विवेचन सारांश

THE DILEMMA : Samsaara : Raga Soka Moha

The uproar of the Kaurava army had started to wane. Then from the Pandava side, seated on a magnificent chariot the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna and Arjun, both blew their conch shells intrepidly, which ignited the enthusiasm of the Pandava army as well.

Here, Sanjay has addressed Lord Shree Krishna as “Madhav”. It is a combination of two words, Mā which refers to goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and dhav is used for husband. Goddess Lakshmi is Lord Vishnu’s wife, who is one of the many forms of Shree Krishna. This verse implies that the goddess of prosperity was with the Pandavas, and by her grace, they would be triumphant in this war and reclaim their kingdom soon.

The sons of King Pandu are called Pandavas and it may be used for any of the five brothers. In this verse, the Pandava being referred to is Arjun, the third among the five. He was a mighty warrior and a superior archer. His magnificent chariot was a gift from Agni, the celestial god of fire.

In this verse, Shree Krishna is addressed as “Hrishikesh” which means the Lord of the mind and senses. Shree Krishna is the Sovereign Master of everybody’s minds and senses. Throughout his wonderful pastimes, he displayed complete control over his mind and senses.
Arjun is about to lose complete control of his senses. Yet with the lord of the senses besides him he has nothing to fear. Even if he looses his way, Hrishikesh will enlighten his mind and light up his way.
Now each warrior has his own conch. Their conch has a name too. 

Panchajanyam is the conch of Shree Krishna. Dananjaya or Arjun is called thus as during Rajsuya Yagya it was his responsibility to collect dhan or money . His conch was called Devadattam. The mighty Bheema who had the strength of a thousand elephants and whose appetite for food was legendary , he blew his conch called Paundram.

Sanjay conveyed to Dhritarashtra, that the tremendous sound of the various conch shells from the Pandava army was shattering the hearts of his sons. Whereas, he did not mention any such reaction from the Pandavas, when the Kauravas were creating a commotion. The Kauravas were fearful, as their conscience pricked them for their crimes and misdeeds. They were relying solely on their physical strength to fight the war. However, the Pandavas were confident and felt protected, as the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna was by their side, their victory was definite.
The Kauravas trembled as they were cowards in reality. They had not fought any real war facing the enemy in the battlefield. They were always seeking the route of deceit and deception to win against their enemies. Not bravery and valour. Therefore their hearts trembled in fear on hearing such tremendous sounds from the powerful conch shells. 
Duryodhan, Shakuni, Karna and Dusshasana. These were the four scheming evil treacherous entities in the Kauravas army. Filthy Four. Always on the wrong path of misdemeanor. Never take to settling the score like a soldier. Fight a battle. Valiant and brave. No. They did not have the ability or the capacity.

Here Sanjay addresses Arjun by another name, “Kapi Dhwaj,” which means “Monkey Bannered.” This denotes the presence of the mighty Monkey God; Hanuman on Arjun’s chariot. It so happened that, once Arjun became very boastful of his archery skills and quipped at Shree Krishna. He said, “I do not understand why during Lord Rama’s time, the monkeys worked so hard to make a bridge from India to Lanka with heavy stones? If I was there, I would have made a bridge of arrows.” The Omniscient Lord asked him, “Alright, go ahead show me your bridge.”  

Very skillfully Arjun showered thousands of arrows and made a huge bridge. Now, it was time to test it. Shree Krishna called upon great Hanuman for the job. As soon as Hanuman started walking on the bridge, it started crumbling under his feet. Arjun realized his folly; his bridge of arrows could not have upheld the weight of Lord Rama’s huge army. He asked for their forgiveness. Subsequently, Hanuman gave Arjun lessons on being humble and never be proud of his skills. He also granted Arjun a boon that, during the great war, he would seat himself on Arjun’s chariot. Therefore, Arjun’s chariot flag carried the insignia of the great Hanuman.
Arjuna saw the formation of the army of the sons of Dhritarashtra and picked up his Gaandiva and pointed at them.
Now all was ready for the war to begin. All was ready.
Bhagwaan Shree Krishna knows to perform all roles and duties given to Him to perfection. He listens to his boss on that given job or assignment. during Rajsuya Yagya , He picked up used plates and washed the feet of the guests, here too He did His duty as a Charioteer,and even after the battle for the day was over and everyone’s duty was done, Bhagwaan would take His horses to drink water, clean their wounds and put medicine on them. Go beyond the line of duty that is.

Shree Krishna thus obeying the order given to Him to place the chariot between the two armies obediently does exactly as was told.

It is the practice of a first-rate warrior to know and observe the positions and postures of the enemies with whom he has to fight. So Arjuna wanted Krishna to drive the chariot forward and stop it in the middle of the two armies.

Arjuna thus tells his charioteer to keep his chariot in the middle of the two armies till such time that he has made a good observation, calculation, judgement , and evaluation of the forces of the enemy that is Kauravas.
 Certain rules and regulation of war used to be in practice in the days of the war of Mahabharata.
21800 Chariots. 21800 elephants. 65800 Horses. 100000 or so foot soldiers. 
Foot soldiers will fight only foot soldiers. Charioteers with Charioteers. Senior Charioteers with Senior Charioteers. Cavalry with Cavalry. 
These were rules. Till what time were these rules followed ? Till such time that Pitamah was the Chief of the Kauravas. Ten days. Thereafter  he fell on the bed of arrows. After that all rules of war waging were ignored and violated. Thereafter Abhimanyu was killed brutally when he was unarmed by several coward warriors of the Kaurava army. 
This violation was reminded by Bhagwaan to Arjuna on another day of the war when he encouraged him to kill Karna when Karna chariot wheel was stuck and he too was unarmed . Those who violate rules should Arjuna abide by rules for them? Sometimes rules have to be bent to deliver justice. This is also learnt from the Bhagwat Gita. Encounter Justice in today’s terminology. Years and years of trail of the evil person in jail. Maybe their accomplices outside resort to kidnapping etc to get them out of jail and thus justice is never delivered.
Bhagwan War Policies in Bhagwat Gita is a separate subject of study. The text and content of this book is a very deep and intense flow of knowledge. 

