The Pandavas Morale Goes Up Down- Gita Verses 6 Chapter 1 Verses 15 – 25

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
These characters not only.
Have conches that they blow. But. The conches.
Also have names. It’s just like. We have great affection for something.
When we have dogs. As pets. Then we name the dogs.
Sometimes. In traditional cultures. If people had bullock carts.
They would not only name the bullocks. But they would also name the carts. So like that.
The conches are also named. And indication is that. This is.
Something which is very real. That. These are.
Characters who are present. At a particular time in history. They had a particular way of functioning.
Not only were they blowing conches. But their conches had names. The whole point is that.
The Gita starts with very vivid details. And. We move forward.
So the characters are being introduced now. If we consider the. Narrative focus.
Or the narrative lens. It was on Krishna Arjuna. But now it is moving to another.
Formidable warrior. That is Bhima. So he is right next to them.
And. It’s mentioned that he blows. The conches also.
Bhima is known for his physical prowess. And that is indicated. That he was.
Extremely powerful. And. There is a little light hearted tone over here.
Like I said different people. Are referred to by. Different names.
So Bhima Karma Vrkodara. So Vrkodara is a voracious eater. Why talk about eating.
In the middle of a war. It can seem a little funny. But the idea is that.
A person who is a voracious eater. He was not lazy. He was massively built.
And. It’s like somebody. That person is a heavyweight.
So that comes from the boxing. Or wrestling thing. That a heavyweight person.
Is difficult to fight with. So it’s a playful way of saying. That he was the heavyweight.
That literally he was huge in form. And he would eat a lot. But he was a vigorous.
Powerful warrior. So that’s indicated. And he is also blowing his conch shell.
The official commander. Is another person named Vishtadyumna. So the idea was that sometimes.
In a team. There might be the. Most talented.
Say in a team sports. There might be somebody. Might be like in cricket.
There might be the most talented batsman. But maybe we want that batsman. To just be free to bat.
You don’t have to worry about. The strategy of the team and everything. Like that.
So Bhima and Arjuna were clearly. The most formidable warriors. But they wanted the strategy was.
Let them focus on fighting. So Vishtadyumna. He was not as great a warrior.
But he had been appointed. As the commander there. He will be mentioned later.
It’s interesting that. While these lists of names are mentioned. That.
They are all being mentioned. Not necessarily in a particular hierarchy. But Yudhishthira is mentioned.
He is the. The oldest among the Pandava brothers. And he is the king.
Or he will be the king. Once he wins the kingdom. And then.
There are multiple generations over here. And this generational vision. Will be talked about.
So Drupada for example. Is from one generation. Above the Pandavas.
Drupada is the father. Of Vishtadyumna who is the commander. And he is in some ways.
In the same generation as the Pandavas. So in fact. They are related.
Drupada is their father-in-law. Of the Pandavas. That generation is mentioned.
And then from the next generation. The sons are also mentioned. And one of them is.
The mighty armed son of Drupada. That is Abhimanyu is mentioned. So now.
This is. He is the son of the Pandavas. So.
This indicates. That there are multiple generations over there. And all of them.
Are fighting this war. And they are all fighting. And it’s interesting that.
A epithet. A glorificatory epithet. Is used for.
This last person. Who is the youngest. He is just barely 16 at this time.
And he is mentioned. He is mighty armed. So again from the point of view.
Of the narrator. The power of the Pandavas. Is being indicated.
And that will be highlighted even more. In the next text. So again.
Morale. If you see. The Pandavas and the Kauravas.
The Kauravas. Their conscience. When they are blown.
It was saying that the sound was tumultuous. That indicates that. They were confident.
They were ready for war. But here the description of the Pandavas conscience. Is described not just tumultuous.
It’s not just loud. It’s spread. Across the earth.
And the sky. It’s much more than tumultuous. It is spread everywhere.
In terms of. It’s volume. You could say.
The volume is indicated. So this indicates that the volume itself. Is greater.
But then along with that. Something else that is talked about. Is the impact.
The impact is far greater. There is no description. That the blowing of the conscience.
By the Kauravas had an impact. The only. Subsequent event was that the Pandavas.
Also blew the conscience. But here the impact is described to be. That.
Their hearts were shattered. So it’s a very strong. Phrase.
To say the heart shattered. That means. That.
In the. If you say the mind games are going on. In the mind games.
Duryodhana did all those things. But. The Pandavas were so confident.
That. All his attempts to. Raise the morale of his troops.
Seems to have just gone in vain. That was the impact. So.
It seems to indicate that Duryodhana’s mind games. Have failed. Or at least.
They didn’t have any. Meaningfully long impact. Because.
The sheer spirit and morale of the Pandavas. Was so much greater. That’s what indicates.
So here. The run in sports. Often there is a run of the play.
That phrase is. That means say one team is playing in such a way. That they are having the upper hand.
