryodhan, having seen the army of the Pandavas arrayed in battle order, approaches his teacher, Dronacharya, and speaks these words:
Why does Sanjaya refer to Duryodhan as ârajaâ (king) in this verse? Because Duryodhan was a great man of state. His father, Dhritarashtra, was blind, so it was actually Duryodhan who was controlling the kingdom. His blind father, Dhritarashtra, represents the blind mind. What comes out of the blind mind is pride. Duryodhan represents this great pride that is born from the mind. When the mind is very active, one becomes proud, proud of many things: proud of knowledge, proud of what one has.
The army of the Pandavas was arrayed in a very special formation. Seeing this orderly formation, Duryodhan felt much nervousness and anxiety inside himself. Anxiety appears when one is proud. Even if pride appears very strong on the outside, in reality, it has a lot of weaknesses in it. Why does pride arise? Do you think it is out of strength? No! In reality, pride arises due to the weakness that one has inside. Even if somebody says, âAh yes, I am very proud of this and I am very proud of thatâ, you can feel that this pride is actually weakness. When pride arises, people think, âYes, I am very confident!â No. Itâs the mind that perceives pride as being confidence. In reality, one is running away from something, from the opposite of pride, humility. When one is running away from humility, one only appears to be very grand and confident.
Seeing the army formation of the Pandavas, Duryodhan became anxious. When you start on the spiritual path, your pride sees all your good qualities, but then the mind becomes anxious. This pride tries to make you reason, tries to make you go sideways in a cunning way. Thatâs why Duryodhan rushes to Dronacharya, the great teacher of both the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
Dronacharya represents attachment to the material. He represents the greed in man. Dronacharya also had good qualities. He was a great teacher of military science. Sometimes he would even advise Bhishma. He was the royal guru. But when the pride of Duryodhan saw the greed in Dronacharya, he said to himself, âLet me go and feed his greed. Let me corrupt him. Let me change him. Let me excite him!â Actually, Dronacharya didnât want to fight, but he was bound by his duty. He could not quit his position and say, âNo, I canât!â Being the guru, he had to be there to advise.
Duryodhan approaches him and tries to poison his mind. Duryodhan only wants to please himself. He knows that this great teacher has taught the Pandavas how to fight. Seeing how the Pandavasâ army was arranged, he asks the teacher, âHow can we use this army formation to our own advantage?â He goes there for his own personal gain. Dronacharya was the second commanding officer of the army and Bhishma was the first commanding officer. Duryodhan knew that Dronacharya would become the first commanding officer of the army after Bhishma. So he wanted to be on good terms with him. Duryodhan starts to honour Dronacharya and praises him. He tries to impress Dronacharya with nice words.
Chapter 1, Verse 3
paĆyaitÄm pÄáčážu-putrÄáčÄm
ÄcÄrya mahatÄ«áč camĆ«m
vyĆ«ážhÄáč drupada-putreáča
tava ĆiáčŁyeáča dhÄ«matÄ
Behold this mighty host of the sons of Pandu, O Acharya, arrayed by Drupadaâs son, your intelligent disciple.
Duryodhan is very clever. He wants to excite Dronacharya and reminds him of Drupadaâs vow of revenge against him. He wants to put the full spirit of revenge inside of Dronacharya. Thatâs why he says, âdrupada-putreáčaâ, referring to the son of Drupada named Dhrishtadyumna. He says, âDrona, look there! In front of you, there is the son of Drupada, your best childhood friend, who is now your enemy. Fight him!â With this cunningness, Duryodhan wants to awaken revenge, âWake up! Be vengeful!â Thatâs why he refers to the âthe son of Drupadaâ.
When they were young, Dronacharya and Drupada had been best friends. Dronacharyaâs father, Sri Bharadwaja, was the guru of his son and of Drupada. Drona and Drupada studied together and were best friends during their whole youth. Later on, Drupada became the king. Dronacharya remained very humble. He was the son of the great sage, Sri Bharadwaja, and was a simple person. He had a problem, so one day he went to his friend, King Drupada, to ask him for some advice. When he got there, Drupada didnât acknowledge him as being his friend. Drupada had become very proud of his kingly status and when he looked at the poor brahmin, he didnât feel like saying, âYes, he is my friend.â Rather, he said, âHeâs not my friend.â Dronacharya was very hurt, and said, âI will overthrow you!â
Drupada represents faith and strength, and Dronacharya greed. When greed arises, it overruns faith. When you are a pillar, you are strong in your true faith; but when greed is there, it will try to battle faith. Faith doesnât acknowledge greed. Thatâs why Drupada said, âNo, I donât know you.â So because of that, Dronacharya said, âI will take revenge!â Dronacharya brought Arjuna to fight King Drupada. Arjuna won and Dronacharya took over the kingdom of Drupada. Sometimes greed can be very powerful, but Dronacharya was very good towards Drupada. He said, âWhen you were the king, you didnât acknowledge me as your friend, but I acknowledge you as my friend. I will not take over your whole kingdom. I will only take the northern part of your kingdom; you can keep ruling the southern part of your kingdom.â But King Drupada was very hurt. He did a big yagna, a fire ceremony, hoping that through the blessing he would have a son who would kill Drona. But he didnât get a son. A daughter came out of the fire, by the name of Shikhandini. Shikhandini was the one who would later kill Bhishma Pita, the grandsire, the mighty Bhishma. But to kill Bhishma, later she would have to become a man. This will come later on in the Gita. Now, however, Drupada was not happy having only a daughter. He carried on doing his ritual. Finally, a son, Dhrishtadyumna, came out of the fire. He was born with only one purpose: to kill Dronacharya.
