Bhagawad Gita - Ch.1 - Verses 23-30

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Chapter 1. Arjuna-Grief

[Commentary by Swamy Chinmayananda]

 

yOtsyamAnAnavEkshEhaM ya yEtEtra samAgatAH

dhArta rAshTrasya durbuddhE ryuddhE priya cikeershavaH || 1.23

 

1.23. For I desire to observe those who are assembled here for the fight,

wishing to please in battle, the evil-minded sons of Dhritarashtra.

 

This verse only reinforces our impression of Arjuna gathered in the

previous lines. He is giving the reason why he wants to review the enemy

lines. As a man of action, he did not want to take any undue risk and so

wanted to see for himself who were the low-minded, power-mad, greed-ridden

men who had joined the forces of the Kauravas, supporting the palpably

tyrannical and evidently unjust cause of the unscrupulous Duryodhana.

 

As we read the stanza, we can almost hear the great warrior's teeth

grinding, as he spits out these hot words which express his mental estimate

of his relentless cousins.

 

saMjaya uvAca:

EvamuktO hRsheekESO guDAkESEna bhArata

sEnayOrubhayOrmadhyE sthApayitvA rathOttamaM || 1.24

 

bheeshma drONa pramukhataH sarvEshAMca maheekshitAM

uvAca pArtha paSyaitAn samavEtAn kurooniti || 1.25

 

1.24. Sanjaya said:

Thus addressed by Gudakesa, O Bharata, Hrishikesa, having stationed the

best of chariots between the two armies;

 

1.25. In fromt of Bhishma and Drona, and all the rulers of the earth, he

said: ' O Partha, behold these Kurus gathered together.'

 

At a point 'facing Bhishma, Drona and all the rulers of the earth,' the

Divine Charioteer pulled up the reins and brought the royal chariot to a

halt. As a dutiful driver, Krishna says to Arjuna, 'Behold, O Partha! All

the Kauravas gathered together.' These are the only words that Krishna has

spoken in the entire first chapter; and these represent the sparks that set

fire to and brought down the egoistic edifice of false valuations which the

great hero had built for himself as a splendid dwelling place for his

personality. Hereafter, we shall find how Arjuna reacted to this great

challenge and ultimately got his entire 'within' wrecked and shattered.

 

Partha means 'Son of Pritha' - it is a name of Arjuna; 'Pritha' was another

name of Kunti; the Sanskrit term Partha also carries a flavour of the term

Parthiva meaning 'clay-made,' 'earth-formed.' The suggestive implication of

this term is very striking in as much as it connotes that the Geeta is the

Song of Truth sung by the Immortal to the mortal Arjuna, man's all-time

representative.

 

tatrApaSyatshitAn pArthaH pitRunatha pitAmahAn

AcAryAnmAtulAn bhRAtroonputrAn poutrAn sakheeMstadhA || 1.26

 

1.26. Then Partha saw stationed there in both the armies, fathers,

grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons and

friends too.

 

SvaSurAn suhRdascaiva sEnayOrubhayOrapi

tAnsameekshyasa kountEyH sarvAn bandhoonavasthitAn || 1.27

kRpayA parayAvishTO visheedannida mabraveet

 

1.27. (He saw) Fathers-in-law and friends also in both the armies. Then the

son of Kunti, seeing all these kinsmen thus standing arrayed, spoke thus

sorrowfully, filled with deep pity.

 

Thus shown by Sri Krishna, Arjuna recognized in his enemy lines all his

kith and kin, near and dear family members, brothers and cousins, teachers

and grandsires, and almost all his acquaintances and friends. He recognized

such intimate relations not only in the enemy lines, but even in his own

army. This sight, perhaps, brought to his mind, for the first time, the

full realization of the tragedies of a fratricidal war. As a warrior and a

man of action, he did not, perhaps till then, fully realize the extent of

sacrifice that society would be called upon to make in order that his

ambition might be fulfilled and Duryodhana's cruelties avenged.

 

Whatever might have been the cause, the sight brought into his mind a flood

of pity and compassion.