Arjun was fearless, the Supreme Lord was his charioteer. His outlook was that the Pandavas were legitimately entitled to half the kingdom of Hastinapur, but the wicked sons of Dhritarashtra, the Kauravas had not agreed to share. Arjun was ready for battle, eager to get back what was rightfully theirs and punish them for all their past wrongdoings.

His request for the chariot to be placed in the middle of the battlefield was to take a closer look at the Kaurava army. Arjun wanted to see all those who had taken the side of injustice. He wanted to punish them equally, as they had chosen to be on the wrong side, none of them would be spared.

Mahabharata teaches us that there is no human who is perfectly good nor iOS there any human who is perfectly evil. There is a mix of both in every human being. More or less of the gunas make him evil or good. Duryodhan was not all evil , bad and incapable. He  had abilities too. Human  endeavor in life should be to elevate ourselves to higher abilities and higher goals .For purification and cleansing. For growth and becoming closer to the divine. For this if we seek divine guidance our endeavor will be richly rewarded.
Here, Dhritarashtra is being addressed as Bhārata by Sanjay, which means, “O descendant of the great King Bharat.” Gudakesho is Arjuna.

Here is where comes the intelligent placement of the chariot. Right in front of all the nears and dear ones of Arjuna.Shree Krishna called Arjun “Parth, son of Pritha, another name for his mother Kunti.” Then he pointed at all the warriors like Bhishma, Drona and other kings on the Kaurava side and deliberately used the word “Kuru” to address them. It was to remind Arjun that both Kauravas and Pandavas were all decedents of the great king Kuru. Therefore, the enemy he was so eager to kill was actually his own family and relatives. 
Shree Krishna deliberately  Nader Arjun see Dronacharya ,his beloved guru. He who had vowed to make him the best archer ever. To the exclusion of all other warriors. We have all heard of the legends of Ekalavya. Ekalavya even after being refused as disciple to Dronacharya , continued devoted tutelage under him with his statue as a guide and mentor. He became a worthy archer. So good that  Dronachrya perceived him as a threat to Arjuna future glory and to remove such  a threat asked for his right thumb as gurudakshina. A rather tragic end to a great archer. This incident is a blot on the character of Dronacharya. This is what proves , as earlier said, no human is above flaws. All humans are flawed. More or less is what is the truth. 

The influences of the outside world also affect us. They color our character. Gives us our strengths and weaknesses. 
Arjuna is very compassionate and attached to his guru. This Bhagwaan is very well aware of. Arjuna was a very hard working disciple to his guru too. Very devoted. He used typ practice archery through the night. Dronachrya displayed his weakness once again . He was always partial towards his own son, Aswathama. He used to send all his disciples to fetch water from far and with a vessel that had a narrow mouth. Therefore it took long oi fill up such a vessel.. Aswathma was given a vessel with a wide mouth and could fill it up quickly and come back. In this extra time he wa given extra lessons.some special skill we’re taught to him. Arjuna noticed this and decided to take these special classes too. He got water nearby by digging a hole with his bow deep into the mud. Hence he of joujned Aswathama for the extra classes. Such was his dedication and passion for learning.
Bhishma is also very dear to Arjuna. When Kunit mata bought the five Pandavas to Hastinapur, it was Arjuna who was seen to miss his father the most . To overcome this lack inside he used the lap of Bhishma as his comfort and solace.he was cajoled and comforted by Bhishma just as a father would lobe and adore his child. Such was the relationship between Arjuna and Bhishma.
Therfore Bhagwaan brings Arjuna straight to the presence of these two warriors in the opposing army in full understanding of the compassion and love that they hold in the heart of Arjuna.

The Omniscient Lord was sowing the seed of delusion in Arjun’s mind, only to eliminate it later. He was preparing the ground for the gospel he was about to preach - The Bhagavad Geeta, which would benefit the future generations in the age of Kali.

There, Arjun could see stationed in both armies, his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, cousins, sons, nephews, grand-nephews, friends, fathers-in-law, and well-wishers.

Seeing thus the expression on Arjuna’s face started to change. A face that dazzled with bravery was starting to look crestfallen with uncertainty. The confidence and fervor with which he had blown his conch and ordered Bhagavann to take his chariot in the midst of the two armies, was now waning. He was now looking desperate. In this state of desperation he is expressing his emotions to Bhagavan.

Looking at the armies on both sides of the battlefield, his heart sank, they were all “Kurus” his relatives. The brave warrior who wanted to punish the Kauravas for all their wickedness a few minutes back suddenly became fearful. Comprehending the devastation this war would cause, his valor started to diminish. Hence, Sanjay has called him Kaunteyah the son of Kunti, denoting that Arjun had become softhearted, similar to his mother. However, Arjun was now very confused and his mind filled with questions.