Gita 01.22 Asking to see something that is already known points to a dynamic that is not known

Thank you Asmin Rana Samudyame so here Arjuna is asking a question to Krishna I want to see who has come to fight against him who has come to support the evil minded son of Dhritarashtra that will be mentioned in the next verse the previous verse was who has come to fight and now here that same statement is emphasized repeated emphasized who has come here to fight against me Asmin Rana Samudyame in this particular battle at one level Arjuna already knows who all have come to fight with him there is just no doubt about that because the allies alliances with different kingdoms were not formed secretly both sides had spies so they all knew who would be on which side therefore both directly through the public formation of alliances as well as indirectly through the actions of the spies because both parties knew more or less who was on the opposite side who was on which side and this was not a ambush attack it was a planned war so when Arjuna already knew who was there on the opposite side why was he saying that I want to see who is there on that side in general the desire to see that which is already known points to some dynamic that is unknown normally when we want to see something it is to know it say if you want to buy a house we want to see it first hand so that we can understand how it is better we can familiarize ourselves and based on that we can make a decision on whether we are going to buy it or not suppose we are given a house in inheritance then also we would like to see the inheritance first hand so that we can decide how best to use it whether to live it live in it whether to sell it whether to convert it into a place that we rent out basically seeing is for information gathering so that that can that information can become the basis for our subsequent actions but if we find that our information gathering is not constructive that means it is not leading us towards anything positive it is not helping us move towards it is not serving any point if we keep seeing that which we have already seen and there is nothing really more to see then if we examine the property repeatedly and there is not really new information that we are going to get by seeing it again and again see the agent who is offering us that property may get tired what do you want why are you wasting your and my time in seeing this again and again if you have not made a decision already based on the existing information you have which is practically all the information that you are going to have then why waste time seeing something so in the case of Arjuna also we might say he already knew more or less what was happening he knew more or less overall what Arjuna was up to he knew what the Kauravas were up to and who all were there in the Kauravas ranks just the previous night there had been an assembly of war where the Pandava forces had assessed the strength of their opponents and had decided who would be tackling whom in an overall face-off the Bhagavad Gita has several sections where the obvious is not so obvious where something seems obvious but something is going on beyond what is obvious say for example in the beginning also, first verse when Dhritarashtra asks the question he asks what did my people the Kauravas and the Pandavas do and they assemble in the battlefield to fight that question just doesn't make any sense because he has got no he is himself telling what they have come for they come to fight so if they came to fight what did they do if his question had been what happened in the fight that would have been a more sensible question but what did they do that question seems to be so self-evident a self-evident question pointing to something that is not so evident that he was afraid that the place may influence the protagonists and maybe a fight would not occur so in this case when Arjuna is asking I want to see who is there in the opposite side, what is going on this is a moment of pain for him because he knows that there is no way he can step back from this battle the Pandavas have tried for resolution in the most accommodating of terms and nothing has worked out now finally when they are to take a step back step forward rather to fight he knows this may well be the last chance last time when he will see all these relatives assembled together all these warriors assembled soon many of them will meet their deaths in the brutal war that is going to come so we could say that he wants to have a last look at who is there on which side just like we have lived in a place for a long time and then we are going to leave that place again for a long time maybe never come back then when we are about to depart we may turn around have a long look at that place so it could be like that for most of the people on the opposite side there is no love lost for Arjuna but especially for his elders Bhishma and Drona there is intense affection and even reverence and that would plague him as will soon be revealed but at this point there is intrigue and mystery in Arjuna's request and that mystery will be revealed as we move forwards in the Bhagavad Gita's narrative.