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