Gita 01.16 – The individual conches manifest individual warrior’s virility

Thank you very much, Hare Krishna vijayam raja, kunti putro yudhishthiraha nakula sa devasya, sughoshamai pushpakau Bhagavad Gita 1.16 the description of the forces on the Pandava side and their actions continues here the 14th was described about Pandava and Madhava on the chariot Mahatisandhane and 15th was described there blowing the conch shell and now the 16th was described how they are how the others are now following suit so ananta vijayam raja yudhishthir maharaj is not yet a king he has been dispossessed but because that disposition was unfair because actually he was a king and he had been unfairly dispossessed of the kingdom so even in the forest the Pandavas as well as the sages would usually refer to yudhishthir as the king that is the position which was actually his it has just been temporarily unfairly taken away from him so yudhishthira one who is very strong, steadily situated yudhi in battle and ananta vijayam and he had a conch which name was ananta vijayam and he is referred to as kuntiputra we know that the first three pandavas were sons of kunti and the remaining two who are mentioned next nakula, sahadeva, shiva they were the sons of madri so their conch shell is described as now nakula and sahadeva the pandavas had twins they are born through madri by the aswini kumaras who are also twins now if you see the sequence or the hierarchy of actual competence in skill and martial power in terms of administrative power yudhishthira was the king but when duryodhana speaks about the panda forces he doesn't mention yudhishthira or nakula sahadeva at all he mentions so many other warriors so many other warriors he mentions but he doesn't mention them yudhishthira's strength was not just his military prowess he was also a very powerful warrior but his special strength was his adherence to virtue dharmaraj if the pandavas had all been of today's mindset then they would never have been able to stay united because each of them would have bragged about their own strength and their unity would have been fractured and certainly if military strength, martial strength is the most important thing for kshatriyas then either arjuna or bhima could have been their top ones not yudhishthira but the pandavas they had a shared sense of commitment to each other and to krishna and they knew that yudhishthira was the eldest but he had also earned the respect of others by his commitment to virtue so what actually brings lasting respect is not just one's physical strength or martial skill it is one's overall character and because yudhishthira had that character so he was respected, he was enthroned as the king even when his younger brothers were more powerful than him but when the battlefield is going there and at that time military strength is to be assessed military events are to be described then first we have arjuna and then bhima and then we come to yudhishthira and then afterwards it goes on akula, devastha so all of these warriors had their moments of glory in the war yudhishthira was repeatedly targeted especially by drona who as per durjana's request tried to have yudhishthira arrested durjana's plan was that if i can arrest yudhishthira then i will challenge him for another gambling match and when he is defeated then i will send him off to the forest once again but yudhishthira was also quite expert and he had used his time in the forest well to also learn gambling and to become expert in it so that if at all he was challenged for a gambling duel he would not be defeated but he would be able to counter it and sahadev had taken a vow in the kuru assembly to kill shakuni and that is what he did eventually and akula dealt with one of the formidable sons of karna this way they all actually fought fiercely and helped yudhishthira to win the war and now they are all doing a concert to indicate their support, the cause of dharma the gita giving names the conscience of the important warriors also indicates that they cherish these possessions so it was a symbol of their prowess and their martial might and just as each warrior would have a special weapon, one's own personalized weapon similarly the warriors would have their own conscience say for example cricketers, each bat is special and sometimes they change bats and to outsiders all bats may seem similar but each bat has its own speciality or whatever, suitability so similarly warriors have their weapons and similarly they have their paraphernalia also so one of the paraphernalia items is a conch and a conch is used to invoke auspiciousness sound a warning to the opponent, sound a signal of alertness to the one's own party and in that way invoke people to action so the conches of the five Pandavas are mentioned by name and of course Krishna's conch is mentioned the gita doesn't mention the conches of anyone else neither on the Kaurava side nor on the Pandava side except for the conches of the five Pandavas now the verse will continue now the gita will continue in the next verse and describe the other warriors who also blew their conches thank you.