Gita 01.07 – Repetition of known information conveys prioritization

Bhagavad Gita chapter 1 text 7 so here Duryodhana has completed the description of the forces on the opposite side and now leaders have to always walk on a very thin balance between showing alertness about the danger of the enemy's attacks and showing fear or inducing fear about the enemy's power the leaders don't want their subordinates to be off guard but at the same time they do not want the subordinates to be fearful and insecure about their own abilities also about their party's capability to defend nobody wants to be on the losing side so now Duryodhana has become a little apprehensive that I have spoken about the forces on the opposite side and this speaking may convey the idea to my forces that I am insecure that I lack confidence in my ability or in the ability of my forces to win this war and few things can sap the morale of a team as much as a diffident leader and even now Duryodhana is confident that he will win the war but he was impressed, concerned and to some extent agitated to see the formidable nature of the military formation of the Pandavas and so to alert his troops he has spoken about their formidable warriors now in order to reassure his own troops he realizes that he has to speak about his confidence in them too अस्माकं तु विशिष्टाये so from our side certainly Vishishta specially only actually there are so many Maharathas on our side that I cannot speak the names of all of them so I will speak the names of the prominent ones among them तान्निबोधः द्विजोतमा तान्निबोधः so now because he has approached Dronacharya आचारे मपसंगम्य which was mentioned in 1.2c so now he is continuing to speak to Drona but what is being spoken to Drona is being heard by those around him and overall that message is being conveyed Duryodhana is a shrewd politician and he knows how the minds of people work so whatever he is speaking will soon be in news that will be heard by everyone on the battlefield firstly on his side and then on the opponent's side also so if the idea is conveyed that he is feeling apprehensive he is unsure and insecure then that will create uncertainty and insecurity in the minds of his followers also and he doesn't want that therefore to reassure that to reassure his followers that actually there are so many warriors on my side so many formidable warriors that I can't even begin to list the names of all of them अस्माकं तुविशिष्टाये इदियाशिष्टा अस्माकं actually it has no count तान्निबोधः द्विजोतमा द्विजोतमा best of the brahmanas please all know this you may wonder what is the need to refer to Drona as द्विजोतमा after all he is not exactly the best of brahmanas he is engaging in martial warfare which is not exactly recommended for brahmanas in fact brahmanas who shama dama dhyapa saucing and then they help other people and they help their spirituality so normally द्विजोतमा brahmanas are supposed to teach spiritual knowledge and spiritual wisdom to their followers Drona instead of doing that is teaching martial warfare martial knowledge and not only is he teaching but he is now fighting also so in fact later when on the 15th day Drona is killed and Arjuna especially feels remorseful at having been a party to the heinous way in which his guru was killed and Yudhishthira feels compunction of having killed a guru and a brahmana so at that time Bhima actually says he was not even a brahmana brahmana doesn't fight a war he fought a war and that itself shows that he has fallen from a brahmana's position so of course Drona's position was special normally brahmanas don't fight but they are allowed to fight in special situations but that is not considered a desirable thing to do or a regular thing to do and yet Drona has been doing that regularly so how is he a Dvijottama actually he is Dvijottama in the sense that he is the he is a respectable person for Drona being his teacher and Dvijottama is a formal rank of a formal term for reference it doesn't necessarily mean that Drona has to be a Dvijottama it's a respectful epithet that is used it's like a word gentleman is used, not all the people who are referred to as gentlemen are always gentlemen so now of course we know that Drona also has to get the favour of Drona so that Drona will fight wholeheartedly so using this sort of references is all a part of Drona's strategy to win Drona's attention and in Drona's favour so that Drona will fight wholeheartedly now so please know about this so what do you know know about the best warriors on my side and only few of them but Nayaka Mumasingh is here although I talk not about my whole army of Lavanakshan I talk about my armies army commanders who are essential parts of the strategy for winning this war so he talks about them about himself so he and they includes these commanders so Nayaka Mumasingh is it's interesting that he says this is my army so of course they have all assembled to fight on the side of Duryodhana but Bhishma is the commander yet Duryodhana takes the property to be his own so Duryodhana basically is here referring to it as his army because it was he who was actually ruling all of Dhritarashtra was in the chair of the throne of the king and it was Duryodhana who was the cause of the war so he is referring to my army so for your sake I will just inform you about these warriors they are all formidable warriors and they are all capable of winning the war for us Samyartham for your information now giving information to someone who already has information is a subtle communication about prioritization who are important for me what is important for me and the spiritual master gives instructions to disciples at that time it's not that the disciples may have never heard about it when we take initiation at that time the spiritual master instructs us to follow any sigvas, it's not that we have not heard about them before but the repetition of that giving information about something which already the receiver has information that conveys the importance of that that is a way of signaling one's position, one's prioritization one's conviction so Duryodhana will reveal his mind about who his confidence in his warriors and who he considers his formidable warriors are and how he wants them to fight and so that tantrabhimita is not a list of names which Drona has never heard of before but he wants to convey the point that I have confidence in you and therefore I am considering you as also the commanders of my army and in case I don't mention you I am only going to mention Vishishta, some of them the best are the specially qualified so we'll see in the next verse whose all names Duryodhana mentions.