Gita 01.20 – The monkey standard is permeated with the divine monkey’s presence

Thank you Bhagavad Gita 1.20 Bhagavad Gita 1.20 Bhagavad Gita 1.20 Bhagavad Gita 1.20 Bhagavad Gita 1.20 Bhagavad Gita 1.20 Bhagavad Gita 1.20 So here after both the sides have blown their conscience the subsequent developments are described so the properly situated soldiers in their army in military formations Dhrishtva so who saw this the pronoun will come later that is described later Kapidvajah Dharatarashtran Kapidvajah so Dharatarashtran is referring to the Kauravas so on beholding the Kauravas military formation so now the as we know the action has shifted to the Pandavas side so from verses 2 to 11 the action of the Kauravas side was described verse 12 also we could say and verse 13 concluded their description then after that from verse 14 onwards the action has shifted to the Pandava side or rather the narrative is describing the action on the Pandava side the action is happening on both sides no doubt the Kauravas blew conscience and the Pandavas responded by blowing their conscience now among the Pandavas the focus is now returning to Arjuna Krishna Arjuna they were the person who first highlighted in verse 14 and 15 and from them the camera went to Bhima to the other Pandavas to the Pandavas sons and other warriors and then briefly the effect of their blowing conscience on the Kauravas was described and now again the focus is coming back to the Pandavas and more specifically to the foremost warrior among the Pandavas Arjuna so Kapidhwaja Arjuna had a dhwaja a flag actually a standard it was called so each of the warriors had their own standards which represented in one way it was like their symbol what they would what would enable others to recognize them so just as in today's times the sports players may have their own t-shirts with their numbers and some players who are very famous they may have some numbers permanently reserved for them and that is the t-shirt by which that is the number which they always have that's how they are identified so this is simplistic example of course point is that the warriors had various markers which not only served to announce their identity because if the warriors were far away from each other in the distance how would the warriors who were far away identify whose chariot it is so they would look up at the standard so it was for the purpose of identification at one level also at another level it was also for the purpose of bringing a sense of one's personality into one's one's tool that one was using so every warrior had his own standard which indicated his some aspect of his personality or his valor or his spirit or whatever so now Arjuna had a monkey standard flag or standard that was Kapi, Kapi refers to monkey now you wonder monkey doesn't seem to be something very impressive like monkeys are often considered to be troublesome creatures and they are not considered very intelligent but actually that is only a contextual understanding the monkeys are often said to be uncontrolled in their senses and Markatvairagya is used in negative sense that enunciation like the monkeys they live in forest but then they have she-monkeys with them so that is false sure enunciation so then how is a standard of a monkey a matter of pride actually historically the Mahabharata comes after the Ramayana and the Ramayana dramatically redefines the social and spiritual position of monkeys Lord Ram demonstrates the inclusiveness of his mercy by how he engages lowly creatures like monkeys in his in his army and he engages them in his service so the Lord demonstrates that even if somebody is considered conventionally low born or unqualified and monkeys are considered low even in the hierarchy of animals what to speak of the hierarchy of all the species including humans so though they are considered low even among animals the Lord engaged them the Lord engaged even a vulture who is considered to be the lowest among the birds he engaged them similarly he engaged monkeys and among those monkeys there was a glorious monkey he was one of the foremost commanders in Lord Ram's army and that was Hanuman so Arjuna had Arjuna's chariot had a monkey standard and that monkey standard was depicting Hanuman so why did he choose Hanuman Arjuna because Arjuna was inspired by the great devotional zeal of Hanuman so just as Hanuman fought on behalf of the Lord and fought gloriously similarly Arjuna was also going to fight gloriously was hoping to fight gloriously in service of the Lord so although biological forms they were different spiritual purposes were identical for both of them so for Arjuna respected Hanuman as a great devotee great servant of the Lord and that's why when he got a chariot he from Agni he adorned it with the monkey standard which was pointed to Hanuman now for Arjuna the flag was not just an insensitive flag which symbolized something so yes Arjuna had that monkey standard regularly to remind him of Hanuman and his glorious deeds but in this particular war Hanuman had personally manifested over there when the Pandavas were in the forest at that time Bhima had met Hanuman in the Himalayan mountain ranges and after a very intimate brother to brother talk Bhima and Hanuman are brothers being both the sons of Vayu so he had requested Bhima and Arjuna were brothers and they were best of friends so Bhima remembered how Arjuna had a monkey standard and he requested that he requested Hanuman please manifest your personal presence through that standard so obliging to that request Hanuman manifested himself through the standard that means during the Kurukshetra war it was not just a standard or not just a flag over there actually it was Hanuman manifesting over there to bless Arjuna not just by his presence so although Hanuman did not fight Hanuman could have fought in the Mahabharata war also but he knew the lord's will and he knew that the lord wanted other devotees to attain glory in his service so now he had excelled he had accomplished extraordinary deeds in the Ramayana in the service of Ram now was the time for the Pandavas to have their opportunity for glorious service to the lord and that opportunity he cherished observing how other warriors like himself were now excelling in the service of the lord so he observed and so he did not fight because he wanted the Pandavas to have the glory at the same time he assisted the Pandavas not just by his morale boosting by being present a presence which boosted the morale of the Pandavas especially of Arjuna on whose chariot he was present but along with that he also would cry out roar and his roars would strike terror in the hearts of the of the Kaurava army and here it is described so kapi dhwaja just as Arjuna just as lord Ram was victorious similarly lord Krishna was going to be victorious just as Hanuman had led lord Ram had been one of the leaders in lord Ram's army leading that army to victory similarly Arjuna would be also a leader leading the forces of lord Krishna to victory so kapi dhwaja is considered to be a sign of victory a sign of auspiciousness for the Pandavas so here kapi dhwaja is used to identify Arjuna one who was marked with the flag of a monkey specifically or the special monkey Hanuman pravrtti shastra samparthi that pravrtti he was as per his inclination as pravrtti shastra samparthi he had picked up his bow and arrow and about to release his arrow so his weapons were readied for fighting but suddenly something else happened dhanurudhyamya paandava he had taken up his bow his bow was raised his arrows were about to be discharged paandava so second time the name is referred to here rishikesham tadavakyam rishikesham that he spoke so whom did he speak to vakyam he spoke these words to rishikesha so rishikesha of course refers to the lord who is the lord of the senses and usage of these words indicate that although arjuna went to lose his control over his senses get overwhelmed by anxiety and confusion but eventually because lord rishikesha was guiding him that lord will control his senses and will bring him back into the right path eventually idamaha mahi pate idamaha he spoke these words mahipate so here mahipate refers to o king so the narrator sanjay is speaking with dhritarashtra and is respectfully referring to him as the king so just before the war was to begin after the conscious had been blown arjuna had raised his bow and readied his arrows to start fighting suddenly he spoke something and what he speaks will now indicate the dramatic shift in the narrative instead of the fight beginning actually the historic conversation whose import would be far more lasting and transforming than the fight that conversation will begin because of the questions arjuna asks and the events that transpire because of the action taken after the questions so that we will discuss in our future classes thank you.