Gita Chapter 1. An attempt at translation

In continuation of our series on religious texts and traditional thoughts- Gita Chapter 1 – a brief


It was about ten years back that I bought this gita press book on Gita. During this time I had often referred to this book – mostly in a random way- and was invariably moved by every passage I chose to read, and which was sufficient enough to conclude that this book was quite precious. Still, on a reflection today, I feel I had not done justice; I should have started from the beginning and tried to assimilate and share this beautiful translation. A few days back Gulpa advised me to do just that –to read from the beginning, when this realization dawned..

I started off with the first chapter, after reading the foreword. The result was electric. The first chapter was just an introduction to what happened in the battlefield of kurukshetra with the Kauravas and pandavas facing each other just prior to the commencement of the war. One would hardly expect any profound philosophical treatises in this introduction. But no sir, a mere 8/9 pages were sufficient enough for me to go into ruptures with the kind of interpretations, and etymology of some of the words, leaving me wondering as to how and what I missed, and feeling grateful for this intervention from Gulpa.

It was then my earnest desire that I should try and capture an essence of every chapter, based on this book, more for my own sake, as I find that going back to some of the pieces of the past are almost always rewarding as with passage of time especially at this age, I tend to forget what I said about a moment ago. Recapping my own interpretations on something divine seems to be an excellent and pleasant satsangham for me. If others are willing or able to join me in this, it will be to that extent, an immensely satisfying additional bonus.

So here I am with the fondest hope that I will be able to try and do adequate justice to some extra ordinarily beautiful translation (which is in Hindi). With the later chapters, dealing with extremely difficult interpretations of karma, gyana, and bhakthi yogas, this task hopefully should not end with frustrations. May God help me, in this pursuit of doing justice to this noble task.


In Mahabharatha, there is this reference to Lord Krishna who mentions that it will be difficult for even Him to recapture the essence of Gita, as during the upadesa to Arjun, He was in Yoga. Yoga among other things means, (a) Deep and abstract meditation (b) contemplation of the supreme spirit (c) means by which human soul may be completely united with the supreme soul and secure absolution. If Lord Himself felt the need to be in this contemplative meditation, one could imagine the full purport of the message of Gita, and the stupidity of anyone imagining that one could do justice, without His Will.

Just after the announcement of the war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, veda vyasa comes to the king Dhrithirashtra ( for whom the former has a special liking) and offers him a “super sight” by which he can see all that is going to unfold including that which goes on in every individual’s mind. The king says that being born blind and blessed by Krishna to see His vishwa roopa, he has no desire to witness his children die. On his request, this boon is given to Sanjaya, so that he can narrate the entire goings on in the battle field.

Contrary to my earlier understanding, Sanjay is actually in the battle field and only when Bhishma is down that he rushes to the king -a full ten days after the war had begun- to give him the sad news. It was then that the king asks him the famous “what did his sons and pandavas do” query, the first sloka of this divine song. He does not go back to the battle.

In reply, (the second sloka till the 19th), Sanjay talks about Duryodahana’s actions and the highlights are

Though Bheeshma is the C-In-C, he goes to Drona and speaks a few words. The samskrit version says “Vachanam abravith” The word Vachanam is generally used when something of intent/import is to be conveyed. Here Drona who is perceived to be partial to the opposing Pandavas, and being not a member of the family, needed a special cajoling. Hence the usage Vachanam.
The opposing army is led by Drishtadhyumnan; he is referred to as Dhrupad’s son, to emphasize that Pandavas have deliberately chosen him, ignoring others, just to remind him, that the former had begotten a son specifically to worst Drona in battle.
There are a few etymological roots given to some of the more colorful names such as (a) Gudakesaha for Arjun which means one who has conquered sleep, besides the common meaning of having curly hair, (b) Vrikodara for Bheem which refers to a special additional fire by name “Vrik” in his belly which digests huge quantities of food, besides the “jataraagni” in all other human beings, (c) Kapidwaja for again Arjun which denotes Lord Hanuman sitting in the dwaja of Arjun’s chariot and who promises that by his sheer roar, enemy forces would run scared etc.
Lest Drona gets a feeling that his own army is weak, he also extols the bravery of Bheeshma, kripa, Karna etc, to cheer him up simultaneously.
Finally Bhishma, observing that none of this has any great effect on Drona, and Duryodhan appearing downcast, decides to cheer him up by blowing his conch loudly, followed by Krishna and others.


It is when Sanjay comes to the Pandavas side of action, that this takes a more poignant hue. The moment the conch sound is heard, Arjuna takes his bow, and seeing in front of him the kings who he presumes are siding with an unjust prince,(dhaartharashtra is the word used; one of the meaning is usurper of kingdom by illegitimate means, against a common meaning being son of Dhrithirashtra) and asks Krishna to take his chariot right to the open space separating the two warring factions, ( the neutral zone) so that he can view the guys who are with this unjust prince, and who could dare him in the battle, more clearly.

Krishna takes him there, asks him to see his own kuru vamsham people, to make him realize that the enemy is his own kith and kin. The very purpose of gita upadesam being to enable Arjuna to rid himself of his “moham” or familial passion, the Lord in a way was actually getting him to feel this moham, help him rid of the arrogance of being undefeatable, and finally the “moham itself.

The moment Arjuna sees the opposing army, he is aghast. He is unable to control his remorse, tears flow down from his cheeks, voice choked, he tells Krishna that all he could see is his own people, bad omen and everything being terribly wrong, and could foresee no benefit at the end of it all by killing every one. The bow gandiva, he says has slipped from his hands, and his entire body felt as if it was on fire. (Tidbit: the word chinta, and chita in samskrit are almost similar save for a bindu in the former. Chinta burns the live body, and chita burns the lifeless one).

He is sure he says, that almost every one assembled there was innately aware that he was not going to survive the war, and yet all have sacrificed their everything to die for an unjust king. It’s said that when you kill a man, you take all his sins on yourself, the duryodhana clan being “aathathayis” ( there are six categories of these worst sinners, namely, arsonists, ones who poison, ones who take weapons to harm, ones who steal/take away others money, land grabbers, and kidnappers of females.) taking the lives of all these others who have sacrificed everything and the (athathayi gang) Duryodhana family, all he can achieve is to inherit their deadly sins and rot in hell.

If the opposing army kills me finding me without arms, they would only be doing me a great favor. Thus saying he finally throws his Gandiva bow and sits down in the middle of the chariot and tells Krishna that he is no longer prepared for this grave battle.

Thus ends the first chapter.

I do hope you folks like it, and wish me luck to be able to sustain with other more difficult chapters to follow.

May God bless us all.

Love

Vchu .