Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.10

अपर्याप्तं तदस्माकं बलं भीष्माभिरक्षितम्।

पर्याप्तं त्विदमेतेषां बलं भीमाभिरक्षितम्।।1.10।।

1.10 Yet our army seems the weaker, though commanded by Bheeshma; their army seems the stronger, though commanded by Bheema.

Here Duryodhana seems to be redolent of a passive form. Though, he is au courant with the truth that Acharya Dron, Bheeshma Pitamah, Asvathama are insurmountable, still he feels an inner gloomy regarding the battle. But this is a sympathetic stance to foment the great fighters of his side to consecrate themselves to his side.

 Acharya Drona’s love for Arjun was not a covert a fact, Bheeshma Pitamah and Kripacharya too deemed Pandavas tantamount to Kauravas and hence Duryodhana feared that this bonding was making them enervated. Albeit, they had sworn their allegiance to Duryodhana, still they doted on Pandavas especially on Arjuna.

Hence, Duryodhana ostentatiously uses this shloka so as to take a reaffirmation from all the great combatants on his fight that they would confront the enemy with all their might and would never let their sentiments sneak into the great battlefield of Kurukshetra. Hence he compares the might of Bheeshma to Bhim to prod Bheeshma and Drona into action.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT 

JAI MA BHARTI

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.7, 1.8 and 1.9

अस्माकं तु विशिष्टा ये तान्निबोध द्विजोत्तम।

नायका मम सैन्यस्य संज्ञार्थं तान्ब्रवीमि ते।।1.7।।

Further, take note of all those captains who have ranged themselves on our side, O best of Spiritual Guides! The leaders of my army. I will name them for you.

भवान्भीष्मश्च कर्णश्च कृपश्च समितिञ्जयः।

अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश्च सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च।।1.8।।

1.8 You come first; then Bheeshma, Karna, Kripa, great soldiers; Ashwaththama, Vikarna and the son of Somadhatta;

अन्ये च बहवः शूरा मदर्थे त्यक्तजीविताः।

नानाशस्त्रप्रहरणाः सर्वे युद्धविशारदाः।।1.9।।

1.9 And many others, all ready to die for my sake; all armed, all skilled in war.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT 

JAI MA BHARTI

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.5 and 1.6

धृष्टकेतुश्चेकितानः काशिराजश्च वीर्यवान्।

पुरुजित्कुन्तिभोजश्च शैब्यश्च नरपुङ्गवः।।1.5।।

Dhrstaketu, Cekitana, and the valiant king of Kasi; Purujit and Kuntibhoja, and Saibya the best among men;

This shloka can be deemed as a continuation of the previous shloka. Here Duryodhana praises some more personnel of Pandava’s army. He mentions the name of audacious fighters like Dhrstaketu, Ceikitana, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Saibya. 

युधामन्युश्च विक्रान्त उत्तमौजाश्च वीर्यवान्।

सौभद्रो द्रौपदेयाश्च सर्व एव महारथाः।।1.6।।

1.6 Yudhamanyu, Uttamouja, Soubhadra and the sons of Droupadi, famous men.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT 

JAI MA BHARTI

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.4

अत्र शूरा महेष्वासा भीमार्जुनसमा युधि।

युयुधानो विराटश्च द्रुपदश्च महारथः।।1.4।।

1.4            There (in that army) are heroes, great bowmen, like Bhima and Arjuna; Yuyudhana, Virata and Drupada a mighty warrior.

In this shloka, Duryodhana proceeds with his confabulation with Acharya Dron. After reminding him of the purpose of birth of Drupada’s son, he goes ahead to take a panoramic view of the battlefield where stood the great kings and fighters.

He lauds Pandava’s army for its replenishment with chivalrous fighters like Yuyudhana, Virata and Drupada and says that Pandava’s army is replete with soldiers of comparable might to Bhima and Arjuna.

Duryodhana has always been depicted as a vicious person in all the Bhagwat Geeta’s commentaries, movies, plays etc., but here we get to see that indeed Duryodhana was prudent fighter. Notwithstanding having the greatest soldiers of Kuru clan on his side, he is still wary of the powers of the nemesis’ side. Contrary to famous belief that he was a supercilious person, the truest of the true Bhagwat Geeta allocates us with veritable persona of Duryodhana. He is indeed an adept fighter, shrewd policy maker and a sly politician. And hence, in the initial stages of the war, he take a dekko at the opposing side, to kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, he is having a lucid look of the greatness of his enemy side and on the other hand he also mentions Drupada, to incite Acharya Dron through one more piercing “emotional assault.”

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT 

JAI MA BHARTI

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 1.3

पश्यैतां पाण्डुपुत्राणामाचार्य महतीं चमूम्।

व्यूढां द्रुपदपुत्रेण तव शिष्येण धीमता।।1.3।।

1.3. O teacher! Behold this mighty army of the sons of Pandu, marshalled in a military array by Drupada's son, your intelligent pupil.

Here we get to know what was left in the second shloka of the respective scripture. Duryodhana approaches Acharya Drona and talks to him about the might Pandava army standing in front of him. In a way, Duryodhana extols the military line up set up by Drishtdumn, Draupadi’s brother and Acharya Dron’s pupil.

Duryodhana, emphasized the name of Drupada’s son because of an old incident as per which Durpada did penance to get children who would one day kill Acharya Drona, in order to avenge the slight to his might inflicted by Acharya Drona. The two children who were the fruition of the Putrakameshti yagya were Draupadi and Dhristdumn.

Much as Acharya Dron knew everything about the yagya from the beginning, he still didn’t eschew his paramount principles as a teacher, and hence allocated combat training to Drishtdumn with Pandavas and Kauravas.

Duryodhana’s shrewdness as a sanguine fighter is seen in this shloka as he is ostentatiously reminding Acharya Dron that he must not shower mercy on the antagonistic side, by making him recapitulate about the yagya and the purpose for which Drishtdumn was born.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT 

JAI MA BHARTI

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