A LUCID COMMENTARY  by  Dr.Saroja Ramanujam M.A.,Ph.D

                                  

 

                

 

            Panchajanyam Hrishikesah- Lord Krishna sounded his conch which was music to His followers but sounded the death knell to His foes. The one who played the flute in Brindavan enchanting the whole world with His music, blew His conch in Kurukshetra, stunning the Kaurava forces into silence.

 

            Panchajanya the conch of the Lord, is pranavasvarupa, represents  Omkaara, and hence synonymous with nadhabrahmam, as pranava, the syllable OM is the source of all sound. Om ityekaksharam brahma, Brahman the Absolute Reality synonymous with syllable OM, says the sruti. When the Lord touched the face of the boy Dhruva with the Panchajanya he became eloquent. Such was the power of Panchajanya.

 

            At the outset of the Mahabharata war Lord Krishna blew His conch in response to the conch blown by Bhishma, who wanted  to hearten Duryodhana as the latter was a bit jittery but not enough to make him see sense. This scene was described to the blind king Dhritarashtra by Sanjaya, his charioteer. Sanjaya had been invested with a divine vision by the sage Vyasa, which enabled him to visualize the battlefield as if on a TV screen

 

            Dhrtarashtra was blind not only physically but also psychologically .He was blind to the faults of his son Duryodhana , blind to the course of dharma and blind to the power of Krishna ,the saviour of the Pandavas. The opening verse of the Bhagavatgita proves this. Dhrtarashtra asks Sanjaya  “ What did my people and the Pandavas do in the field of Kuruksetra, the field of dharma. ” The term  my people,  mamakah, shows his partiality  towards his sons. The qualifying phrase  ‘ field of dharma' used by him to denote the battlefield clearly indicates his perverted notion of  dharma implying that it is his son who has the  right to inherit the kingdom  and the war  fought in the dharmakshetra  should be favourable to his son. The price he paid for his blind love towards his son  Duryodhana  was indeed very high , namely the total annihilation of the Kuru race.

    The battle of Mahabharata signifies the fight between the evil and the good impulses in man that ever goes on within. The good impulses are fewer in number like the Pandava army while the bad impulses are comparatively greater in number. But with divine grace good always triumphs over the wicked. When the mind is turned towards God ,man hears the sound of the Panchajanya , which becomes divine music that rouses the satvik, noble, quelling the rajasic dynamic and tamasic lower impulses.. The power of music in restraining the animal passions and evoking finer sentiments in the listener is due to the manifestation of divinity through music. The inner self rises in its pristine purity above the sense experience to merge with the divine.

But to reach that state one has to become aware of the divinity within and invoke the Lord , the true self of all beings. Arjuna requested Lord Krishna to become his charioteer and the Lord consented. Similarly one has to ask for His help to be saved from disaster. When He becomes our sarathy as He did for Arjuna , with Parthasarathy on our side the victory is ours.

    The Upanishads are the cows whose milk is the Bhagavatgita , milked by Lord Krishna for the benefit of sudheehiThe purpose of the Lord in accepting the role of the charioteer to Arjuna was not merely to secure him victory in the battle. He did so mainly for the benefit of mankind , in order to give the Gospel of wisdom , ‘ The Song of the Supreme Self.’, Bhagavatgita. Arjuna was only a pretext to bring forth the gift of God to humanity. This is beautifully expressed in the sloka ‘sarvopanishado gavo dhogdha gopala nandhanah ; partho tvatsah sudhirbhoktha dhugdham gitamruta mahat ,all the Upanishads became the cows the one who milked them being the son of a cowherd, the calf was Partha and the milk, gitamruta and the consumers of the milk were sudheeh the people with right thinking. who seek the wisdom of the scriptures .Arjuna was the calf to induce the cow to give the milk.

    The act of milking comes naturally to a cowherd. But this gopala has put on the costume of a cowherd to delude others. Vedanta Desika calls him mithyaagopah , a feigned cowherd. Actually the term gopalanandana etymologically could be construed to mean the Lord , the word ‘go’ in Sanskrit has several meanings such as veda earth etc. The gopala is the one who protects the world and the Vedas. He is of the nature of bliss and bestows bliss on those who revel in Him. So He is called Gopala nandana.
   

    What is the necessity for a separate treatise ,namely ,Bhagavatgita when the same knowledge can be had from the Upanishads directly? To understand the Upanishads one has to undergo a rigorous discipline involved in learning through a guru, away from the world and that is why this portion of the vedas are called aaranyakaa, of the forest. So how can the ordinary man acquire the wisdom to enable him to become free from bondage of karma? For this purpose Krishna put on the mantle of Jagatguru out of compassion and put forth Gita for all to follow. .
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Bhagavatgita is the guide book of man in the path of evolution. The goal of human life is to realize his true self. Whichever route a man takes , materially or spiritually the destination is the same. The desire for evolution is instinctive in all creatures ,as proved by the Darwin’s theory. Even a man who aspires for success in his worldly pursuits will be helped by the study of the Gita as the principles underlined therein are applicable in everyday life. In fact the management techniques and the psychological concepts that have gathered worldwide popularity now , are nothing but the principles underlined in the Gita sans the devotional and spiritual aspects of it. A musician can evolve into a maestro , a student can develop into a scholar , an artist can blossom into a master , by assimilating the truths declared by Lord Krishna in the Gita.
 

