Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Bhagavad Gita 1-21, 22

Arjuna Uvaacha:

senayOrubhayOrmadhyE rathaM sthaapayamEchyuta || 21||

yaavadEtaan nireekShEhaM yOddhukaamaanavasthitaan

kairmayaa saha yOddhavyamasmin raNasamudyamE ||22||

Arjuna says: "Oh Achyutha, place the chariot between the two armies so that I can see as far as possible all those who have assembled here with a desire to engage in the battle."

Arjuna asks Krishna to take his chariot and place it in between the two armies so that he can get to see all those assembled to participate in the war. The most interesting point is senayorubhyomadhye.

The author conveys us many things by placing the chariot between the two armies:

1.     The best position to assess the strength and weaknesses of two sides is to be equidistant from either.

2.     Arjuna is undecided about dharma and adharma. His thoughts are swaying. He does not know what is right and what is wrong. He does not know what to do. This position shows the status of Arjuna's mind.

3.     By placing Arjuna's chariot at the center the author wants to bring the entire Bhagavad-Gita to the center stage.

4.     When one is preaching he has to be unbiased. So the author brings the preacher Lord Krishna to the center which is an unbiased position. What he tells is applicable to all whether it is a friend or foe.

Arjuna calls Krishna as Achyutha which means who is flawless. He has his own doubts about himself and the author wants to highlight the difference between the turbulent minds of Arjuna in contrast with that of Krishna who is Achyutha.

Also Arjuna says that he wants to see as far as possible so as to visualize all those who have assembled for the war. The meaning may be:

1.     It gives us an indication of the enormity of the armies so that it could not have been possible to see all those assembled.

2.     It may mean that it was not humanly possible to visualize the entire army. This puts a limitation to the human capacity in spite of being unbiased to realize good and bad thoughts within one's own mind which are at constant war with each other.

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