Gita 01.04 – Our inner frame of reference shapes our outer focus of reference

Is being exhibited Bhagavad Gita chapter 1 text 4 Duryodhana is describing what he is seeing on the opponent's side he is in the second verse described how he approached Dronacharya third verse he described how Duryodhana has in general arranged the army very expertly formidably intelligently and now after giving that general assessment in the third verse now he is going to make specific statements about different warriors so Atrashura here there are Shura there are heroes Maheshwasaha they are extremely powerful they are bow fighters now in the Kurukshetra war bows and arrows were the primary method of fighting there were other war even Duryodhana and Bhima when they fought before their final fight on the 18th day they actually fought in several occasions and most of those occasions they also fought with bows and arrows so Maheshwasaha these are great archers javelins and mace and other sort of weapons were also used but primarily it was bows and arrows so great archers basically is generic reference to great warriors Bhima Arjuna Yudhi they are warriors who are like Bhima and Arjuna now Duryodhana knows that the greatest obstacles for him on the opposite side are these two Pandavas Bhima and Arjuna his military might does not match that of his two younger brothers and now relatively speaking if you look at the subsequent war that took place Arjuna fought much more destructively and Arjuna actually fell more Maharathas than Bhima of course Bhima killed the hundred Kauravas that was a war which he had taken and the other Pandava warriors helped him on that war by not killing the Kaurava brothers even when they came in front of him but of course we are not saying Bhima is weaker Bhima is also a formidable warrior but even at the time of assessment after Drona's academy course was over Drona's Gurukul after that there was exhibition of all these military skills so it is Arjuna who is fearless so it is Arjuna who has gone to heaven and acquired celestial weapons and it is Arjuna who is the most formidable but in Duryodhana's mind Bhima is formidable because he is the person who is vowed to kill Duryodhana and he knows that he is extremely angry, furious full of wrath and he has to be overcome so of course Bhima is also elder so Bhima Arjuna Samayudhi so he refers to Bhima and then he says there are many warriors equal to them at one level there was no one equal to Arjuna and also there was no one equal to Bhima in terms of mace fighting except for himself Duryodhana and even then when there was actually no one equal why is he saying there are many warriors like that actually that is not an absolute comparison it is a relative comparison that means they are of the same caliber they are all great warriors now Arjuna was the greatest among great archers but still despite his instinctiveness or even uniqueness we could say still there are many warriors so many great warriors so in that category of great warriors also belong other warriors over there so yes Bhima Arjuna may be the greatest among those great but overall they all belong to category of great warriors therefore Bhima Arjuna Samayudhi they are all in that category itself Yudhano Viratasya Duryodhana refers to Satyaki in the Vedic times the warriors had different names Arjuna himself has ten names which he recites just before the Virata war when Bhuminjay the son of Virata asks him how do I know that you are actually Arjuna so he recites his ten names and then he says oh you are actually Arjuna and he literally bows down to him so now here Yudhana is an alternative name for Satyaki Satyaki he was formidable warrior and he played he actually fought with Duryodhana in one of the days and checked him and almost defeated him but he did not kill him because Satyaki was conscious of Bhima as well the greatest feat that Satyaki did was on the 14th day when he after Arjuna had penetrated into the Kaurava rank in order to reach Jayadratha and avenge Abhimanyu's death thereafter Satyaki was requested by Yudhishthira please follow him and please assist him and Satyaki was also a student in Drona's academy and he had learned a lot over there but subsequently whenever Arjuna and Drona Satyaki would meet Satyaki had learned further things from Arjuna also so he considered himself to be a student of Arjuna also so he felt obliged that my teacher is now facing a grave responsibility a grave challenge and I must help so what Arjuna had done extraordinary power breaking through single handedly through the Kauravas military formations and reaching very close to Jayadratha of course he was still far away but what he penetration Jayadratha Arjuna had done Satyaki followed and broke through the Kaurava rank similarly the stupendous effort that he contributed and he assisted Arjuna because Arjuna was being attacked on all sides by various warriors Satyaki helped him by taking a part by challenging some of those warriors who were attacking Arjuna or targeting him and he held them off so that Arjuna could keep progressing ahead so on that day he played a stupendous role in assisting Arjuna so he was actually having a very fierce fight with Bhurishrava in which he was knocked down by Bhurishrava and he was kicked and dragged and humiliated but then he got up and killed Bhurishrava also and then he killed Bhurishrava's father Somadatta and on that same day Bhima also killed Somadatta's father that is Bahalika so all these were Maharathas and they were all killed so this was Satyaki's greatest accomplishment that he assisted his teacher Arjuna in fighting against the Kaurava hordes so that he could reach Jaidrath and thereby he could fulfill his vow now apart from that Yudhano Virata was also a commander of one Akshahuni now the chief commander of the Pandava army was Dhrishtadyumna but under them now we know that they had whatever Akshahunis they had seven Akshahunis so each of them had the commander also so Virata was one commander Drupada was also one commander Shikhandi was one commander like that there are many commanders, Bhima was also one commander Arjuna was not officially a commander of anyone but Arjuna was free, he would go wherever he wanted and he would fight with whoever and he worked directly with Dhrishtadyumna planning strategies and executing those strategies so in one sense, in the war Arjuna was the unofficial leader, unofficial commander of the whole army, officially it was Dhrishtadyumna now Virata himself was also a very strong warrior and he had also brought a huge army to fight on the side of the Pandavas and he fought heroically on many occasions now Virata and Drupada are both elders relatively speaking, they are both of the generation older than the Pandavas, one generation above them and both of them fought heroically, many battles they have fought before the Kurukshetra war and this battle turned out to be their last battle they fought tirelessly and it was on 15th day that both of them in quick succession were killed by Drona they fought fiercely on that day and Drona was in a furious mood because of being repeatedly goaded by Duryodhana with accusations that you are not fighting wholeheartedly because you are partial to the Pandavas so Drona got so fed up with these accusations that he just put his full fury into the fight and at that time Drupada and Virata were fighting with him and they wounded him and that increased Drona's anger even further and a furious Drona then just countered the attack and he killed both of them but till then they actually fought fiercely on the battle and because they are such maharathas so Duryodhana remembers them and he says that they are also like Bhima and Arjuna so in the next verse he would continue the description of who are all the great warriors on the side of the Pandavas this description will continue for two more verses and then after that he will switch to description of his own side so in this verse he talks about five warriors actually he is naming three and he is comparing these three to two other and his whole point of description is now again when information is known repetition is done to convey to emphasize particular point so here Duryodhana wants to emphasize the gravity of the situation so yes and now Drona knows who are all there and what their skills in fighting are but Duryodhana is repeating it so that he hopes Drona will fight seriously and that's why now he is not going to do exhaustive listing of all the warriors but he lists he has listed Drupada directly by talking about Drupada by mentioning him by talking about his son in the previous verse and he refers to Drupada once again over here again with the same intention that the stimulation of the memory of Drona's old enmity with Drupada will drive out whatever residual affection might be there in Drona's heart for the opponents and will kindle Drona to fight fiercely, furiously, maniacally and thereby that would assure his victory so Drona's enumeration of the military forces will continue in the next verse.