Daily Shlokas: Oct. 30, 2015

Bg 1.25

bhīṣma-droṇa-pramukhataḥ sarveṣāṁ ca mahī-kṣitām

uvāca pārtha paśyaitān samavetān kurūn iti

Bg 1.26

tatrāpaśyat sthitān pārthaḥ pitṝn atha pitāmahān

ācāryān mātulān bhrātṝn putrān pautrān sakhīṁs tathā

śvaśurān suhṛdaś caiva senayor ubhayor api

Bg 1.27

tān samīkṣya sa kaunteyaḥ sarvān bandhūn avasthitān

kṛpayā parayāviṣṭo viṣīdann idam abravīt

Bg 1.28

arjuna uvāca

dṛṣṭvemaṁ sva-janaṁ kṛṣṇa yuyutsuṁ samupasthitam

sīdanti mama gātrāṇi mukhaṁ ca pariśuṣyati

Bg 1.29

vepathuś ca śarīre me roma-harṣaś ca jāyate

gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt tvak caiva paridahyate

Translation:

25. In front of Bhishma and Drona, and all the rulers of the earth, he said, 'O Partha, behold these Kurus gathered together.'

26. Then Partha saw stationed there in both the armies, fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons and friends too.

27. (He saw) Fathers-in-law and friends also in both the armies. Then the son of Kunti, seeing all these kinsmen thus standing arrayed, spoke thus sorrowfully, filled with deep pity.

Arjuna said:

28. Seeing these my kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed, eager to fight, my limbs fail and my mouth is parched,

29. my body quivers and my hair stands on end. The Gandiva-bow slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over; 

Commentary:

As a dutiful driver, Krishna says to Arjuna, "Behold, O Partha! All the Kauravas gathered together." These are the only words that Krishna has spoken in the entire first chapter.

Hereafter, we shall find how Arjuna reacted to this great challenge and ultimately got

his entire "within" wrecked and shattered.

The Geeta is the Song of Truth sung by the Immortal to the mortal Arjuna, man's all-time representative. Thus shown by Shri Krishna, Arjuna recognised in his enemy lines all his kith and kin, near and dear family members, brothers and cousins, teachers and grandsires,

and almost all his acquaintances and friends. He recognized such intimate relations not only in the enemy lines, but even in his own army. This sight, perhaps, brought to his mind, for the first time, the full realisation of the tragedies of a fratricidal war. As a warrior and a man of action, he did not, perhaps till then, fully realize the extent of sacrifice that society would be called upon to make in order that his ambition might be fulfilled and Duryodhana's cruelties avenged. Whatever might have been the cause, the sight brought into his mind a flood of pity and compassion. 

Evidently, this was not an honest emotion. Had it been honest, had his pity and compassion been, Buddha-like, natural and instinctive, he would have, even long before the war, behaved quite differently. Arjuna had a long life of mental repressions which had created an infinite amount of dynamic energies seeking a field for expression.

In these two stanzas, there is an exhaustive enumeration of the symptoms that the patient could then recognise in his own physical body as a result of his mental confusions.

That which Sanjaya had glorified as 'pity', when coming out of Arjuna's own mouth, gains a more realistic expression. Arjuna says: "seeing my kinsmen gathered here anxiously determined to fight, my limbs shiver"..., etc.

All these symptoms are described in the text-books of modern psychology as typical symptoms of the mental disease named 'anxiety-state-neurosis.'

Sources: vedabase.com;  The Holy Geeta