Gita 01.08 We need to be calm-headed, not cold-blooded

1.8 Bhagavad Gita so here Duryodhana is is continuing to speak to Dronacharya within the earshot of various other warriors also on his side so he says in the previous verse he has said that now I will list for your information the prominent warriors on the side of the Kauravas and he is listing those warriors he begins with Bhavan Bhavan refers to you as addressed in a respectful second person sense Bhavan in this case refers to Drona oh Drona you are a prominent warrior on my side and then Bhishma is there Bhavan Bhishma then he talks about Kripa about Karna and then Kripa who is always victorious Ashwatthama, Vikarnasya and he mentions Ashwatthama and so here again who is mentioned and in what sequence is significant he mentions here the warriors such as now Bhishma is the commander and yet he does not mention Bhishma first he mentions Drona first why? multiple reasons we could say he is speaking to Drona so naturally when we are referring to we are talking with someone that person needs to be given the due respect and also Drona is a Brahmana so Brahmanas are socially considered to be higher than Kshatriyas anyway Bhishma respects Brahmanas therefore he knows Bhishma won't object if at this point he is not given that he is not given that kind of respect if he is not mentioned first Bhishma won't mind because he understands Brahmanas are to be respected and also the whole context of this conversation if we see is to to incite Drona to fight against the Kauravas and to inspire within him passion for fighting for the Kauravas therefore he mentions Drona's name first by which he can induce some sense of loyalty within Drona oh yes Drona you are my you are my foremost warrior and by that Drona will fight wholeheartedly so there is all kinds of subtle and not so subtle strategy that Drona that Duryodhana is using to ensure that people on his side fight wholeheartedly for him thus whatever he does he is doing with a very calm and calculated mind which is meant to get the maximum benefit for himself from his situation of course his mind is not exactly calm in the sense of being serene he is agitated by greed agitated by envy but it's calm in the sense of being cold blooded some people can be hot headed so at this stage Duryodhana is not acting in a hot headed way simply hot headed means that when a person gets a rush of blood person's impulses or anger is uncontrolled and in that rush of blood that person does something but that is not the condition of Duryodhana generally when a person is hot headed or you could say hot blooded at that time that person is not thinking clearly or thinking long term person just gets caught in an emotion gets carried away by the emotion and does something but some people are not hot headed they are cold blooded so cold blooded means that the person is unfeeling this person is become desensitized and is is so calculated at that is so calculated in terms of analyzing one's personal gains that one doesn't think about the opponents they don't think about the people who are on the opposite side how they are working towards how they are acting or what will hurt them or what will how actions we do will emotionally affect others one doesn't think about them at all so therefore it's important that we move forward in a steady way till we get to a level where we are purposeful in terms of recognizing and doing what is required for our purpose but we are not cold blooded we all have a we all have a purpose to fulfill in life and we need to do what we need to do for fulfilling that purpose but if we become cold blooded in that purpose during in that process then we lose out on significant long term gains we end up losing precious opportunities for our inner growth as well as for our outer contribution and while spiritual growth requires us to be detached in some ways it doesn't require us to be cold blooded in any way at all we have to be positive so here another significant aspect is that he uses mentions Karna it's interesting because Karna will become the third commander of Duryodhana as army but it's also significant because Karna is right now not present on the battlefield because he is thinking that Karna is of no use to me sorry he is thinking that he although Karna is not fighting at that time because he had a fall out with Drona sorry with Bhishma but still he is determined Duryodhana is confident that Karna is very much core member of his team and even he is not an active member of the team still he knows that Karna shares at least to a significant extent the antipathy that Duryodhana feels for the Kauravas for the Pandavas Karna feels especially for Arjuna and thus he mentions Karna to bolster him that Karna although you are not here I remember you I count you as one of my foremost allies and thus the day when Karna will join the fight at that time Karna will fight with all his vigour knowing that Duryodhana counts on him and Kripa had a benediction by which he would never be defeated so samitim jaya and again Ashwatthama is son of Drona Vikarnasya it's interesting that his brother Dushasan is the foremost of the Kauravas after Duryodhana and there are many occasions on which Dushasan fights with great prowess but again it's significant that Dushasan is not mentioned over here because the point is that Duryodhana does not suspect Dushasan's loyalty and thus he feels no need to mention his name and Vikarna because Vikarna had spoken out against Draupadi's being disrobed so he has some suspicion about Vikarna's loyalty and therefore he mentions Vikarna specifically to try to seal his loyalty for him thus Duryodhana's calculative mind is revealed through his calculations about his foremost warriors.