Gita 01.13 – Rituals of war express and stimulate the martial spirit

Thank you after what after Bhishma blew his conch shell to signal the commencement of hostilities so after he did that and he blew his conch shell now the primary signal for the commencement of hostilities was the blowing of conch shell but that is primary there are others also they are also mentioned in this when he blew his conch shell other warriors also blew their conch shell apart from that the war was almost like a sporting event now unlike a sporting event in the war the stakes were high there could be death for those who would be defeated but then the warriors knew to some extent that actually there was an imperishable side to them and that they would go to heaven if they laid their life for the sake of virtue now so in that sense there was celebratory mood for the war so the kings knew that even if they died in the battle they would go to heavens and because of heroic death they would attain a worthy destination in heaven and that's why when they would start the war they would not just have as the warfare is often nowadays people are in outposts where often they are struggling for food and water and they are just fearful guerrilla warfare somebody may attack from somewhere at any moment and overpower and often nature resolves the danger as is the enemy but here they had chosen a place a designated place and the war would be fought only at that place and the war would be fought between specific times and after those times would be over then even they could go over to each other's side and they could talk as friends just like when India and Pakistan may have a very fierce rivalry in cricket but sometimes after the match is over after they have gone out of the sporting stadium then the players may interact as friends so like that here there is a celebratory mood that is indicated and not just the warriors conches are being born but there are kettle drums Shankhash, Chibheriyash kettle drums are there kettle drums are not blown by the warriors they have their assistants it was not just the warriors who were there in the tent the warriors often were kings so they had their attendants and there were doctors and there were servants and practically when a war would take place there would be a whole city that would be built on the outskirts of the war on the periphery of the battlefield so it was to serve the warriors panavanaka go mukhaha so panavanaka panava is symbol the hand symbol that we use in kirtans, something similar anaka so these specific words can sometimes have different translations, anaka can refer to drums, anakadandubhi is the name of Vasudev because the drums were blown when he was born go mukhaha now go often we use the word normally to mean cow and go mukha actually what it refers here is bull horns, specific kind of horns which were called as bull horns sahasaiva vyahanyanta sahasa means suddenly, all of a sudden just one conch shell was blown and sometimes the chain reaction sort of thing if in a in a college campus there are say 50 cycles kept next to each other and one cycle falls and like dominoes falling all the others start falling suddenly one conch shell was blown and immediately everyone else started blowing, so there was although it is a war setting because two major war heroes had been discussing, there was a relative silence not complete silence obviously, relatively silence was there but suddenly the first conch shell was blown and suddenly a huge sound started sahasaiva vyahanyanta so the sound became because all these objects were were played were sounded sa shabdas tumulo bhavat and tumulo tumultuous sound over there and that was in one sense we could say positive point of a festival of sound negative sense we could say a riot of sound but either way there was tumultuous sound and the sound indicated that now the war was about to begin and the Bhagavad Gita is itself a philosophical book but it gives through its first chapter succinct depiction of the culture with which war took place at that time so here this was a celebratory mood by which the war was fought more as a sport and it was meant to also be like sports are meant to be played as a sporting spirit, the war was also meant to be fought in a sporting spirit that's why there would be war codes which were expected to be followed and here the warriors are not paranoid oh I may die over here what will happen to me yes they are human beings and all human beings naturally have a fear of death but these are human beings who are honourable human beings and they consider their honour more important than life and that's why they are excited stimulated that now they have most of these warriors have spent years and years and years training themselves to become skilled adept expert at warfare and now they have an opportunity to exhibit those skills so the sounds indicate the mood and they also set the mood actually in every human activity which is done on a mass scale there are certain rituals and those rituals actually stimulate certain emotions as well as express those emotions so for example say nowadays a national army may have its own national anthem and not only national anthem we have national flag and then we have particular way of marching and saluting and all this what does it do? these are in one sense rituals of nationalism rituals are not related to warfare not only related to religion actually rituals pervade all aspects of human life, human culture because they bring structure and recognition to patterns of human behaviour so when we meet a person naturally we extend hand and shake hands because that's the way we greet in a civil respectable way if there were no such ritual of shaking hands we would not know how would we greet each other so of course some others may fold hands and that's also different ritual but the important point is they are rituals so rituals are not just rejected as sentimental or meaningless we have to find out what is the sentiment and what is the meaning behind the rituals and then see whether that particular sentiment and meaning is valid and whether it is being served by those rituals so here the blowing of not just the concert but all the other instruments at one level it conveys that the warriors are eager to fight and it conveys the celebratory mood, at another level it also is meant to stimulate that mood that now the war is going to start certain sounds hinder certain memories so for example there might be patriotic songs which might heard in childhood and when we hear them again we feel patriotic sentiments rising in our heart so similarly different sounds they stimulate certain emotions so here these sounds are meant to stimulate the warriors to fight wholeheartedly, stimulate their martial spirit and to help them perform to the best of their ability Sahasra it happens suddenly because suddenly a conversation was going on and now a tumultuous sound came up so till now the action on the side of the Kauravas we described, Duryodhana's approach in Drona and then speaking to Drona and then Bhishma's blowing a ponchal and then the others blowing appropriate sounds and from the next verse the focus will shift to the Pandava side and for the first time in the Bhagavad Gita when the two conversationists who are going to play an important part for the rest of the Gita whose talk is going to comprise more than 95% of the Gita, they are going to appear, the Supreme Lord's appearance is going to happen first time in the Gita in the next verse that we will discuss in our next session.