Duryodhanas Vision Points To His Disposition – Gita Verses 3 C1 V5 To 9

Discussing here how the place Gita starts the conversation where the question is that this is happening on a sacred place Dharmakshetra and does that sacred place influence people does it make them any of them change their course of action so the previous verses indicated so till the fourth text which we have discussed so 1 to 4 the point was indicated one was the starting question and the next three verses indicated that Duryodhana was still his same old self the nature his nature was seem to be far stronger than the place the influence of the place and now he is to boost the morale of his troops he is going to do a comparative assessment that will go on till the 10th text he is assessing the forces he starts with the forces in the opposite side and he says that there are Bhima and Arjuna the key figures but there are many others also who are powerful over there so one way you could read his statements is he is alerting his troops that don't take the opponents lightly they are tough people so let's start from the fifth text now there are also great heroic powerful fighters like Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, Kashiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Shaibya there are the mighty Yudhamanyu the very powerful Uttamoja, the son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi all these warriors are great chariot fighters in text 5 and 6 he continues and he is giving a list of characters and he is telling that these characters are all great warriors so if we consider the forces of the Pandavas and the Kauravas he is now, Duryodhana is here and he is viewing the forces and he is giving a list those forces there he lists from 4 to 6 and he is talking about various important characters the list of names how important is it? it depends on how we are approaching the book the book can be approached from a historical perspective or a philosophical perspective so as we know the Gita is one part of a vast book called the Mahabharata so for those who are reading the big book for them these characters are often familiar if not familiar at least they are relevant all these big warriors are there now from the historical perspective it's important but from the philosophical perspective it is not so important we could go into the history of each of these characters and the Mahabharata sometimes describes the valor or the character of these characters but the point over here is this is starting that epic is starting with grounding in real life situations that the list of names in one sense is describing that this is a real life dilemma and a real life situation in one sense from even from the philosophical perspective I may say it's not so important but still it is useful why useful because it is defecting a real life situation which will eventually turn into a real life dilemma and the Gita will be answering this so just like when we are describing a situation if somebody is describing a conversation that we had somewhere you know if I want to make it more vivid give more details that's how these details are being given over here so in one sense like you said I like the phrase he told Drona Manna now he is telling others you also have to you also have to be ready because they are so Drona he doesn't have any suspicion about the others loyalty but still he wants to prepare them those guys are tough they are tough fighters so you have to also be ready here is your rival's son so you should be ready to fight but here don't take them don't be complacent don't think that because our numbers are more this is going to be a cake walk so now he is a little apprehensive did he go overboard because he is saying that oh they are tough people many of them are as good as Bhima and Arjuna toughest among them so he is thinking hey maybe I want to make sure that they are fully alert but they shouldn't get overwhelmed so now he will turn to his own side he will look at his own side it's like you know looking at all of them and he will tell about the warriors on his own side and he will praise them, commend them saying that we are also tough we are also powerful so let's look at the this is from the 7th text he is saying but for your information let me tell you about the captains who are especially qualified to lead my military force so in one sense he is still speaking to Drona generally when we are talking with someone we may want others to hear but politeness means that we don't just stop talking with that person and start talking with others so he is still speaking to him and he says I am not rattled and I am not shaken I am confident so just for your information I will tell about my leaders and then he speaks there are personalities like you Vishma, Karna, Krupa Ashwathama, Vikarna and the son of Somadatta called Bhurishrava who are always victorious in battle he is giving a list of warriors on his own side now it's interesting he is mentioning one particular character over here Karna among the if you consider among the Kauravas see sometimes when there is a football match or a cricket match it's a team sports then say two teams may be playing but say right when say in India there is a big rivalry between India and Pakistan in cricket may be something so there may be two teams which are playing so there is a team match up this team is good that team is good but within that team match up there may be particular players match up also you know okay this batter and this bowler who will get the upper hand so like that there are smaller match ups also specifically there is rivalry like I mentioned earlier between Bhima on the other side and Duryodhana on this side so both of them are mace fighters mace or club it's a weapon they use a club to fight so the club and mace are synonyms and then there is there are prime archers in the opposite side there is Arjuna and on his side there is Karna but an interesting point over here is that Karna is actually not on the battlefield although he is not on the battlefield he is in the mind of Duryodhana so through these verses actually psychology is also being depicted that the question which we had mentioned earlier that did the place affect him so I concluded the last session by saying that