In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sanjaya’s continuation of the narrative about what is happening at Kurukshetra, wherein we’re in the process of seeing an overview of the Bhagawad Gita by setting the context. In this way, we’ve seen in a nutshell as to what exactly the Bhagawad Gita talks about. Bhagawan Krishna Himself narrates how a person should conduct himself / herself, both in this present world, as well as after this. He narrates how one can attain the highest “Moksha” and He proposes three major paths to do this – Firstly, through the “Karma Yoga”, secondly through the “Gnyaana Yoga” and the third one – Through the “Bhakti Yoga”. There are enormous leadership and management implications behind what Bhagawan Krishna is going to narrate as part of all these three “Yogas” and we’re going to witness this one after the other in a great bit of detail. As we’ve seen earlier too, the Bhagawad Gita comprises of 700 shlokas in total, put under eighteen “Adhyaayas” under the Upa-Parva of “Shri Bhagawad Gita Parva”, which is in turn under the main “Bhishma Parva”.
Now having understood this much, we shall continue with what Sanjaya has to say. In fact, it is quite interesting to note here that this entire conversation between Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna is inaugurated by none other than King Dhritarashtra himself! 🙂 King Dhritarashtra is going to ask a question and after that he is going to remain silent. The answer to that one question is of 700 slokas, which Bhagawan Krishna and Arjuna are going to discuss! We shall see the sequence as we get into the content of the Bhagawad Gita. In the middle of course, there will be instances wherein slight references will be made by Sanjaya. For instance, when Bhagawan is going to show His “Vishwaroopa Darshan” to Arjuna during the eleventh “Adhyaaya” of the Bhagawad Gita, Sanjaya will convey to King Dhritarashtra thus, “Oh King Dhritarashtra! Now as Bhagawan Krishna is narrating and explaining how He is an embodiment of everything in this world, He is now going to show Arjuna His true form! Bhagawan is going to give Arjuna a divine pair of eyes, with which Arjuna is going to worship Bhagawan Krishna in His “Vishwaroopam”!” Such references of Sanjaya will come here and there in the middle, but grossly, if we look at the next eighteen “Adhyaayas”, it is only going to be the “Keshava-Arjuna Samvaadham”.
Moving on further, there are different names given to each of these eighteen “Adhyaayas” that we’re talking about. The first “Adhyaaya” is named as “Arjuna-Vishaada Yoga”. Here, we are going to see Arjuna getting depressed and starting to cry! Subsequently as Arjuna is feeling sad, Bhagawan Krishna tries to bring him out of the sadness and this takes 700 shlokas for Bhagawan to do it! 🙂 Once again, I’m reminding our readers an important thing – All these “Charitras” that we’re currently witnessing is being narrated only towards the end of the tenth day of the war, wherein Bhishmachaarya has already fallen down. But we’ve to slightly rewind ourselves to the beginning of the war wherein there are eleven “Akshauhinis” of army standing on the Kaurava side, ready to fight against seven “Akshauhinis” of army on the Paandava side. King Dhritarashtra and Sanjaya are nowhere close to the battlefield. Both of them are sitting at the Hastinapura palace and Sanjaya is narrating all these proceedings with the help of the divine pair of eyes gifted to him by Sage Vyaasa.
Now that Sanjaya and King Dhritarashtra are seated together, King Dhritarashtra is going to ask the important question as to what is happening in the battlefield. So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall witness an important shloka from which things are going to kickstart! Stay tuned for an important episode tomorrow! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 