And they are winning. So overall. If you look at the narrative.
The Pandavas narration. Starts from. The actual action.
On the battle. Going on the conches. It goes from 12 to 9. And in this narration.
It clearly seems that the Pandavas. Are above the Kauravas. So the run of the play.
Is going in a particular direction. And then. In the next text.
Suddenly something different is going to happen. So you could see the camera spread across the Pandavas. And now it has come back.
To Krishna and Arjuna. And. Arjuna speaks.
So Arjuna’s bow is upraised. Which indicates that. He is ready to fight.
He has already blown his conch. So now is the time for action. It’s not the time for words now.
But so what is he going to speak? So that’s what. We see in the next verses. It’s going in a particular way.
But it starts going in another way now. It’s now. It’s a very unusual request.
That. They are right here on a chariot. And he’s telling.
Take the chariot in between. And why do I want to do that? I want to see. Who’s there on the opposite side? Okay.
What’s the point of seeing them? So. This is a. Question that is. Intriguing at many levels.
At one level. You know. Why not? Why no action right now? What’s that? Why do you want to see now? And then second is also that.
You know what’s there to see. Because these negotiations. To form alliances.
Have been going on for a long time. Before the war. And therefore.
They knew. Who was on which side. So it’s not that.
Suddenly there’s going to be some new person. On the opposite side. That.
He wanted to see. So. He said, I want to see those who are supporting.
The evil minded son. So he’s conscious that those are evil people. And.
Those who are supporting the evil. The demand themselves will be evil. But they’re definitely on that side.
So he’s conscious of that. But here he’s asking. I want to see.
What’s there to see? That’s the question. He’s even acknowledging. That they’re evil minded.
So. There are no new people over there. But here slowly.
What is being indicated is. That. Arjuna.
He’s having some. Surprising thought. Now.
At this stage. It’s just surprising. But what is the exact thought that is not clear.
And. That will become clear soon. But here.
At this point. Things seem to be taking an. Unexpected twist.
So. Often in movies. Or a novel.
What keeps people reading. Is this plot twist and turns. That when things are expected to go in a particular way.
And suddenly they go in the opposite way. When. Expectations.
Are. Then what is that anticipated? What is expected that doesn’t happen. When they are defied.
That can be annoying. But that can also be intriguing. I didn’t see that coming.
Where’s that coming from? So practically nobody could have seen that coming. But this. That’s why I said it seemed like that.
It seems at this stage that. The place. Had an effect on Arjuna.
And he starts thinking. Hey. What are we really doing over here? I want to see that.
I’ll elaborate in the next. When we come to the next verses. Arjuna starts speaking.
But that’s what I think that’s going against the run of the play. They have come in the middle. So.
They’ve come in the middle. Krishna is here. Arjuna is here.
And then in this chapter. There’s only one. Time that Krishna speaks.
And that’s not even a verse. So that. Maybe you can just read that out.
As in the next verse. It’s almost one fourth or one half of a verse. Which Krishna speaks.
So now. There are many people. Who could be who.
They’re better than the opposite side. But the two that matter the most. For Arjuna.
Are Bhishma. And Drona. Now the Sanskrit word is.
Prominent among. Prominent were Bhishma and Drona. Now this could mean that.
They were from the prominence. Was in the mind. Which is of course there.
Arjuna was. Very concerned about them. It caused no small angst to him.
That he had to fight against them. But it could also be in sight. That can also mean that Krishna.
He brought the chariot. In the middle of the two armies. But in the middle.
He could have brought it. In front of many warriors. But he brought it.
In the middle. Where Bhishma and Drona could be seen. And now this vision.
The only word that Krishna speaks. Behold. See.
See. The Kauravas assembled over here. So.
Now this vision. Will have. Significantly.
Disorienting influence. On Arjuna. And that we will discuss.
In our next session. So. We discussed a good number of texts today.
I think from 15 to 25. We discussed. So broadly.
The first theme we discussed is the. Overall. How the.
Omens. Are omens or indications are positive. For the Pandavas.
And there is also the indication. That their entire multiple generations. Had come to fight.
Then the. Part of that omens being positive. Was that their conscious.
Led to the morale of the Kauravas. Going down. Their morale.
Is up that indicate more. Indirectly through the morale of the opposite party. Going down.
Then after that. In the next part. We discussed how.
Arjuna’s. Counterintuitive request. That.
What’s going on over here. What. He wants to see.
This is not the time to see. And what is there to see. Both those questions come up.
But this is a subtle indicator that there is. Something more going on over here. This could be the influence of.
The place of Dharma. That we just hinted at it. And then the last part is.
That Krishna. Brings him to the most. If you want to see.
It is the most provocative vision for him. That is the people is most concerned about. Bhishma and Drona.
They are who are prominent in that vision. And he will see those. And he will be significantly.
Disoriented by that. How that happens. Let’s discuss in the next session.