Everybody knew why King Drupada had done this yagna. This yagna had been done to get the son who would kill Dronacharya. Thatâs why in this verse, Duryodhan says, âLook, Dronacharya, here is the son of Drupada!â This is very important: Duryodhan uses the words, âthe son of Drupadaâ - âdrupada-putrenaâ. He doesnât say his name, even though he knows that the name of Drupadaâs son is Drishtadyumna. He is reminding Dronacharya that Drupadaâs son was born only to kill him! Thatâs why he was created. Duryodhan is saying, âSee what I am seeing! I am telling you this because the purpose of Drupadaâs son is to kill you. You have to be revengeful. You have to kill him.â In his cunningness, Duryodhan wants to brainwash Dronacharya. He is reminding him that Dhrishtadyumna is very clever and a master in archery, âHe is the commander of the Pandavasâ army. He is here to kill you.â
Duryodhan uses the words tava ĆiáčŁyeáča dhÄ«matÄ, âyour intelligent discipleâ, your talented student. He is referring to the Pandavas saying, âThe Pandavas were your favourite students, people you have favoured throughout your life. Look what they have become! They have put in the front lines the one who will kill you.â Dhrishtadyumna represents humility. The Pandavas have put humility in front. Duryodhan continues, âHow clever they are! Donât be weak! You have to wake up and fight them!â He tries to get the attention of Drona, and to take control of him. He says, âLook at the mighty army of the Pandavas, the mighty hosts of the sons of Pandu.â
Here Duryodhan also uses the word âmightyâ describing the army of the Pandavas. In Sanskrit, an army unit is called akshauhini. The Kauravas army had eleven akshauhini and the army of the Pandavas had only seven. Even though the Kauravasâ army was bigger than the Pandavasâ, the arrangement of the Pandavasâ army was far better. They were more disciplined than the Kauravas. The Kauravas had a big army, but they were completely like the Kauravas themselves; whereas the Pandavas were very disciplined. You see, these are the good qualities in man. Thatâs why it is said, âYou just need a little goodness to win. You donât need a lot. A little goodness can overcome all the bad qualities inside of a man.â When you culture good qualities, you are disciplined, but when you culture negative qualities, it is a mess. Duryodhan is pointing out to Drona, âLook at this big army we have, itâs a complete mess! But this little army of theirs is well-arranged.â
Letâs look at the size of the armies in the Mahabharat War. The Pandavasâ army had 7 akshauhini, which is 153,090 chariots with charioteer riders. They had 153,090 elephants plus the riders. They had 459,270 horses with horse riders. They also had 765,000 soldiers walking on foot, plus 450 more backing them. All together it made 1,530,000 soldiers and 900 reserve soldiers. The Kauravas army had 240,570 chariots and charioteers, 240,570 elephants, 721,710 horses and 1,200,850 walking soldiers. All together there were 2,455,700 soldiers in their armies. These were extremely big armies. Considering how many millions of people were there, we can say that the Mahabharat was the biggest war that has ever been fought until now. You wonât get millions of people in a war nowadays, even if there are that many people in the world. Thatâs why Duryodhan, in his cunningness, says to Dronacharya, âLook at the Pandavasâ army! We have a big army, but their little army is much more disciplined and organised.â He wants to get the attention of Dronacharya and to push him to the limit.
Chapter 1, Verses 4-6
atra ĆĆ«rÄ maheáčŁvÄs
bhÄ«mÄrjuna samÄ yudhi
yuyodhÄno virÄáčaĆca
drupadaĆca mahÄrathaáž„
dháčáčŁáčaketuĆ-cekitÄnaáž„
kÄĆi-rÄjaĆca vÄ«ryavÄn
purujit-kunti-bhojaĆca
ĆaibyaĆca nara-puáč
gavaáž„
yudhÄmanyuĆca vikrÄnta
uttamaujÄĆca vÄ«ryavÄn
saubhadro draupadeyÄĆca
sarva eva mahÄrathÄáž„
Here in this mighty army are heroes and great bowmen who are equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna: Yuyudhana, Virat and Drupada of the great chariot, Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana and the valiant prince of Kashi, Purujit and Kuntibhoja, and Shaibya, foremost among men. Yudhamanyu, the strong, and Uttamauja, the victorious; Subhadraâs son (Abhimanyu) and the sons of Draupadi; all of them of great prowess.
Here Duryodhan continues talking to Drona. In this verse, the merging of the wo...