 

Evidently, this was not an honest emotion. Had it been honest, had his pity

and compassion been, Buddha-like, natural and instinctive, he would have,

even long before the war, behaved quite differently. This emotion which now

Sanjaya glorifies as 'pity' in Arjuna, is a misnomer. In the human heart,

there is always a great tendency to glorify one's own weaknesses with some

convenient angelic name and divine pose. Thus, a rich man's vanity is

misnamed as charity when he builds a temple in his own name with the secret

aim of immortalizing himself. Here also we find that the feeling of

desperation that came in Arjuna's mind due to the complete shattering of

his mental equilibrium has been misnamed and glorified as 'pity.'

 

Arjuna had a long life of mental repressions which had created an infinite

amount of dynamic energies seeking a field for expression. His mind got

split up because of his egoistic evaluation of himself as the greatest hero

of his time, and because of his anxious desire for a victorious end of the

war. The preoccupation of his mind, dreaming intensively, about the

ultimate end of the war brought about a complete divorce between the

'subjective' and the 'objective' aspects of his mind.

 

Later on, in this chapter, we shall discover the various symptoms of this

neurotic condition in him and his hysterical blabberings which are typical

of such a mental patient. The endeavour in Chapter I of the Geeta is to

give the complete 'case-history' of a patient suffering from the typical

'Arjuna-disease.' The Bhagawad Geeta gives, as I said earlier, an extremely

efficient 'Krishna-cure' for this soul-killing 'Arjuna-disease.'

 

Arjuna uvAca:

"dRshTvEmaM svajanaM kRshna! yuyutsM samupasthitaM || 1.28

seedaMti mama gAtrANi mukhaMca pariSushyati

vEpadhuSca SareerEmE rOma harshaSca jAyatE || 1.29

 

Arjuna said:

1.28. Seeing these my kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed, eager to fight,

1.29. My limbs fail, and my mouth is parched, my body quivers and my hair

stands on end.

 

In these two stanzas, there is an exhaustive enumeration of the symptoms

that the patient could then recognize in his own physical body as a result

of his mental confusions. That which Sanjaya had glorified as 'pity.' when

coming out of Arjuna's own mouth, gains a more realistic expression. Arjuna

says: 'seeing my kinsmen gathered here anxiously determined to fight, my

limbs shiver'..., etc.

 

gAMDeevaM sraMsatE hastAt tvakcaiva paridahyatE

naca SaknOmyavasthAtuM bhramateeva ca mE manaH || 1.30

 

1.30. The Gandiva-bow slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over; I am

also unable to stand and my mind is whirling round, as it were.

 

Here Arjuna is adding some more details of the symptoms of his disease.

Earlier we had a

list of symptoms that manifested on the physical body. Now in this stanza,

Arjuna tries to report recognized symptoms of the mal-adjustments at his

mental level.

 

Not only is his mind unsteady, agitated and chaotic, but it has lost all

its morale. It has come down to the stupid level of accepting and

recognizing superstitious omens portending disastrous failures and imminent

consequences.

 

[Cont...]

 

Notes from Madhava:

(1) From here onwards, a lot has to be said on Gita. There are many

commentaries that are available. I would request everyone to participate in

bringing out the useful points from the other commentaries as well.

 

(2) We often find ourselves in this kind of situation called "Arjuna

situation", in our day to day life. And in a desperate attempt to find an

amicable solution to the problem, we often take a wrong step... Arjuna is

fortunate to find a Krishna there in the battlefield.

 

I wonder, why Arjuna wanted Krishna to be on his side, in spite of knowing

that Krishna will not fight! Do you think that Arjuna already knew that he

is going to start talking like this during the start of war?

[Guest guest]

Greetings Advaitins:

 

The issue posed at the start of Gita is, whether fighting the enemy is dharma

or whether to avoid large scale destruction is dharma. When the son of Kunti

saw all the kinsmen standing, several questions came to his mind: Whether to

destroy the entire race of Kurus for the sake of acquiring kingdom is dharma

or adharma ? Whether to kill the teachers, elders, and all other kith and kin

for the sake of kingdom is dharma or adharma ?

