English Gita-1

Srimad Bhagavad Gita : Chapter-1

Arjuna Vishada-Yoga : The Despondency Of Arjuna

ॐ Aum !
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Arjuna inspects the rival forces - He describes the evil consequent on the battles of kinsfolk
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Dhritarashtra said :
On the holy plain, on the field of Kuru, gathered together, eager for battle, what did they, O Sanjaya, my people and the Pandavas ? (1)

Sanjaya said :
Having seen arrayed the army of the Pandavas, the Raja Duryodhana approached his teacher*, and spake these words : (2)

"Behold this mighty host of the sons of Pandu, O teacher, arrayed by the son of Drupada, thy wise disciple. (3)

Heroes are these, mighty bowmen, to Bhima and Arjuna equal in battle; Yuyudhana, Virata, and Drupada of the great car* : (4)

Drishtaketu, Chekitana and the valiant Raja of Kashi; Purujit and Kuntibhoja, and Shaibya, bull* among men; (5)

Yudhamanyu the strong, and Uttomauja the brave; Saubhadra* and the Draupadeyas*, all of great cars. (6)

Know further all those who are our chiefs, O best of the twice-born, the leaders of my army; these I name to thee for thy information : (7)

Thou, Lord, and Bhishma, and Karna and Kripa, conquering in battle; Ashvatthama, Vikarna, and Saumadatti* also; (8)

And many others, heroes, ready for my sake renouncing their lives, with diverse weapons and missiles and all well-skilled in war. (9)

Yet insufficient seems this army of ours, though marshalled by Bhishma, while that army of theirs seems sufficient, though marshalled by Bhima;* (10)

Therefore in the rank and file let all, standing firmly in their respective divisions, guard Bhishma, even all ye Generals." (11)

To enhearten him, the Ancient of the Kurus, the Grandsire, the glorious, blew his conch, sounding on high a lion's roar. (12)

Then conches and kettledrums, tabors and drums and cowhorns suddenly blared forth, and the sound was tumultuous. (13)

Then, stationed in their great war-chariot, yoked to white horses, Madhava (Shri Krishna) and the son of Pandu (Arjuna) blew their divine conches, (14)

Panchajanya* by Hrishikesha*, and Devadatta* by Dhananjaya (Arjuna). Vrikodara (Bhima), of terrible deeds, blew his mighty conch, Paundra; (15)

The Raja Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, blew Anantavijaya*; Nakula and Sahadeva, Sughosha* and Manipushpaka*. (16)

And Kashya*, of the great bow, and Shikhandi, the mighty car-warrior, Dhrishtadyumna and Virata and Satyaki, the unconquered. (17)

That tumultuous uproar rent the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra, filling the earth and sky with sound. (19)

Then, beholding the sons of Dhritarashtra standing arrayed, and the flight of missiles about to begin, he whose crest (flag) is an ape, the son of Pandu, took up his bow, (20)

And spake this word to Hrishikesha, O Lord of earth:

Arjuna said :
"In the midst, between the two armies, stay my chariot, O Achyuta*, (21)

That I may behold these standing, longing for battle, with whom I must strive in this out-breaking war; (22)

And gaze on those here gathered together, ready to fight, desirous of pleasing in battle the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra. (23)

Sanjaya said :
Thus addressed by Gudakesha*, Hrihikesha, O Bharata, having stayed that best of chariots in the midst, between the two armies, (24)

Over against Bhishma, Drona and all the rulers of the world, said : "O Partha, behold these Kurus gathered together." (25)

Then saw Partha standing there uncles and grandfathers, teachers, mother's brothers, cousins, sons and grandsons, comrades, (26)

Fathers-in-law and friends also in both armies. Seeing all these kinsmen, thus standing arrayed, Kaunteya*, (27)

Deeply moved to pity, this uttered in sadness :

Arjuna said :
Seeing these, my kinsmen, O Krishna*, arrayed eager to fight, (28)

My limbs fail and my mouth is parched, my body quivers, and my hair stands on end, (29)

Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over; I am not able to stand, and my mind is whirling, (30)

And I see adverse omens, O Keshava*. Nor do I foresee any advantage from slaying kinsmen in battle. (31)

For I desire not victory, O Krishna, nor kingdom nor pleasures; what is kingdom to us, O Govinda, what enjoyment, or even life? (32)

