Gita 01.06 – Their great warriors counterbalance our greater strength

Bhagavad Gita chapter 1, text 6 One who is very vikrama, vikrama is one who does valorous deeds. So one who is courageous, dhamanyu. And uttamaujyashya, viryavan.

Viryavan is again one who possesses great heroism. Then saubhadra refers to abhimanyu. Draupadeyasya, draupadeyas refers to the five sons of Draupadi.

Sarva eva maharthaha. So dhamanyu and uttamaujyas, they were powerful panchala princes. They were brothers and leaders in their clan.

And they were entrusted the very important responsibility of guarding the wheels of Arjuna. Especially on that day when Arjuna decided to penetrate into the Kaurava horde to kill Jayadrith before sunset. In order to avenge the unfair slaughtering of Abhimanyu the previous day.

This is the 14th day. Now for a Kshatriya general to just be the guard of somebody else may not seem to be a particularly glamorous position. But the fact was that Arjuna was such a formidable warrior that he was unstoppable.

You know he had earlier at Virat single-handedly routed all the Kaurava generals together along with their army. And he had also routed all the formidable demons Nivat Kavachas and Kalak Kanyas whom even Indra had not been able to defeat. And not only that he had also defeated all the gods together at Khandava.

When he at the request of Agni had offered the Khandava forest to Agni as an offering for him to burn. So the point was Arjuna's heroism was unparalleled. And it was quite likely that knowing how unstoppable Arjuna could be the Kauravas would try something underhand to try to check him.

And one such underhand thing could be that they would try to destroy his chariot wheels. And by that if he became immobilized then they might even be able to when he is in the disadvantage position overpower and conquer and even kill him. Or even if they could not do that still the Kauravas hope would be that they would be able to immobilize him and thereby limit the damage that he could cause.

So the Pandavas also were shrewd enough to know that the Kauravas would try a strategy like this and that's why they chose warriors who themselves were formidable and who would not let Arjuna's chariot wheel get damaged. And that's how Arjuna could proceed to wreak havoc in the enemy camp. So Uttamavya and Yudhamanyu they were also slayed in the war.

In the eventual course of the war they fought heroically and laid their life for Yudhishthira and Krishna. And they attained an exalted destination thereof. But here the fact that Duryodhana while assessing the Pandava forces mentions them distinctively indicates how formidable they were as warriors and how much more formidable their reputation as warriors was.

That even a person like Duryodhana who was besotted by pride, who was ultra-confident about his victory, even he with his skeptical vision of things, believed that these two warriors were important and so important that he had to mention them. Now we see that here there is no direct reference to either Bhima or Arjuna. That is not because of negligence, that is because of transcendence.

That means that Bhima and Arjuna, it's not that Duryodhana was transcendental to material conceptions, but it was just that Bhima and Arjuna were so formidable that they were at best referred to as reference points. There would not be anything that Duryodhana would give actually when the war took place. But he wanted his warriors to be cautious and that's why he said that धावनिष्च विक्रान्त उत्तमोजाश्च वीडियवान So now both of these warriors, being unable to eventually do the duty when Arjuna entered into formidable battle zones and they could no longer follow him, they also fought fiercely and they laid down their life also.

And now सवभद्रोद्रोपदेयाश्च सर्वएवमहार्था One who can fight with and kill a thousand warriors is called a Maharatha. Both Baldevidya Bhushan and Vishwanath Chakrathakur in their commentaries quote the verse which describes how the person who can fight with thousand warriors is called a Maharatha. The person who can fight with almost unlimited warriors, more than thousand up to ten thousand is called a Athiratha.

The person who can fight up to one warrior is called a Athir. And a person who needs support, a warrior who needs support to fight with another warrior is called a Ardharati. So, of course, this is a technical definition of the word Maharatha.

And it is not that all warriors are exactly Maharathis. There are always people who were more proficient in particular places and in particular ways, then they were less proficient. Just like we have somebody who is a tennis champion.

Now, a tennis champion can be of many ways. There can be a reigning champion. There can be a former champion.

There can be a grand slam champion. There can be a multiple grand slam champion. So, they're all in the league of champions.

So, to be a Maharatha means to be in the league of champions. Now, we know Arjuna was the champion of champions. Even among all these, he was by far the greatest.

So, because they were so formidable, there is no mention to them. They are just made as a point of comparison. Bhima, he was a Mahayudhi.

So, at this point, Drona anticipates that when he said earlier, त्रशुरा महेश्वा सहा, that, oh, they have a huge, they have powerful bows and arrows. So, Drona might try to assure him, Drona thinks by saying that, Oh, but they have a small army. We'll be able to overcome their army easily.

But, he says, actually, they have enormous firepower. It just needs to be organized properly. And they have organized properly.

So, because the Kauravas and Pandavas are organized properly, we have to be careful. They have small army, but they have big generals and they also have good organization. So, we must be careful.

साउबद्रोद्रोपदेयाश्च. Saubhadra is Arjuna, Abhimanyu. And Abhimanyu, on the very first day of the battle itself, fought with Bhishma and checked Bhishma for a long time.

And Bhishma was going on a ravage and leaving a trail of devastation behind him. So, Abhimanyu proved himself to be a hero in every way, almost equal to Arjuna. And he endeared himself to the Pandava warriors as one of their foremost commanders.

And he also impressed the Kauravas by his speed and skill and spirit. So, we know on the 13th day, when Drona formed the Chakravyuha, Abhimanyu gallantly, fearlessly at the behest of Yudhishthira entered into the Chakravyuha and was due to Jayadrath's interruption and deception, was trapped and eventually six maharathas simultaneously attacked him and slaughtered him. But before that, he wreaked havoc in the Kaurava army, defeating even their generals.

He actually fought and defeated all their generals. Even Karna, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Shalya, Ashwathama, Drona himself. None of them could stop him.

Till finally they all attacked him together and then they killed him. And of course, this happened on the 13th day and on the 14th day we know Arjuna, with the help of Krishna, beheaded Jayadrath and destroyed an entire division of the Kaurava forces who were trying to fend him off. This refers to the five sons of Draupadi.

There is Prativindya who was born of Yudhishthira and then there is four other sons. There are Suta-Soma from Bhima, Suta-Kirti from Arjuna, Satamika from Nakula and Suta-Karma from Sahadeva. So, now, all these warriors, we know Abhimanyu was killed on the 14th day and these other five sons, they were killed on the last night, 18th night, when Ashwathama carried out the brutal night slaughter.

Draupadi-Yash-Chau. Chau refers to other warriors. So, this refers to Ghatotkach, who was also a formidable warrior.

He was a Rakshasa born from Bhima and Adimbi. And now there was Iravan also, another son of Arjuna, who had also come. They were not Draupadi-Yash-Chau, but Sarva-Eva-Maharatha.

They are all Maharatha. So, he is saying that because they have so many Maharathas, therefore, we have to be cautious. We cannot just become complacent because we have a bigger army.

Yes, we may have a bigger army, but they have Maharathas. And early as it is Mahesh-Vasa. They are formidable bowmen.

Therefore, we will have to be careful and cautious while dealing with them. So, in this way, Duryodhana gives expression to the apprehension of his heart. And after that, now he will realize that he doesn't want to create diffidence in his followers.

So, he will do a balancing act by, in the next verse, saying that now he will tell about his own forces. And then he will go on to talk about his forces from the 8th verse onwards.