 

The consequence of war, though, was known to Arjuna before he came to

battle-field, he felt the intensity of it when he actually saw his teachers,

elders, and other kith and kin before him. It was both a moral and an

emotional issue for him. Emotionally to kill his own kith and kin, to see such

a large scale destruction, was heart breaking. Morally it was wrong to kill

one's own kith & kin for the sake of kingdom and luxury. Therefore, on both

account, Arjuna thought, it was adharma. On the contrary by withdrawing from

the battlefield, Arjuna thought, he would be sacrificing his personal interest

for the sake of larger interest. He will be saving a grave destruction. This,

he thought, is the right course of dharma.

 

Arjuna said: "Seeing these kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed and desirous to fight,

my limbs droop down, and my mouth is dried up. A tremor comes on my body and

my hairs stand on end. The Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin is

intensely burning· I am also unable to stand and my mind is whirling round, as

it were."

 

regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

 

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Discussion on Bhagawad Gita - Ch.1 - Verses 23-30 compiled from Bhagavdgita -

Multimedia CD (permission is obtained from the publisher for conducting Gita

Sang Discussion)

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It had been definitely stipulated that on the completion of thirteen years'

exile kingdom of the Pandavas would be returned to them. These thirteen years

the kingdom had remained under the control of the Kauravas only as a trust;

but Duryodana, with the evil intent of wrongfully appropriating the kingdom,

denied this condition altogether. From the beginning his career until then

Duryodhana had practiced many forms of persecution against the Pandavas, but

this last wrong action on his part became wholly intolerable. Remembering this

evil intent of Duryodhana, Arjuna speaks of him in the verse as `evil-minded'.

Arjuna's desire, to scan the well-wishers of Duryodhana seems to indicate the

thought that even though the wrongs and cruelties perpetrated by evil-minded

Duryodhana was well-known throughout the world, those kings had assembled to

uphold his cause and help him in the fight. It proved that their mind and

intellect had become as vitiated as that of Duryodhana. That is why they had

gathered to lend their support openly to his wrongs, and give him

encouragement by the show of their pomp and power. Thus trying to advance

Duryodhana's interest they were in reality, doing him an injury. Arjuna,

therefore, wanted to see with his eyes who those fighters were, who regarding

them to be great heroes in fight and eager to participate in it had taken

their stand on the battle-field. There was the spirit of challenge in Arjuna's

mind when he expressed this desire, and he wanted to each them a lesson that

it did not pay to sake side with wrong and unrighteousness.

 

The word `Gudaka' means `sleep' and a conqueror of sleep is called `Gudakesa'.

Arjuna had conquered his sleep; that is, he could carry on life's activities

without taking rest in the form of sleep, and never felt oppressed by sleep.

He was never overcome by lethargy. By mentioning him as `Gudakesa', Sanjaya's

intention was to point out to Dhrtarastra that he could never expect his sons

to overcome Arjuna, who was always so alert and circumspect. By saying "

behold these Kauravas assembled here", Bhagavan Sri Krsna brought to light

Arjuna's deep identification intimated that, in accordance with Arjuna's, and

attachment to his own family, request that the chariot should be placed which

had up till now remained concealed between the two armies and kept there till

within his heart. These words, as it were, he had carefully observed all the

warriors, acted as the seed from which sprung the He had brought the chariot

between the faint-heartedness of Arjuna caused by two armies and had placed it

at such a compassion, the source of which was point that from there Arjuna

could have an affection for blood relations. It appears that clear view of all

the warriors. The chariot in order to scatter His blessings to the had been

brought to a standstill, and world, using Arjuna as His instrument, the Arjuna

could observe the fighters as long as Lord through the use of these words he

liked.

 

The word `Kauravas' in the sentence that he refused to participate in the

fight, "behold these Kauravas", has a special as the result of which there

began to flow significance. By this, Bhagavan Sri Krsna from the direct lips

of God Himself intended to say that the fighters in that sweet and nectar an

stream of words in the army were mostly members of Arjuna's form of the divine

Gita, which sanctifies down family, and his own kith and kin. In the three

worlds, uplifted, and will was an invitation to Arjuna to see those continue,

for an infinite period of time, to near and dear ones drawn up for battle.