the place and the sanctity of the place did not affect him much so normally the sanctity of the place would affect us at the level of the mind so his psychology is being revealed now Karna had felt slighted Karna was a formidable archer but when the commander was Bhishma Bhishma was the senior most both in age and in experience and he was the commander so when Bhishma had earlier done an assessment of the two forces he had said that Karna is not that big a warrior so now his purpose in he had to some extent undervalued Karna now he had done that primarily to try to decrease the hubris of Duryodhana Duryodhana counted on Karna now I will defeat Bhima and Karna will defeat Arjuna so Bhima had undervalued Karna because sorry Bhishma had undervalued Karna but when this had happened Karna had felt slighted and he had said I am not going to fight as long as Bhishma is the commander because if I fight and I win I bring victory the credit will go to him so he refuses to give me credit why should I do something that will give credit to him it will become like an ego issue I know in Indian cricket team there was one particular batsman quite a very good batsman but he didn't do very well with other rival batsman who became the captain and when that player became the captain this batsman said I will not play in the team as long as he is the captain which was he thought that he is doing that so that they will not give the captaincy to him but they anyway gave the captaincy to him and then he had to weakly submit and he participated but in this case Karna had said I will stand out or I will sit out so although Karna is not there on the battlefield still he is very much there in the mind this chapter is called observing the battlefield so when he is observing the battlefield Duryodhan he is he is seeing seeing in the sense of stating seeing the absent somebody is absent he is seeing them why is that because he counts them as very important that person is a valuable ally for me and he is there with me so that's why he is pointing out mentioning his name although he is not there so basically through this his what is psychology that is revealed that is his his resolve to fight that is being revealed that he has no second thoughts about fighting because even when somebody is not there on the battlefield he is going to come soon he will be there here and he will fight for me so I know he is here he is not weakened by the absence of Karna he is there like a substitute fielder may not be there right now on the field but he will come eventually this is especially significant what it tells about psychology it will be revealed a little bit more sometimes some people are it's like we will discuss about the conception of the self in the Bhagavad Gita as we come to it eventually suppose somebody is an alcoholic but they are more like social drinkers you put them in a different circle they forget about drinking but some people are just not social drinkers they are drinking addicts you put them in the company where nobody is drinking and they will be just craving for a drink so basically his evil nature is so deep rooted so strong that it is unaffected by the place and just like example alcoholic hmm craving for a drink even in a even among non drinkers even among non drinkers he is still thinking so that it reveals his psychology basically he is adamant hmm so I just read the next verse and then I will make a comment and then I will stop for today in 9th text he says there are many other heroes who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake all of them are well equipped with different kinds of weapons and all are experienced in military science so here he is reassuring his forces by saying that they are all dedicated to my cause so in one sense he is continuing his strategy of okay he has compared the Pandavas and the Kauravas so his forces and the other forces so if you consider a weighing balance so who is who is stronger so he is going to give that assessment in the next verse but he is listing that these people are also dedicated there are many others and they are so dedicated that they are ready to lay down their life for me but by this point the list gets completed and he will give the assessment his assessment about who is stronger in the next verse and the 10th verse will answer this but before that let's make one point over here I said that he is seeing the absent but he is not seeing the present so he is seeing the absent that is he is seeing Karna but he is not seeing the present that is Krishna so Krishna is there on the opposite side and Krishna is very prominently present he mentions Bhima and Arjuna right in the first verse so Krishna is we will talk about Krishna more later but he is God descended to this world that's what the Gita tells us and it will be revealed it has already been told in the Mahabharata but he is definitely a very powerful person but he has chosen to be a non-combatant we will talk about why he is a non-combatant later but Duryodhana's calculation is so materialistic and gross that he thinks just because somebody is a non-combatant he is a non-entity he is inconsequential he is going to make no difference so somebody can be somebody may be a not be a great player but that person could be a great advisor, great counselor, great guide and Duryodhana completely devalues him devalues him to such an extent that he doesn't even mention Krishna that also shows his psychology that again that also if he knew how powerful Krishna was at least that would have got some cautionary note so his at one level we can say that this refers to his godlessness because he is neglecting God completely or even if he says I don't really believe Krishna is God and still his gross materialism where he doesn't even consider anything beyond numerical factors or the physical fighting see there is like sports is not just a physical encounter it's also a mental encounter it's a mental game so like that in the mental game Krishna is going to play a very significant role but in the mind that inner aspect he completely neglects and that also is an indication of because he is not thinking about the subtler, the internal that's why the place also doesn't affect him much so we will continue our next session thank you so much.