Gita 01.01 – The transcendental manifests as the geographical

Thank you Hare Krishna Bhagavad Gita chapter 1 text 1 Dhritarashtra Vacha Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra Samaveta Yudhsava Mamagaha Pandavasyaiva Kimakurvata Sanjaya and this series of short talks on each verse of the Bhagavad Gita we will discuss the meaning of the verse and an introductory understanding of the context and the meaning of that verse so these talks are primarily meant to help in gaining a quick grasp of the verse and especially for those devotees who want to memorize these verses these can give a intellectual template on which to ground their efforts for memorization normally when we memorize it exercises only one aspect of our intelligence that is the recollection faculty that's of course an important intellectual muscle but if along with the recollection muscle we also exercise the contemplation muscle that means we know the meaning and meditate on the meaning then it becomes easier to connect with the verse it's like if I have to lift a weight I can lift it with one hand also but if I lift it with both hands then it's easier to lift so similarly when we can connect with the verses not simply as something to be memorized by but something which are meaningful and whose meaning can shape and guide us shape and guide our thoughts and our actions verses that we can use for our own personal application as well as for our outreach then it will become easier because more of our intellectual muscle, our recollection muscle and our contemplation muscle will also be involved in it and I will try to involve one more muscle also that is our emotional muscle that means we will see if some of these verses can be rendered as prayers that means when Krishna instruct us to do something we will see if we can see that convert that instruction into a prayer so that we can also invoke our devotional emotion when we go and take darshan of the deities we can recite that verse and Krishna you have instructed me to do this but I have no strength to do it please give me the strength to do it so that way also we can engage that muscle also so when emotionally then from the point of your auto memorization and from the point of your thoughtful contemplation all these ways when we connect with the verses then our connection will be much stronger so here this is the first verse of the Gita and actually this is the only sentence spoken in the Gita by only verse spoken in the Gita by Dhritarashtra so although it's just one verse it's seminal it says a semen produces a full child eventually similarly a seminal question leads to a huge amount of discussion later so Dhritarashtra watch he speaks now what does he say Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre at the place of Dharma at the holy place sacred place which was sacred place Kurukshetre it is actually the place where the battle was going to take place now there are historical reasons why Dharmakshetra the Kurukshetra is known as Dharmakshetra there have been great who have performed austerities there Parashuram after killing the Kshatriya the performed atonement at Samant Panchak which is just in the Kurukshetra area kings have performed sacrifices over there in the past so there is historical adequate historical reason for referring to Dharmakshetra as Kurukshetra for referring to Kurukshetra as Dharmakshetra but along with that there is also an important point that actually the transcendental is being manifested in the geographical and that is the characteristic of Gita wisdom at large that the spiritual becomes manifest in the material to raise us to the spiritual level so Dharma is something which is transcendental it is our very eternal nature and it is the set of activity that take us to our eternal nature and because we as souls are transcendental our Dharma is also transcendental so Dharma is not religion Dharma is our very essential nature and that essential nature to love and serve that is always the same even if we are Hindus or Muslims or Christians or non-believers or whatever else but that essential nature is not always known to people or not consciously comprehended by people so Dharma refers to that nature so the point of the Gita is that that knowledge that transcendental knowledge which is not restricted by its relevance to any specific group of people the transcendental will be manifested at a particular geographical level Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre so now Dhritarashtra may not be thinking about all this but when the lord wants to perform some pastimes he uses people even without their consciousness being aware of what they are doing and how it is assisting in the lord's pastimes Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre means that the transcendental is becoming manifested in the geographical so the knowledge of Dharma will become manifested at Kurukshetra and Kurukshetra whatever its past fame was there as being Dharmakshetra it would gain far greater fame now because the knowledge of Dharma was spoken over there or is going to be spoken over there now Samaveta Samaveta they assembled Yudhsavaha to fight now when they assemble to fight it is something which in one sense gives away the action but the next line in the verse if we look at the Sanskrit it is C each line can be referred to as A B C D so my sons in the Pandavas Dhritarashtra had a mentality of partiality now in one sense we are not stone like so naturally we will have affection for some people and lesser affection or apathy for others depending on how those people deal with us so for Dhritarashtra to have a special sense of affection for his own sons is normal its natural but for him to have such apathy or even not just apathy but antipathy antipathy means negative feelings, anger, resentment hatred so antipathy towards his nephews the Pandavas is definitely unnatural and its all the more undesirable unworthy of a person on the king's position because the king is expected to be like a father to all the citizens