GITA 1.7

GITA 1.7

yatpad¯ambhoruhadhy¯anavidhvast¯a´ses.akalmas.ah

vastut¯amupay¯ato 0ham. y¯amuneyam. nam¯ami tam

This sloka was composed by Sri Ramanuja. "I begin to write commentary with the blessings of Sri Yamunacharya (Alavandar) who gave the real sacred meaning of Gita. I am blessed to write with the support of Sri Yamunacharya's lotus feet". From Sri Alavandar we understand that Gita is about Karma, Gyana and Bhakti Yoga, by practicing which we attain the Divine feet of Sriman Narayana. We are in the First Chapter which is known as Arjuna vishada yogam - Chapter describing the distress of Arjuna.  Why Arjuna was anguished is what we are going to see. Before that we have seen the First Two slokas and we have to see the Third sloka. What is the scene we saw? King Duryodana after seeing the array of Pandava army, drove near his Acharya and spoke a few words. What did he say? The Third sloka:

pasyaitam pandu-putranam

acarya mahatim camum

vyudham drupada-putrena 

tava sisyena dhimata

O my teacher, behold the great army of the sons of Pandu, so expertly arranged by your intelligent disciple, the son of Drupada.

Duryodana addresses his teacher Drona: acarya = O! Acharya!, pasyaitam = look at this. Drona wanted to know which to look for. Duryodana says "look at the army arrayed in formation by Pandu's sons." Did Pandu's sons array the army formation? No. Tava sisyena dhimata = your intelligent disciple has arranged the army. Which disciple? Drashtadyumna , Son of Drupada. who was the Commander, like Bheeshma was for the Kaurava army. He asks Drona to look at the beautiful formation of the Pandava army by Drashtadyumna. King of Panchala was Drupada and Dhrashtadyumna was his son. He as Commander, has arrayed the Pandava army in formations for the attack. Mahatim camum = great army. That is, Duryodana is asking Drona to look at the great army of Pandavas, arrayed in formation by Drashtadyumna.  Here our scholars have interpreted with careful analysis. Normally, when we want to address our teacher, we will first address him and then say what he should do. Instead of saying, "Acharya! look at the army", Duryodana says " look at the army, Acharya". This shows that Duryodana was disturbed. This can be explained by an example. When a child goes and grabs a lantern in which fire is there to emit light, a mother looking at from a distance would cry "leave it!Leave it!!" in anxiety. She will not say          " Child! Please leave it as the fire may burn you!". Because there is an urgency to ask the child to leave the lantern. So her immediate reaction would be to ask the child to leave the lantern and then only address the child. So if the verb preceded the noun or subject, we can realise there was anxiety. That is why an anxious Duryodana first says "look" and then addresses the Acharya. Then we are amused at Duryodana mentioning Pandavas army as great army. Because, the Kauravas army had 11 Akshounis (a numerical strength) while Pandavas army had only 7 Akshounis. So Duryodana was frightened by a smaller army. We mentioned that our body is also a Kurukshetra where the good qualities and bad qualities are on opposite sides. We need not worry even if the bad qualities out number the good ones. Because the good qualities are more powerful. If honesty and sincerity are there, one can conquer any number of bad qualities. So mere number will not make the bad qualities to defeat the smaller good qualities. Here there is another interpretation. Duryodana could be addressing Drona as Acharya of Pandu's sons. Because Duryodana might be indirectly accusing Drona as having taught Pandavas also. 

Drupada was the King of Panchala Kingdom. In their younger days, Drupada and Drona were classmates in school. They were very intimate in those days. Then they parted. Normally it is better to remember sweet incidents after parting away, so that friendship is strengthened. In fact we should always keep in our minds sweet memories only and discard all bad incidents. The storing capacity of our mind is small and we should not keep unwanted memories. If we store in our mind God, deeds of good people and good thoughts, we can lead a peaceful life. Though both Drupada and Drona were great, somehow in the later days, they developed hatred and were waiting to take revenge on each other. Drupada at the height of his hatred for Drona, performed yagna (sacrificial rituals) and got Drashtadyumna as his son to kill Drona. This scared Duryodana. That is why he mentions Drashtadyumna in his address to Drona. Drashtadyumna's sister was Draupati, wife of Pandavas. That is Draupati was Drupada's daughter. Both the brother and sister were going to be reason for Drona's demise. Duryodana describes Drashtadyumna as disciple of Drona and very intelligent. He was intelligent because knowing that he was going to cause death of Drona, he learnt skills from the same Drona! Thus a frightened Duryodana addresses his teacher. Then in the next slokas he is going to name the warriors on both sides and describe them.     

                                                                                            (continued)