GITA 1.9

GITA 1.9
svadharmajñānavairagyasādhyabhaktyēkagōcaraḥ|
nārāyaṇaḥ paraṃ brahma gītāśāstrē samīritaḥ||1||

In Gita the Supreme Being is explained with ways and means to achieve Him. We require some thoughts in any good work we intend to do- "I am not doing this work and I will not do it for inferior outcome". If we do with such thoughts the success or failure of the work will not affect us. Besides Sri Krishna will help in making our efforts successful. This is the essence of Gita. This is called vairagyam (dispassionateness or detachment). We should live our life with some vairagyam. Body care is needed, but that alone is not life. We should eat well, but eating alone is not life.  Our life objective should be to have atma darshan and Paramatma darshan. To convey this only Sri Krishna preached Gita. We are studying the First Chapter of Gita and yesterday we had seen sloka 6. 
We will now see slokas 7, 8 and 9. Duryodana lists the heroes on his side to Drona. Earlier, we saw the great fighters on the Pandavas side. 
Sloka 7:

asmakam tu visista ye 

tan nibodha dvijottama 

nayaka mama sainyasya

samjnartham tan bravimi te

O best of the brahmanas, for your information, let me tell you about the captains who are especially qualified to lead my military force.

"All persons are great fighters in battle. I will tell about them", says Duryodana. Asmakam = (persons) on our side are, visista = great men, dvijottama = best of brahmanas (Drona), samjnartham = well understanding, mama saiyasya = in my army, nayaka = heroes. Here we have to notice that Duryodana is addressing Drona, who is also on his side. So, he should have mentioned our army instead of my army. From this we can infer his ego and selfishness. It is well known that none can achieve anything alone. We can do many things if we are together. We have learnt in our school days how a bundle of sticks is much stronger than a single stick. The evil character of Duryodana makes him talk like this. Greed has blinded his learning.

Sloka 8:

bhavan bhismas ca karnas ca 

krpas ca samitim-jayah

asvatthama vikarnas ca 

saumadattis tathaiva ca

There are personalities like yourself, Bhisma, Karna, Krpa, Asvatthama, Vikarna and the son of Somadatta called Bhurisrava, who are always victorious in battle.

Bhavan = yourself, bhismas ca = and Bheeshma, karnas ca = and Karna, krpas ca = and Kripacharya, samitim-jaya = always victorious, asvatthama - Aswattama. After naming Drona and Bheeshma, Karna is named. We may feel. whether it was correct order, when so many seniors were on Kauravas side. But of all people Karna was most loyal to Duryodana. Others had sympathy for Pandavas side also. Vikarnas ca = and Vikarna (a brother of Duryodana), saumadattis = Somadatta, tathaiva ca = and others are there. 

anye ca bahavah sura

mad-arthe tyakta-jivitah

nana-sastra-praharanah

sarve yuddha-visaradah

There are many other heroes who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. All of them are well equipped with different kinds of weapons, and all are experienced in military science.

Not only these. Anye ca = and other, bahavah sura =  many heroes, mad-arthe = for my sake, tyakta-jivitah = sacrifice lives, (here, in a light way it is commented that Duryodana, foresaw the result of the war!), nana-sastra -praharanah = capable of wielding many weapons, sarve yuddha-visaradah = all experienced in battle techniques. 

It looks Duryodana has spoken confidently. Then why it was said that a frightened Duryodana spoke to Drona. Asmakam tu = whereas on our side. While saying so, there is slight mistrust in his tone! Let us see whether it was proper for these great persons to be on Duryodana's side. For superior efforts, anyone can support. But how these great persons are supporting adharma? Karna is supposed to be the eldest of Pandavas. Before marriage, pleased with Kunti's prayers, the Sun god blessed her with a child; but afraid of criticism, Kunti abandoned that child in the river, and the child was rescued by a charioteer and was brought up as Radheya, later Karna. In archery he was equal to Arjuna. But because he supported adharma, he was killed. 

Let us compare the two famous characters - Vibheeshana and Karna, from Ramayana and Mahabharata. Vibheeshana was brother of Ravana and was a capable warrior. Karna, also a great hero, was on Duryodana's side. Both of them had a testing time (dharma sankatam), whether to proceed this way or that way. Vibheeshana advised Ravana many times that abducting Sri Sita was not correct and that he should leave Her back to Sri Rama. It was Ravana's bad time that he did not heed Vibheeshana's advice. Instead he accused Vibheeshana of treason and expelled him. At that time Vibheeshana had a testing time - whether to remain loyal to his brother or to desert and surrender to Sri Rama. Realising the latter course as correct, he relinquished everything (including his family) and reached Sri Rama. Compare him with Karna. Karna knew who he was and knew what was dharma, but he thought loyalty to Duryodana was more important and so remained with Kauravas. In a low understanding, it may appear what Karna did was laudable. But if one decides to standby adharma, then even one's birth may be questioned. It is not at all just to support adharma. This is what Sri Krishna tried to impress in Gita. It is a pity that Karna did not consider these aspects. In spite of Karna being so philanthropic, he erred in choosing adharma. 

From these three slokas we know the heroes on Kauravas' side. Thereafter Duryodana exhibits his real fear and we will see in the next lecture.       

(continued)