Those for whose sake we desire kingdom, enjoyments and pleasures, they stand here in battle, abandoning life and riches - (33)

Teachers, fathers, sons, as wall as grandfathers, mother's brothers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and other relatives. (34)

These I do not wish to kill, though myself slain, O Madhusudana*, even for the sake of the kingship of the three worlds; how then for earth? (35)

Slaying these sons of Dhritarashtra, what pleasure can be ours, O Janardana* ? - killing these desperadoes sin will but take hold of us. (36)

Therefore we should not kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our relatives; for how, killing our kinsmen, may we be happy, O Madhava ? (37)

Although these, with intelligence overpowered by greed, see no guilt in the destruction of a family, no crime in hostility to friends, (38)

Why should not we learn to turn away from such a sin, O Janardana, who see the evils in the destruction of a family ? (39)

In the destruction of a family the immemorial family traditions* perish; in the perishing of traditions lawlessness overcomes the whole family; (40)

अधर्माभिभवात्कृष्ण प्रदुष्यन्ति कुलस्त्रियः ।
स्त्रीषु दुष्टासु वार्ष्णेय जायते वर्णसंकरः ॥

Owing to predominance of lawlessness, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt; women corrupted, O Varshneya, there ariseth caste(varna)*-confusion(sankara); (41)

This confusion draggeth to hell the slayers of the family and the family; for their ancestors fall, deprived of rice-balls* and libations. (42)

दोषैरेतैः कुलघ्नानां वर्णसङ्करकारकैः ।
उत्साद्यन्ते जातिधर्माः कुलधर्माश्च शाश्वताः ॥

By these caste(varna)*-confusing misdeeds of the slayers of the family, the everlasting caste(jati)* customs and family customs are abolished. (43)

The abode of the men whose family customs are extinguished, O Janardana, is everlastingly in hell. Thus have we heard. (44)

Alas! in committing a great sin are we engaged, we who are endeavouring to kill our kindred from greed of the pleasures of kingship. (45)

If the sons of Dhritarashtra, weapon-in-hand, should slay me, unresisting, unarmed, in the battle, that would for me be the better. (46)

Sanjaya said :
Having thus spoken on the battle-field, Arjuna sank down on the seat of the chariot, casting away his bow and arrow, his mind overborne by grief. (47)

Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad-Gita, the science of the ETERNAL, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, the first discourse, entitled : 

THE YOGA OF THE DESPONDENCY OF ARJUNA.
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1) Teacher = Drona, the son of Bharadvaja

4) Great car (Maharath) = Car warrior able to fight alone ten thousand bowmen

5) Bull - The emblem of manly strength and vigour, is often used as an epithet of honour

6) Saubhadra - the son of Arjuna and Subhadra, Krishna's sister.
Draupadeyas - the sons of Draupadi by the five sons of Pandu

8) Saumadatti - The son of Saumadatta

10) The commentators differ in their interpretation of this verse; Anandagiri takes it to mean just the reverse of Shridhara Swami "aparyaptam" being taken by the one as "insufficient" by the other as "unlimited".

15) Panchajanya = Shri Krishna's conch, was made from the bones of the giant Panchajana, slain by Him.
Hrishikesha = Shri Krishna, means controller of senses [Swami Jagadeeswarananda]
Devadatta = Arjuna's conch, means "Godgiven"

16) Anantavijaya = Yudhishthira's conch, means "endless victory"
Sughosha = Nakula's conch, means "honey-tone"
Manipushpaka = Sahadevas conch, means "jewel-blossom"

17) Kashya = The King of Kashi, the modern Benares

21) Achyuta = Immutable

24) Gudakesha = Arjuna, means who has overcome sleep [Swami Jagadeeswarananda]

27) Kaunteya = Arjuna, means the son of Kunti

28) Krishna = Who attracts devotee or who destroys sorrow of devotee

31) Keshava = Krishna, means "he who has fine or luxuriant hair" or "he who sleeps in the waters"

35) Madhusudana = The slayer of Madhu, a demon.

36) Janardana = "Destroyer of the people." Shri Krishna as the warrior conquering all forms of evil.

40) Dharma; this is a wide word primarily meaning the essential nature of a thing; hence, the laws of its being, its duty; and it includes religious rites — appropriate to those laws — customs, also righteousness.

