Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.2

सञ्जय उवाच

दृष्ट्वा तु पाण्डवानीकं व्यूढं दुर्योधनस्तदा।

आचार्यमुपसङ्गम्य राजा वचनमब्रवीत्।।1.2।।

1.1   Sanjaya replied: "The Prince Duryodhana, when he saw the army of the Pandavas paraded, approached his preceptor Guru Drona and spoke as follows:

In the first shloka King Dhrithrashtra erupted the genesis of conversation by asking Sanjaya to notify him about the scenario of the grand battle. In the second shloka of Shri Bhagwad Geeta, Sanjay replies back after sneaking into the battlefield through the clairvoyance that made things as much lucid to him as if each and every character was whispering his talks in Sanjaya’s ears.

Sanjaya, on assessing that King Dhrithrashtra certainly wanted to know about his own children first, initiates the talk about Duryodhana.  Through the psychic vision he could see Duryodhana approaching Acharya Drona and saying the words that follow in the next Shloka i.e. the third Shloka.

P.S. - If you mull over a little you can also assess that Sanjaya was the only person out of the characters of Mahabharata, other than Sri Krishna, to have been granted the prerogative of uttering the ginormously pious words of Sri Bhagwad Geeta. While perusing Bhagwad Geeta, we also seem to inflate the importance of Pandavas and subvert the vitality of Kauravas, Sanjaya, Acharya Dron, Pitamah Bhisma, Sangram Vijayi Kripacharya, Karna and Asvathama. Though Karan has got some recognition for his adherence to his morals and his dexterity in warfare, other characters still perish as unimportant in most of the people’s memory while studying Sri Bhagwad Geeta and hence such readers can never get anything out of this Holy Scripture.  Weren’t Sanjaya and Dhritrashtra even more fortunate than all the other characters? Lord himself chose them to hear what other were dying to hear, and still we continue to undermine their importance; Duryodhana was more skillful than any other person in blunt mace fighting and also happened to be the greatest devotee of Goddess Laxmi. Though he used Machiavellian methods, but he never floundered the rules of battle; there was no one as much resolute and determine as Pitamah Bhisma, who abandoned all the amenities and even the power to become the ruler of Hastinapur; Pandavas couldn’t even touch Acharya Dron in the whole battle. Even Yudhisthira, son of Dharamraaj, had to prevaricate to get Acharya Dron killed; No one was able to kill Ashvathama in the whole battle and though he could have chosen to fight from the side of Pandavas, he chose to be loyal to his father and his best friend Duryodhana.

Prejudices are the suppliers of ignorance. No knowledge can thrive where preconceived notions have taken ground. While diving deep into the realms of Sri Bhagwad Geeta, deem every character as pious, holy and close to God. Pandavas were no better than Kauravas, it was Lord Krishna who did everything. Remember, we have got no rights to rebuke any character of Mahabharata who has ever got the chance to see Lord Krishna. Just ponder over how close they all were to the Lord’s heart and hence our plausible rants and fictitious condemnation are nothing but the lacunae in our own brain.   

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.1

धृतराष्ट्र उवाच

धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः।

मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय।।1.1।।

1.1   The King Dhritarashtra asked: "O Sanjaya! What happened on the sacred battlefield of Kurukshetra, when my people gathered against the Pandavas?"

Commentary: The battle ground was all set and the vanguards were poised to inflict lethal attacks on each other. The ground of Kurukshetra had never been such pious. On one side there were the unparalleled fighters comprising of the great archer Arjuna; the epitome of veracity Yudhishtira; the paragon of endless power Bhima; the exemplary sword fighter Sahdeva and the sanguine Nakula.

The antagonist side too had no paucity of dexterous fighters. Duryodhana was the most adroit in gada-yuddha (blunt mace fighting) ; Sangram Vijayi Kripacharya was insurmountable in any battle he fought and remained victorious in all the combats; Acharya Dron who was himself edified by none other than Lord Parshurama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu; Pitamah Bhisma whose tenacity was extolled by the God himself; Ashwathama who was invincible in night-combat and was born with a blessed “mani”(gem) ; Karna whose archery skills even confounded Arjuna’s and who also happens to be a pupil of Lord Parshurama.

Many other unrivalled fighters stood on both sides and this was an unprecedented moment in the history of this universe. Even the Lord had to step down and employ his mystical tactics to make the war conclusive.  

Far away from the holy battleground sat, King Dhrithrashtra who was curious to know how a battle such inexplicably humongous would proceed ahead. Unfortunately, Dhrithrashtra was blind and hence couldn’t himself become a witness to the audacity of those great combatants. Albeit, Ved Vyasa had proffered him “divya dhrishti” but Dhrithrashtra didn’t deem it correct to accept the proposal.

Owing to Dhrithrashtra’s love, his wife Gandhari had also vowed to put a blindfold over her eyes so that there remained no disparity between the husband and wife and hence Dhrithsrashtra believed that getting the clairvoyance would be a slight to his wife’s deeply entrenched resolute and faith in Dhrithrashtra.

Ergo, it was decided that charioteer of Dhrithrashtra, Sanjaya would be provided with the divya dhristi or the psychic vision, who would then convey the proceedings of the battle ground to Dhritrashtra.

Thus comes our first shloka Shri Bhagwat Geeta where Dhrithrashtra accentuates his eagerness to know about the battle by asking Sanjaya about actions of his sons “Kauravas” and the sons of his brother Pandu, “Pandavas” who had congregated on the battleground to fight the most prominent battle of the mankind’s history.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI