Gita 01.14 – The dramatically humble entry of the hero

Bhagavad Gita 1.14 so now it is described that one side on the Kaurava side what was happening has been described in the 13th verse and now Sanjay's television camera shifts to the Pandava side and that is where it will rest for the rest of the Gita and it describes here the first thing as the camera moves on to the Pandava side it looks at the horses and they are strikingly beautiful they are shining white majestic powerful horses celestial steeds that Arjuna had got along with the chariot from Agni the magnificent chariot so Krishna and Arjuna are the normal names by which these two characters are referred to in the Gita of course Krishna is referred to as Shri Bhagawan respectfully but here for the sake of poetic effect two names which have an ending alliteration are used Madhava and Pandava Madhava Pandava and now after describing this location of the action then the action is described both transcendental conscious now in a movie often the hero makes a dramatic entry so for example suppose the hero is going to come to a scene and the hero has a posh car and then there is some say damsel in distress somewhere and the hero comes charging in the car and then the car opens up and the car door springs open and then the hero jumps out and then camera focuses on the shoes of the hero in polished shining shoes and then the hero is wearing some jeans and the camera moves upward upward upward and then you see the handsome form of the handsome heroic face of the hero whatever springing into action so there is a dramatic entry of the hero similarly in this verse we have the dramatic entry of the twin heroes Krishna and Arjuna of course Krishna is the supreme lord and Krishna's entry is surprisingly normally the hero will say action hero and the hero will himself be driving the car and spring out of the car driving the car itself adds some amount of virility and manliness and the appeal of the hero increases or if the hero is a very wealthy aristocratic lord or something like that then the hero will have a chauffeur and then the chauffeur opens the door and then the chauffeur comes out of the car and then goes back and holds the door respectfully open and the hero comes out that's how it would normally be but here we see that Krishna is the supreme hero Nayakanam Shiromani as he is known in the bhakti tradition among all heroes he is the greatest hero but what is he doing he is taken up the humble station of a charioteer normally the chauffeur is hardly ever the hero the chauffeur is simply a humble assistant of the hero and often there is no one gives much attention to the chauffeur but here Krishna has taken an equivalent position in the Vedic cultural context that of a charioteer for Arjuna and but people maybe think that oh this person is just a charioteer is an ordinary person and not of much importance but they would be immensely mistaken to think like this because Krishna is as the Bhagavad Gita's narrative moves forward we will realize that he is there is no truth beyond him there is no truth higher than him he is the highest truth as 7.7 in the Gita will declare but here it is described that he is situated on the chariot that chariot as the camera moves forward the first thing that is seen is the steed of the chariot now normally when say one warrior gives a chariot as a gift to another charioteer the chariot is given with the horses it's like when a car is purchased the car is purchased with wheels but then if somebody wants some special car racing driver or something like that and the person wants more custom made wheels then the person may take out the standard wheels of the car and replace them with some special customized wheels but if there is some special say formula 1 racing car or something like that and the whole car is special and it comes with customized not standardized it comes with customized wheels also so like that special car which comes with customized wheels Arjuna's chariot which he has got from Agni is actually very special it comes with extraordinary steeds a magnificent chariot Arjuna got this chariot when he and Krishna were in the Khandava forest after the Pandavas had just returned to Hastinapur and had been given the half of the kingdom which was the Khandava Prastha and then they are just starting their efforts to make Khandava Prastha into a inhabitable civilized and eventually prosperous place so they were sitting on the outskirts of the city talking at the edge of a forest and at that time a tall effulgent looking Brahmin appeared and that Brahmin was Agni and he identified himself and told him that there was a king who gave me a lot of ghee in sacrifice and he was so much that it spoiled my stomach so I need to eat some medicinal herbs which are there in this attached in the nearby forest, the Khandava forest though I have tried to do so but Indra has, because his friend Takshaka is in this forest and he doesn't want him to be harmed so he keeps pouring rains and that's why I cannot consume this forest so please help me, I want this in charity now Agni is also a Kshatriya like a like he is a Devata and Devatas are Kshatriya generally but then here in this particular role, Leela, he plays the role of Brahmin and asks for charity and Krishna and Arjuna playing the role of Brahmanas they immediately get up and actually the Brahmana comes and then they with folded hands a reverential look, they hear what he is saying hear his request and then they immediately agree to do what he is saying but then Arjuna says that no, I will definitely want to oblige you to serve you but I need a chariot at this point I don't have any chariot which will be equal to this task, Arjuna definitely as a member of the royal dynasty had his chariots but resisting and holding back the gods headed by Indra would be a formidable task and could not be done with an ordinary chariot so the ordinary chariot would get destroyed just by the force of the celestial weapons so if you can provide me a chariot and you can provide me a bow also then I will be able to fight you and provide you the forest fulfill your desire so Agni consented and then he closed his eyes and meditated and when he meditated immediately he summoned Varuna who lives a lot in other regions and Varuna asked him what can I do and Agni told him that for Arjuna please get deep in your waters there is there is a huge bow magnificent bow along with the arrows along with two inexhaustible quiver of arrows get that and also Soma the moon god has got a magnificent chariot get that chariot also and then within moments Agni's desire was fulfilled by Varuna and chariot came to chariot appeared right in front of Arjuna, Arjuna was stunned amazed, thrilled to see such a magnificent chariot and also he got the bow then he circumambulated the chariot and got up and climbed in and became ready to fight and that time he led that time he used a gift that Agni had given and by that he defeated all the Rakshasas who had occupied and contaminated and defiled and abused the forest land's resources so that same heroic chariot that same hero with the same heroic chariot is now here and so that chariot just like Agni can spread in all directions very fast so the chariot which Agni had provided was also capable of spreading in all directions and was going capable of taking the war in direction and conquering warriors so it was a magnificent chariot which he had and it is described that the constellations which they blew were also Divya, the word Divya comes most famously in the Bhagavad Gita in 4.9 that Arjuna my birth and activities are Divya so similarly here the conch shell is described as Divya so of course Krishna is transcendental and therefore his conch shell is also transcendental Arjuna is of course not the supreme lord but he is a devotee and he is devoted to Krishna's transcendental cause and because of that commitment to Krishna's transcendental cause Arjuna's conch has also become transcendental not in terms of constitution but in terms of application that means it may be made of material elements but because it is being used in service of the lord it becomes spiritual so Krishna talks about this twice in 4.24 in 4.24 because he has not introduced himself as a subject so he just talks about how all elements of the sacrifice become spiritualized they become Brahma but then in the 7th and 9th chapter he describes his own position quite clearly then he describes actually how a devotee perceives what is the actual nature of the sacrifice he says it is not just Brahma but the Brahma in its highest manifestation is Krishna therefore that actually one sees those various elements of the sacrifice as not just manifestations of some spiritual light unknown spiritual light but they are seen as manifestations of the known supreme spiritual person Krishna so basically the relevant point for us is that because Arjuna is the devotee of the lord, devoted to the cause of the lord, so even his conch shell is described as transcendental and from the Pandavas side the action begins with this verse they blew the conch shell and just as Bhishma's blowing the conch shell signaled the, was the signal that triggered the blowing of conch shells and the playing of bugles and drums and bull horns and other such things on the Kauravas side, similarly the blowing of conch shells by Krishna and Arjuna will trigger off the blowing of conch shells by the other Pandava leaders that will be mentioned in the next verse, so it's interesting that although Dushyodhana is the commander the first conches are blown by Krishna and Arjuna that's because everybody knows that Arjuna is the greatest warrior and everybody knows that Krishna is the greatest person at least everybody on the Pandava side knows that and that's why de facto they made all the decisions and Krishna and Arjuna by their example demonstrate, Arjuna also did not take the position of a commander although he could well have based on his competence but just as Krishna did not become the king of the Yadu dynasty but remained a courtier and advisor to the King Ugrasen, so both Krishna and Arjuna demonstrate the principle of that contribution is more important than position that if one can do contribution to a good cause then one doesn't have to occupy the biggest position within that cause so Dushyodhana had the position of the commander but de facto Krishna and Arjuna were the prime movers in the Pandava army and that is seen from the fact that it is in response to the blowing of the conch shell by the commander of the Pandava army by the Kaurava army, the first conch shell that is blown on the Kaurava side sorry on the Pandava side is the conch shell of the two transcendental personalities Krishna and Arjuna.