41) CAVEAT by uploader : Equating "varna"  (वर्ण) which literally means colour with "caste" which connotes birth based "jati"  (जाति) is a contentious issue.

sankara (संकर) = admixture, e.g. sankara-dhatu (संकर-धातु) = mixed-metal i.e. alloy

Varna-sankara" (वर्ण-सङ्कर) is traditionally interpreted as admixture of "jatis" or "castes" giving rise to "hybrid" offsprings i.e. "Jati-sankara" (जाति-सङ्कर). But the word"Jati-sankara" is never used as it is always camouflaged as"Varna-sankara" to usurp the divine authority of Srimad Bhagavad Gita for perpetuating birth-based caste system as opposed to quality/action based varna system. 

42) Rice-ball (pinda) - "Pinda" (पिण्ड) is offered to departed souls of ancestors for their salvation. Or else, as per the Hindu religious belief, the souls will remain forever bound to this materialistic world ("Maya") as spirits. Their "Atma" i.e. souls do not get Salvation ("Mukti"). The pull of love, kindness, affection for their family, friends etc. prevent their spirits to move towards the ultimate ... divine destination. [Pinda Daan]

43) CAVEAT by uploader : "Caste" is used here to translate both "varna" (र्वर्ण्यं) and "jati" (जाति) which is highly debatable. Arjuna appears to be using "varna" & "Jati" interchangeably as per the then prevailing traditions.

Note
Sanskrit verse#26 & 36 here consist of 2 lines only whereas other versions have 3 lines each. Hence the total number of verses here has increased to 47 instead of 46 as in others. However, total number of lines and words remain unaffected.


Ultimate travesty of Gita's spirit : (Uploader's analysis)


Sri Krishna has categorically stated that :
"The four varnas (वर्ण्यं in plural, वर्ण in singular) were emanated by Me, by the different distribution of qualities ("guna" | गुण) and actions ("karma" | कर्म)  (चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः) [Gita 4|13, line-1]

HE has NOT stated creation of "varnas" (र्वर्ण्यं in plural or वर्ण in singular) by the different distribution of "births" ("janma" | जन्म) or "wombs" ("yoni" | योनि) which implies "jati" (जाति) i.e. "caste".

HE did refer to the draconian "birth" or "womb" based caste-system prevalent at that time while guaranteeing "ultimate liberation" (परां गतिम्) to Shudras (by birth), women, vaishyas (by birth) and other people branded inferior due their so-called lowly-births if they take refuge in HIM. [Gita|9|32]

"The message of the Gita is open to all without distinction of race, sex or caste. This verse [Gita|9|32] is not to be regarded as supporting the social customs debarring women and Sudras from Vedic study. It refers to the view prevalent at the time of the composition of the Gita. The Gita does not sanction these social rules. The Gita gets beyond racial distinctions in its emphasis on spiritual values. Its gospel of love is open to all men and women, persons of all castes as well as those outside caste..." [Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan]

Sanctity of prevailing Hindu caste-traditions like (i) an offspring of a Brahmin (by birth) automatically becoming Brahmin irrespective of his/her qualities, (ii) a Shudra (by birth) forever remaining Shudra even if he/she develops the qualities of Brahmana - are skillfully derived from Gita by subtly substituting "varna" (वर्ण) with "jati" (जाति), qualities ("guna" | गुण) and actions ("karma" | कर्म) with "birth" ("janma" | जन्म) or "womb" (योनि) and thereby implicating Sri Krishna Himself. [Varna & Caste, Bengali discussion]


Hence from uploader's own experience :


  • Focus - on Sri Krishna's words only (Dhritarashtra, Sanjaya & Arjuna's words are of lesser importance).
  • Consult - original Sanskrit verses in Devanagari script to avoid losing the true essence of Gita in the maze of translations/commentaries.
  • Trust - nobody except own self and intellect (Buddhi)
  • Believe - HE is in our hearts and like machines (yantrarurhani | यन्त्रारूढानि) we are doing HIS works only [Gita|18|61] e.g. this blog itself.
  • Have Faith - HE shall provide the wherewithals (yogakshema | योगक्षेमं, Gita|9|22) for sustenance during the lonely journey e.g. the most precious resource "time" was provided to me abundantly as my family suddenly had to relocate.
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Online Source:
"The Bhagavad Gita" by Annie Besant and Bhagavan Das, 1905


संस्कृत श्लोक - Sanskrit Gita-1

বাংলা অনুবাদ - Bengali Gita-1
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Edited and uploaded by rk

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