Gita 01.09 – Listing the warriors’ qualities for enlisting their commitment

Thank you Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 Verse 9 Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Diplomat in Duryodhana is alert to the dangers of the situation that he is facing He is confident that his army is strong enough to combat the Pandava army but at the same time he doesn't want his generals to feel dissatisfied by any sense of neglect from their leader Now one of the biggest challenges for a leader is negotiating and balancing the egos of different team members the word ego often has a negative connotation but from a positive side everybody has a sense of self-respect has a sense of honour and when people feel dishonoured they can not only contribute less enthusiastically they can not only stop contributing but they can even go on the opposite and work against the very cause for which they have been working earlier so Yudhsu who was one of the army one of the warriors in the Kaurava side has actually gone over to the Pandava side just before the war and that has actually upset Duryodhana Yudhsu was a son of Dhritarashtra through one of his maid servants Gandhari's pregnancy went on for a very long time and during that period he united with the maid servant and Yudhsu was born Yudhsu was never the same state as the Pandavas but still he had the understanding that he was also in some ways a member of the royal family and just before the war he sided over to the side of the Pandavas, Yudhishthir said that all of you know that my cause is honourable and if any of you would like to come to this house of honour I will welcome you and Yudhsu called out will you accept me, he said yes of course welcome he said you Yudhsu will have to put water on the while offering the last rites for all your brothers, for the whole Kuru family for all the Kauravas because everyone else will be dead that was Yudhishthir's confidence also so anyway the point here is Durudana had already seen one of his warriors now Yudhsu was by no means a formidable warrior but he had seen one of his warriors defect right now so it is not that other warriors were waiting to defect but he did not want any of them to feel dishonoured so anye chabhava shura so he said anye there are many chabhava shura there are many great heroic people over here and he in one sense wanted to say that not only are they heroic but they are also dedicated they are committed to the cause of battle so what he intended to say was that they are ready to lay down their lives for me but there is a glitch of tense over here instead of saying it in the future he ends up saying in the past and the idea becomes they have given up their life for me now certainly that is not Durudana's intention but sometimes our slips of tongue also indicate some things slips of tongues are often slips that raise the filters with which we conceal the contents of our mind and they reveal what is there inside so here it is this phrase is an indirect prophecy that the Pandavas are going to be victorious and those who are on the Kaurava side are going to be killed in fact Krishna states this explicitly in 11.33 when he says that your opponents Arjuna are already dead by my arrangement he says so he says in 11.32 that in the C part of this verse by my arrangement before only they have been killed so what is Krishna's arrangement that indirectly that unintentionally slips out of the mouth of Durudana over here and now that was not his intention to speak in the erroneous way like that professing the death of his own warriors but he goes on in the positive mode with which he intended to speak they are all using different kinds of weapons varieties they all have their individual bows, arrows, swords mallets, maces axes, lances and all kinds of weapons yuddha visharadaha sarve they are all expert in the art of battle sarve yuddha visharadaha so we know that on the Paharava side also a large number of warriors had joined now was it not clear for the warriors that Durudana's side was adharmic and Yuddhishthira's side was dharmic why is it that so many warriors, 11 akshahunis which is actually more much more than the Pandavas where so many warriors and kings impious that they all joined the Kaurava side at one level yes their choice indicated that they atleast gave some credence to Durudana's cause and they fought on his side now the thing is when they fought on his side some of them were tricked Shalya actually wanted to fight on the side of Yuddhishthira but he was tricked by Durudana Durudana arranged for lavish hospitality for him along the way and Shalya thought that this arrangement has been made by his staff or the Pandavas staff and therefore he said out of satisfaction he said whoever has made such nice arrangements for me I will fight for that person and then Yuddhishthira Durudana who was just waiting for his opportunity stated O venerable monarch it is I who made all these arrangements so when Shalya heard this he realized he had been cheated because he did not want to fight on the side of Yuddhishthira but he was supposed to similarly Bahalika, Somalatha, Bhurishrava they all belonged to a dynasty which had committed itself to fight for the Kurus that made them fight on behalf of the Kauravas on the side of Durudana now they came with their own nakshahuni soldiers also so Nanashastra is appreciating those who are on his side by saying that oh they are expert in fighting with different weapons here Bhagadatta on his side who could fight on top of an elephant and then he had Rakshasas like Alambusha who was skilled in mystical warfare Sarve trying to strike a more inclusive note by saying that all of them all of you oh warriors Yuddhishthira, you are expert in fighting and in this way Durudana is trying to inspire, motivate everyone to fight so in the previous verse he stated that Bhavan Nishmas Chakranacharya, he listed some Kauravas but then realized that once he gets into the whole zone of listing names so many names so he just makes Anney Chibhava Shura and there are so many others so he praises them in various ways first he calls them Shura then he calls Nanashastra Parahana, they are Shastra Parahana they are expert in weapons and then they are Yuddhishthira so they are experienced in fighting, experts so basically saying three things, they themselves have valour so this is what warriors require they have Shura they have valour then they are Shastra Parahana just courage alone is not enough in a war actually one should also have expertise that is Shastra Parahana expertise alone is not enough one has to have intelligence and experience Yuddhishthira and after that also one needs a sacrificing spirit so he says that also they have they are ready to lay down their life for me but they use the past tense which is like a slip of tongue which happens by the arrangement with the supreme lord so that indicates that what he should be saying is that they are ready to lay down their life for me that means he is also appreciating their commitment and in one sense appreciation is indirect instruction when somebody appreciates oh you are a good singer that's an instruction that we should become good singers and then we should sing for Krishna nicely so like that he is saying he is saying that I know that you have committed to my cause and in that way when we know that someone else is expecting us to live according to some standard then it inspires also to some extent to live according to those standards so in this way Duryodhana although he is demoniac he is a clever person and he is trying to motivate all the warriors on his side to fight on behalf of him and he takes that up one by one by stating that they are all inherently valorous they are committed to his cause they are expert at warfare and they are experienced they are expert at weaponry and they are experienced intelligent in warfare also in this way he says that my warriors are qualified in all ways and they will lead our side to victory and then he returns back so in the next verse where he will talk about how his strength is superior to the strength of the Pandavas that we will discuss in our next talk.