Bhagavatgita a detailed study-chapter2

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10.tham uvaacha hrsheekeSaH prahasn iva bharatha

senayoH ubhayoH maDhye visheedhantham idham vachaH

 

Krishna told Arjuna, who was grief-stricken in between the two armies, these words with a semblance of a smile.

 

Krishna seeing the pitiable state of Arjuna who, having decided to fight and advancing to the battle field and asking Krishna to move the chariot so that he could see the sons of Dhrthrashtra, calling them evil minded, and who else have come to support them, felt disheartened the moment he saw Bheeshma and Dhrona. That was the emotion exactly what exactly Krishna wanted him to have when he moved the cvcahriot and placed it in front of Bheeshma and Dhrona. It was necessary at that time to make the will of Arjuna strong so that he would do his duty without hesitation because if he developed pity later when he came face to face with Bheeshma and the rest in battle it would have been disastrous. Of course the whole drama was directed by the Lord who was the script writer, director and also played a role in it.

prahasan iva- Sanjaya says that Krishna looked as though he was smiling The reason for this was,

1. This was what exactly the Lord intended to happen,

2. It was the smile of the father to his child who talks as an adult to impress him.

3.It is a derisive smile of the wise to an ignorant who talks like the wise .

 

senayoHubhayoH maDhye visheedhantham- meaning that Arjuna was affected with grief at the most inappropriate time wneh the two armies are arrayed ready to fight.

 

Here a doubt may arise that it was only the will of the Lord that this should happen and therefore why should he laugh at Arjuna? The answer is the mental confusion was created by the Lord but the words Arjuna spoke to justify himself were his own. We also do that when we want to justify our actions which are not directed by our intellect but only by our desire. What we think or say then are nothing but prajnaavaadha , as Krishna termas the arguments of Arjuna in the next sloka. Then also the Lord smiles at us and if we surrender tio Him like Arjuna did He will start to speak to us clearing our mental confusion but if not, He will simply smile and allow us to reap the result of our actions. From the next sloka the introduction to the sasthra begins for the sake of Arjuna and also for the posterity.

 

 

 

 

Sri Bhagavan uvaacha

 

TheLord said;

 

11. aSochyaan anvaSochaH thvam prajnaavaadhaan cha bhaashase

gathaasoon agathaasoon cha na anuSochanthi pandithaah

 

You are worrying about those who need not be worried about. You also give arguments like a man of wisdom. A real man of wisdom grieves over neither the dead nor the living.

 

Now starts the real discourse of Bhagavatgita. Krishna says asochyaananvasochasthwam prajnaavadhaamschabhashase`You are grieving over those who need not be grieved about.' What Krishna means here is that Bhishma and Drona had no compunction to fight against their own grandson and pupil respectively, not because they were heartless but because they had no confusion about their duty, svadharma like Arjuna. Further Krishna says that Arjuna had tried to conceal his confusion under his arguments as though they were words of wisdom prajnaavadhaamscha bhaashase. The arguments of Arjuna are ridiculed by Krishna because if he were really wise panditha he would not have worried over life and death. .Then Krishna starts giving Arjuna the divine wisdom.

 

If he were a real panditha or a man of wisdom as he was trying to profess, he would not have grieved over the living or the dead. What Krishna means here is that, Arjuna was expressing his anxiety over the pthrs not getting their food and water and also about the elders and other whom he was about to kill and about the posterity etc. A man who knows the sasthras would also know that the self is unattached and infinite and it is only the body that dies. And he would have known that the inner self of all is the Lord who controls the whole universe and oe has to do his duty offering everything to God by surrendering himself. All this Krisna was going to elaborate in the coming chapters.