what then to speak of one's own nephews and what to speak of nephews who are fatherless Dhritarashtra was expected to act like a father but this partiality was caused by excessive body attachment now there is reciprocity which is normal human nature if somebody is affectionate towards us we will naturally want to be affectionate towards that person so that we can develop a deeper relationship and developing such a deeper relationship is natural and having such a reciprocity is natural for developing such a deeper relationship but how do we move forward from or how do we move forward and deal with others who do not reciprocate with us that way then maybe we will have a slightly distant relationship so reciprocity is fine but reciprocity is natural in one sense because we are all human persons however Dhritarashtra's partiality was not due to any reciprocity not that his own sons were more respectful to him more affectionate to him actually Dhritarashtra behind Duryodhana behind Dhritarashtra's back would laugh at him and he just knew which buttons to press so that he could manipulate the blind old king as he would call him so actually Dhritarashtra after the Pandavas won the war and after the Pandavas became the rulers actually Dhritarashtra realized that the Pandavas gave him more respect and affection than what his own sons had given him and at that time he felt immensely mortified regretful of what he had done earlier so his partiality was based on the blindness caused not by his physical deficiency but by his emotional attachments to his own sons and he is therefore he is saying these two parties are assembled and what what did they do Sanjay has been given by Vyasadev the mystical vision by which he is able to see the events happening on the battlefield of Kurukshetra so Dhritarashtra is going to use Sanjay as his eyes to see and so he asks Sanjay what is happening so kim akurvata what happened what did they do now the question in one sense seems to be self self-answering or even self-defeating because he has already said that they have come there for fighting a war yutsavaha then to ask akurvata what they do that seems to be redundant almost it's like asking if people went to a restaurant and sat down to eat and after sitting down to eat what did they do the obvious answer would be that they ate now why would somebody ask a question like this because one might suspect that there is something wrong about that place which may cause the normal course of action to be jettisoned so for example if somebody knows that there are terrorists who have planted a bomb under a table in a restaurant and then there are people who go and sit on that table in that restaurant then naturally one may want to ask what happened so actually one is not expecting the eating to take place one is apprehensive that something else will happen the bomb will explode what happened they have gone for one intention eating but there are factors over there which may change the course of action that are expected to happen so Dhritarashtra is suspecting a similar torpedoing sabotaging of the expected course of action and that sabotaging can happen because there is Dharma Kshetra so he knows that his sons are partial sorry his sons are adharmic and he is apprehensive that at the Dharma Kshetra they may become influenced by the vibrations of that place and they may decide to arrive at a reconciliation at one level he does not want the war because he knows that his sons being being being impious, being vicious being sinful are going to be destroyed and that's what the sages have told him repeatedly warned him along with Krishna who came as a peace messenger many other sages came also and they are told they all told that the Kauravas would be destroyed so at one level he does not want the war to take place so he is wondering whether Dharma Kshetra will affect somehow and prevent the war and whether his sons will get influenced by some level of conscience that might be still present and that conscience may be triggered by going to this Dharma Kshetra and therefore they might arrive at some peace agreement so at one level he does not want the war to take place and he is hoping for that but another level he hopes that somehow I will win and then I will become the king, my party will win and now he feels that yes our party has got much more forces than what the Pandavas have got and therefore we are likely to win therefore at another level he wants the war to go on Dhritarashtra is trapped between denying the inevitable and desiring the impossible denying the inevitable is that his sons are going to be defeated because they are Dharmic and desiring the impossible is wanting that they win the war which is not going to happen but he is trapped in this and he is afraid at this particular point that the war may not go off as it is expected and that's why he is asking they came there for fight but did they actually fight or something else happened that they did they somehow arrive under the influence of the place of Dharma arrive at some arms ties some peace treaty now the place of Dharma did not affect Duryodhana because he was Adharmic beyond redemption if the personal presence of the person who makes all holy places holy that is Krishna that person's personal presence and personal persuasion had not changed Duryodhana's heart then just going to a holy place was unlikely to change the heart but still so in that direction for the Thrashtra's enquiry was not very substantial but still it is true that events did not transpire as expected as they had come for Yudh Sabha for fighting but what happened was that it was Arjuna who had a pang of conscience not Duryodhana and because of the tail spin into which his emotions went he refused to fight and that's how the Bhagavad Gita was spoken so what happened that Sanjay will start narrating from the next verse so this verse essentially states at the holy place Kurukshetra when with the troops assembled for fighting mine and the Pandavas what did they do oh Sanjay thank you.