Gita 01.22 – A last sight of the battling brethren

Thank you Bhagavad Gita 1.22 so here Arjuna is speaking to Krishna as a part of his request that Krishna take his chariot between the two armies now sometimes the Gita verses are not symmetric in their length because that depends on the division done as per the thought content so if you see the next verse here one of the later verses if we go onwards actually we will see in one of the later verses there will be many more there will be more lines so for example 1.26 has from the English point of view 6 lines and Sanskrit point of view 3 lines so normally a verse has 2 lines in Sanskrit or 4 lines in English so that is because that verse describes one thought so it is grouped together as one verse and so the overall length of the Gita remains standard but sometimes verses are divided according to the thought that they contain and sometimes some verses may have more lines than others so because 1.26 is one thought it's put together although instead of the standard 4 there are 6 lines and here 1.22 it is put together as a separate thought because although there are 2 lines that conveys one particular thought and the overall verse number and verse distribution is balanced by if there are 2 lines here there are 6 lines and the overall balance is maintained now here what is the verse saying Arjuna is telling Krishna with whom I have to fight in this war with whom do I have to fight I would like to know that so Arjuna is asking that question and this question actually indicates Arjuna's concern at one level we will see later as we move forward Arjuna's qualities will be demonstrated although at one level he has a ruthless streak not because of being cruel but because that is what is called for in the duty of a warrior who has to fight against enemies but along with that he also has a compassionate core where he doesn't want violence and sometimes people ask how is the how can a book which calls upon a warrior calls upon a person to fight fight in a ghastly war how can such a book be considered to be sacred but the point is that there are times when the unrighteous the malicious the vicious people are ruling and they will cause ruin to all of society and all of the world allowed to stay in power and then allowing them to stay in power is cruelty to the citizens cruelty to the state so for countering that cruelty sometimes a warrior may have to fight and kill but those are exceptional situations and in general the warriors try to resolve conflicts in a peaceful way and the case of the Pandavas they tried their best to try to avoid conflict although they were the afflicted the aggrieved, the deprived the exploited party and they had full reason to be furious at the injustices that had been inflicted on them still the Pandavas gravely maintained their tolerance and their desire for peace and they tried their best to ensure that nothing untoward happened in terms of the that nothing unnecessarily violent happened and that's why multiple peace efforts were made, the Pandavas although they had been dishonored and cheated, their kingdom had been lost, their wife had been dishonored still they did not fight at that time, they agreed to go for the war go for the exile and they even agreed for the mortifying one year agnyatwas where they had to conceal their identity and live like servants even after doing that when the Kauravas were not ready to give their kingdom, the Pandavas first sent a Brahmana Drupada's head priest as a Brahmana messenger and he gave good advice to the Kauravas and tried to seek peace now his efforts did not meet with success and then Sanjay came and he tried to on behalf of Dhritarashtra, easel out an agreement which would actually perpetuate the exploitation he basically told the Pandavas be satisfied without the kingdom, now that was an entirely unreasonable request not just unreasonable, it was outrageous request it's like say there is a world cup final and one team's representative comes to the other team and he says you know we don't want animosity in this match, so just accept defeat before the match itself you know yes we don't want animosity, that is true but the way to avoid animosity is not by passively accepting defeat it is by trying to have cordial relations, so it was a ridiculous request, outrageous request, Pandavas still responded with great patience and courtesy and then Krishna himself went to petition peace and the Pandavas were so conciliatory that they said even if you don't want to give us our kingdom, at least give us five villages and we will rule with those five villages so we will be satisfied with those five villages, but Dhritarashtra was so adamant that he refused to give even as much land as would be used to pierce the tip of a needle through and he insolently rejected Krishna's peace proposal, Krishna's kind overtures were summarily rebuffed to the extent that not only did Duryodhana not listen to the proposal but instead he tried to assist, tried to arrest Krishna the point was that then it became clear that Duryodhana had no intention of seeking peace in any way that time war became inevitable the point is the Pandavas would much rather have avoided this terrible warfare because unnecessarily it caused so much bloodshed and further it caused bloodshed among family members the Pandavas did not want that and they tried their best to avoid it but the Kauravas were not ready to listen at all and so now Arjuna is realizing the inevitability of this fratricidal war and once he wants to see is this war really going to take place and who are those who are going to fight with me with whom I have to fight so it is more like when Arjuna is wanting to see it's not so much that he doesn't know what he is going to see but rather it's going to be a sort of last memory of course a grim even painful last memory but still it's a memory which he is going to have sometimes when a person is going to die then relatives come and meet that person now they have seen that person before and now they want to see him for the last time so that they will have that memory with them even if that person goes away so it's in that sense Arjuna knows that there is going to be a formidable war over here and one of the two sides either Kauravas or the Pandavas are now going to return alive from the war by the time the war ends so because it's an emotionally branching conflict emotionally branching first of all because the whole war reminded the Pandavas again and again of the great insults that they and their wife had gone through but along with that now because they were going to fight against their loved ones especially although there was we could say at one level there was no love lost between the Pandavas and the Kauravas but still the Pandavas were cognizant that these are also our family members and Yudhishthir remembered that and the Pandavas also to some extent remembered that Arjuna was conscientious but along with not just the Kauravas there were also his venerable elders like Bhishma Ptama, Dronacharya Kripacharya and they were all very respectable and Arjuna was in that sense desiring you know let me see who are the people I am going to fight with so that war which they had so at one level they had strived vigorously to prepare for the war knowing that it was inevitable at the same time they had strived with equal vigor especially in the last few months before the war that's what is described in the Udyoga Parva the Udyoga Parva which comes before the Bhishma Parva the Bhagavad Gita is spoken in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata so in the Udyoga Parva both things are described how the Pandavas sought alliances for the inevitable war and how the Pandavas tried negotiations to avoid the war so it is said prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The Pandavas were embodying this saying when they struck alliances to prepare for the worst in case the war took place and they were also hoping for the best and they were trying negotiations again and again to avoid the war but now all negotiations had failed the hope of a peaceful reconciliation was now irreversibly lost and now the war was inevitable so Arjuna recognizing the gravity of the imminent fratricide wanted to have a last look at who were the warriors he was going to fight so he could see the Kaurava warriors from the position where he was although not as clearly but by going into the middle he could see both warriors the Pandavas and the Kauravas and that emotionally wrenching reality of this fight between relatives would become apparent when he would see both warriors and that he wanted to see.