Uplift the souls of an infinite number of this covert suggestion from the Lord

beings brought to light Arjuna's deep identification with, and attachment to

his family. Which has until now remained concealed within his heart. These

words, as it was, acted as the seed from which sprung the faint-heartedness of

Arjuna caused by compassion, the source of which was affection for blood

relations. It appears that in order to scatter His blessings to the world,

using Arjuna as His instrument, the Lord through the use of these words

produced such a dejection in Arjuna's mind that he refused to participate in

the fight, as the result of which there began to flow from the direct lips of

God Himself the sweet and nectar a stream of words in the form of the divine

Gita, which sanctified the three worlds, and uplifted, and will continue, for

an infinite period of time, to uplift the souls of an infinite number of

beings.

 

Hearing the above direction of the Lord, Arjuna lifted his eyes, and looking

up and down, scanned all his relations stationed in the two armies. There he

observes posted in both the ranks, uncles like Bhurisrava, and grand-uncles

and great-grand-uncles, like Bhisma, Somadata and Bahilika. There were

teachers like Droncharya and Krpacarya. Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Salya (Madris

brother)etc, were maternal uncles. Yudhisthira, Karna etc, were his brothers,

and Duryodhana, etc, his cousins. Abhimanyu, Prativindhya, Ghatokaca and

Laksmana etc, were his sons, or sons of his brothers and cousins. The sons of

Laksmana, etc, were related to him as grand-nephews. Besides, there were many

friends and playmates of early youth. Drupada, Saibya, etc, were

fathers-in-law. There were also many well-wishers in both the ranks, who came

to participate in the fight only with the object of doing good to their

respective sides, without any selfish motive.

 

The preceding one and a half verses mentioned Arjuna's uncles, grand-uncles

and many other relations, who stood in both the armies, but there were other

relations of his among the fighters, the nature of whose relationship with him

he did not clearly bring out, e.g., wife's brothers like Dhrstadyumna,

Sikhandi and Suratha, etc, and other fighters related to him in other ways,

who are all referred to by Sanjaya in this verse, when he says "all relations

present there."

When Arjuna saw all those near and dear ones arrayed for battle, and thought

that all of them would meet their inevitable doom in the impending holocaust,

his heart gave way and he was suddenly overtaken by a sentiment which was the

reverse of what a fighter should possess, a sneaky cowardliness born of

excessive fellow-feeling and tenderness. This is mentioned is Sanjaya's words

as "deep compassion". Under its influence Arjuna forgot his own inherent

nature, the manliness of a Ksatriya: that is why he has been referred to as

"filled with compassion".

The word "Idam" meaning 'these words', used in this verse, refers to all the

words uttered by Arjuna in verses beginning with the next and ending with

verse 46 of this chapter.

Arjuna said: Krsna, at the sight of these kinsmen arrayed for battle my limbs

give way, and my mouth is parching; nay, a shiver runs through my body and

hair stands upright.

 

By the above words, Arjuna intends to show that the effect of indiscriminate

slaughter of the fighters in the great War would be extremely terrible for

both sides. He knew it as a matter of fact that the warriors present before

his eyes, young and old, dear uncles, cousins, relations and friends, all

would walk into the jaws of death. The realization of this fact, all at once,

produced such a gripe in his heart; such a deep fright and ignition in the

mind, that they produced their reaction on the body in the form of trembling

of limbs, and hair standing upright.

 

It was an extremely deplorable and grievous state to which Arjuna was reduced

by the softness of heart caused by his compassion. Describing it, he himself

said that his limbs had become numb and wholly devoid of power; far from being

able to string his bow, Gandiva and would it, he could not even hold it in his

hand, and it seemed to him to be actually dropping out of his hand. The

thought of the dreadful effect of the war had made his mind almost like a

boiling cauldron, as the effect of which his very skin was burning; the mental

agony had made his mind so restless that he could not fix it on anything even

for a moment. His head was reeling and he felt as if he would fall senseless

to the ground.