Gita 01.24 – Conquer lethargy to attain excellence in service

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Thank you. Now although Sanjay is speaking everything in the Bhagavad Gita the whole Bhagavad Gita is a narration by Sanjay to Uttarashtra of course the Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna but it is being the way it is recorded in the Bhagavad Gita in Mahabharata is that it is a subset of the conversation between Sanjay and Uttarashtra so now when Krishna and Arjuna are speaking then we have Shri Bhagavan Vacha or Arjuna Vacha but apart from their conversation when there is a lull in the conversation while some action takes place or while some action is being reported in order to report that action and to make clear who is reporting that action the word Sanjay Vacha comes up so within the narration actually he says some drama is being put in written form then it is said the narrator says actually in one sense everything is said by the narrator at least as it comes in the text but then within the narrator's narrative when the narrator describes certain people speaking then it is said this person spoke and that person spoke and then none of them are speaking none of the characters in the narrative are speaking but the onward flow of the narrative through the actions to be described then it is said the narrator speaks so that's why here we have although everything is being spoken by Sanjay to Dhritarashtra but when it is not somebody else whose words are being reported by Sanjay then it is said Sanjay Vacha so Evam Ukto Rishikesho in this way to Rishikesh the lord with the control of the senses he spoke, who spoke this? Sanjay spoke this Krishikesho the word Rishikesh has come earlier in 1.20 and now it is being repeated point is Krishna is the controller of the senses although he may temporarily circumstantially act as a charioteer but still he is the counselor also he is the ultimate controller out of affection he may have become a charioteer but that affection does not change his actual position so that lord was Rishikesha who is the supreme controller of all senses to whom these words are spoken Rishikesha Rishikesho he is the receiver of the action at least he was the receiver of the words which were spoken by Arjuna previously so that person who spoke those words who had done the Ukto that is described in the next verse Gudakeshena Bharata so so here there are actually three names and things may become a little confusing Gudakeshena refers to Arjuna and Bharata in some places the word Bharata is used to refer to Arjuna as for example 2.14 there Bharata clearly refers to Arjuna as a descendant of the Bharata dynasty as a descendant of Bharata as a member of the Bharata dynasty but Arjuna and Dhritarashtra are in the same dynasty so here Bharata refers to Dhritarashtra Sanjay is thinking that Dhritarashtra is respectfully addressing him as O descendant of Bharata dynasty O descendant of Bharata O Bharata now he is saying Gudakeshena so the word Gudakesha has many different meanings so one meaning is that one who has conquered sleep so Gudaka Gudaka means sleep and Isha is the controller so one who has conquered sleep so sleep of course represents the mood of ignorance and Arjuna being a transcendental pure devotee had conquered the mood of ignorance as manifested through sleep another aspect of the significance of the word Gudakesha is that Arjuna had been so eager to learn archery so eager to speak so eager to learn archery that he would practice even at night at one time as per like all the other students he would practice throughout the day and then at night he would desist from practice because it was dark so one night when he was taking his food while it was dark suddenly the lamb that was there because in the room where he was taking food the lamb got extinguished because of sudden gust of wind and Arjuna was continuing to eat and it struck him at that time that oh actually I can eat even now even though it is dark I can eat so my hands know where my mouth is I don't need my eyes to see that so if I can eat while I am in the dark I should be able to shoot also while I am in dark that just as my sense of touch and by my sense of touch I can perceive where my mouth is and I have overall sense of my body so I can perceive where the food is how my hands would move to reach the mouth similarly I don't have to be singularly dependent only on my sense of sight for practicing and perfecting my archery skills I can also train and sharpen my sense of hearing sense of perceiving sound and based on sound I can hit targets even in the dark so with this inspiration he started practicing even at night and soon by perceiving through sound and other such non-visual perceptions the location of targets he excelled in the art of shooting invisible targets when the Kshatriyas would fight often their opponents would not fight fairly especially the opponents were Rakshasas or other such beings who had mystic powers then they would often become invisible and invisibly they would attack so now it's very difficult to fight an enemy if you can't see the enemy but even when the Rakshasas were invisible they would make some sound while they were moving or while they were shooting so Arjuna by his practice at night tireless practice where the other warriors other warrior students would be sleeping and Arjuna would be fighting tirelessly by that he became an excellent warrior super excellent warrior, matchless warrior in fact so so he conquered his sleep so that he could conquer even the invisible enemies in his service to the lord such as the illustrious expertise of Arjuna which he had acquired by tireless zeal actually when we see someone who excels at a particular field we may often either feel outstruck by their excellence or we may feel envious of their excellence but what we often don't know is that excellence rarely comes automatically and behind that excellence have been hours and hours and hours of practice so whether it is in a field like cricket where somebody is an expert batsman or bowler or whether it is in the field of oration where somebody is an expert speaker or it is in the field of music where somebody is an expert singer or expert operator of an instrument it all requires effort and to follow in Arjuna's footsteps we would like to not only develop devotion the way Arjuna had but we also can develop the diligence to excel in our particular area of service so that we can also do worthwhile service to the lord certainly the spirit of devotion, the desire to want to use our talent in Krishna's service is laudable and that is what we need to learn the most because in this world we are all infected by a enjoying mentality where we want to enjoy independent of Krishna but we don't want we want to serve Krishna but we also want to serve him competently and so we should not flinch from industrious labor if that is what is required for us to excel in our skills of course if we can't excel because of some circumstances or limitations still Krishna will accept our service and that is Krishna's magnanimity and we should never be discouraged if our service is not of a very high quality we should know that okay I am doing my best and Krishna is so kind that he will accept this service but just as relationships are two way so Krishna's love he expresses by accepting service whatever way we do it but we express our love for Krishna not just by doing service whatever way we can but by doing it the very best that we can and by striving as much as we can to improve the quality of our service so Arjuna conquered sleep so that he could serve Krishna better similarly we too can strive to overcome our laziness not just by giving up sleep but also by giving up the inner inertia that makes us not want to work too hard, we work the best we can so that we can offer the best possible service to Krishna and here in this context as per Arjuna's request Krishna took the chariot in between it was a magnificent chariot excellent chariot it was a celestial chariot which he had got from Agnideva and that is referred to by Rathottamam so as the action moves forward as per Arjuna's request Krishna has now taken the chariot and placed it between the two armies. What happens next.