 

In order to expound the  discourse of  the Gita   Lord Krishna  deliberately created a confusion in the mind of Arjuna  that made him say  “ I will not fight.” The  fact that he was going to fight his own kith and kin  was already known to him and there is no reason as to why he should develop a guilty conscience for doing so. It was  the divine will that made him act so. Arjuna’s state of mind can be compared to that of anyone who stands at the brink of the greatest moment of his life. It may be the first lecture of a speaker or the first  important  examination  of a student  or  the first interview or even the eve of  one’s marriage ! It is natural  that one   feels apprehensive at such a moment,  not  necessarily because of fear but due to  anxiety over the outcome of his venture. Success will crown only the man who is calm  and  relaxed , with no anxiety  about  the result. This can be achieved only through  the wisdom of the Gita.

 

When  Arjuna  asked  Krishna  to move his chariot between the array of the two armies Krishna deliberately drove to the place where Bhishma and Drona were standing and not  where Duryodhana was   with his brothers, as Arjuna expected. If it were so, Arjuna would have had no hesitation to fight. But facing his elders he  realized that to win the battle he had to fight against his revered guru and beloved grandfather. This upset him. Not being able to face this unavoidable situation he resorted to escapism saying that he had no heart to kill his own kith and kin. He reeled out arguments seemingly valid to support his decision all of which Krishna totally dismisses later as being irrelevent.He pointed out to Krishna the futility of winning the war after destroying one’s own relatives. He said that he did not want to enjoy even the kingdom of heaven by doing so,  leave alone enjoying the kingdom on earth. He elaborated on the evil effects of destroying the family like destruction of tradition , virtue. As a result,  the one who was instrumental for doing so would go to hell.   Arjuna ends his discourse by saying that he will not fight. He seemed to have been so  overwhelmed by pity and sorrow that he said gandeevam sramsathe hasthaath. .His great bow slipped from his hand and he was covered with sweat all over. Such was the condition of the great hero not out of fear but due to misplaced compassion  and anxiety at the crucial moment of his life.

                                        

 

                                     

 

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Arjuna  exhausted himself  and seemed to be at crossroads and said  “ I am utterly confused please tell me what is good for me.” He uses the word  shreyas.  So long he had been talking about what was preyas to him,  what he wanted to do. .Now he was asking what he should do. Then and then only the Lord started talking .In our life too we go on telling the lord what to do and never ask Him what we should do. When we do ask He starts telling us what to do .Similarly  when Arjuna said sishyastheham shaadhimaam thwaam prapannam,   I am your desciple I surrender to you, only then Krishna starts giving him the advice because  advice given unasked will not be taken well!

Arjuna’s arguments were blown into  shreds by Krishna who says kuthasthwaam kashmalamidham vishame samupasthitham  'wherefrom did you get  this nonsensical ideas at the most inopportune moment?' Krishna dismisses all the   seemingly lofty arguments of Arjuna as being unaryajushtam  ignoble, aswargyam that which shuts the gates of heaven for you , akeerthikaram  disgraceful for a hero like you He calls it klaibyam unmanliness. Then comes the real reason for Arjuna’s mental conflict. He says “How can  I fight Bhishma and Drona on the battle field as they are worthy of my reverence? Finally he surrenders to the Lord by saying sishyastheham.

            Now starts the real discourse of Bhagavatgita. Krishna says asochyaananvasochasthwam prajnaavadhaamschabhashase‘You are grieving over those who need not be grieved about.’ What Krishna means here is that Bhishma and Drona  had no  compunction to fight against their own grandson and pupil respectively, not because they were heartless but because they  had no confusion about their duty,  svadharma  like Arjuna. Further Krishna says that Arjuna had tried to conceal his confusion under his arguments as though they were words of wisdom prajnaavadhaamscha bhaashase. The arguments of Arjuna are ridiculed by Krishna because if he were really wise panditha he would not have worried over life and death. .Then Krishna starts giving Arjuna the divine wisdom.

Nathwevaamham jathunaasam nathvam neme naradhipaah states Krishna, ' there was never a time when you, I, and all these men in front ceased to be nor will there be a time  when we all  will cease to be. This is the answer to the question who am I. You are not what you think you are , says the Lord .The anxiety about living and dying comes only through identifying yourself with the body. Death is not the end of you but it is only  a change of circumstance. You are not overly worried about changing from boyhood to youth or to old age which you consider a natural occurrence. So too death is only natural change about which you need not worry.

            Then Krishna goes on to talk about what is real and what is transient.