Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta Shlok Blog -51
Shlok-04
कथं भीष्ममहं सङ्ख्ये द्रोणं च मधुसूदन । इषुभिः प्रतियोत्स्यामि पूजार्हावरिसूदन ॥ 2-4 ||
English Transcription
Katham Bheeshmamaham Sankhye Dronam Cha Madhusoodan | Ishubhih Pratiyotsyaami Poojaahaarwarisoodan || 2-4 ||
Hindi Translation
Hey Krishna, main yudh me baanron ke saath Bheeshma Pitamah or Guru Dron ke saath kaise yudh karoon kyunki ye dono hi mere liye pooja ke yojya hain.
English Translation
Arjun said, how can I fight with arrows against Bheeshma Pitamah and Dronacharya because they are not just my elders but also worthy of respect and homage for me?
Meaning
In the previous Shlok, we all saw how Shri Krishna called Arjun Napunsak a coward. He referred to his mother as brave for allowing her sons to take charge and avenge the bad of the system.
A person is not tired because he loses to someone. A person is more tired if he loses hope due to people who are not in any sense understand anything properly. Arjun too said in this Shlok to Shri Krishna that he was not in a shape to fight his people. Guru Dronacharya was his teacher. Anything that Arjun knows is because of Guru Dronacharya because if not for him, then Arjun would never be the blue-eyed fighter boy for whom Shri Krishna himself agreed to be the charioteer and Lord Hanuman agreed to sit at the flag of the chariot.
So Arjun was not at all happy with this entire scenario where his teacher was fighting him and was supporting the wrong side, but he was also not satisfied with him fighting his teacher.
Arjun saw that he gave a lot of reasons to not fight like people who fight and kill their families go into the nether world and their entire clan gets polluted and everyone starts doing Adharma and everyone starts staying unhappy and illegal. There were a lot of things that Arjun had said and Shri Krishna had ignored all of that and called Arjun a coward. So, Arjun knew that he had to stop speculation and focus more on the respect part first. This was why he was back to the same thing he cannot fight his teacher and cannot fight his elders, this time not because of ethics, but because of respect and gratitude.
In this Shlok, Arjun said that he cannot fight Bheeshma Pitamah and Gruur Dronacharya with a bow and arrow or any war equipment because they were the ones who have taught him to use these and now if he has to kill them, he will be devastated and he cannot disrespect the teachers and elders so he will not fight.
Arjun meant to say that Shri Krishna killed a lot of Asurs and devils but they deserved to die because they were the ones who never did good to anyone and everyone was frustrated with them. There was no reason for those devils to live. But in the case of Guru Dronacharya and Bheeshma Pitamah, there is nothing these people have done that meant that they deserve to die. Yes, they are not true to their ethics, and they have created some harm, but the good that they have done is beyond the bad they have committed. So they can be excused and they can be allowed a second chance. Even if not, they do not deserve to die, and certainly not like this on a battlefield, at the hands of their star prodigy whom they used to pride upon once.
Arjun also did not agree with Shri Krishna’s statement that he was a coward or a disgrace. He thought that he had always learned that the elders, specifically those who have taught you something, are respect-worthy and worship-worthy. These aren't the people you take out your grudge against. These are not the people you fight or show them their place. You worship these people. You adore these people and if they are wrong anytime, you tell them what wrong they have done, not by fighting them, but by talking to them.
So, Arjun said that he was not a coward because he was not afraid of death. Arjun had always been a warrior and will always be a warrior and he would be more than happy to die on a battlefield during a battle, fighting, rather than being in any other place and dying. But he cannot afford to be called a coward just because he is okay with losing a battle but not compromising his ethics.
Arjun further said that he was not scared of dying on a battlefield, he was scared of killing on the battlefield, so he was not thinking out of fear of dying, he was feeling out of anxiety and attachment to killing his people.
Arjun’s attachment was justified also because Arjun was genetically related to Bheeshm Pitamah because Bheeshm was Arjun’s grandfather. In his childhood, Arjun used to see that everyone called Bheeshma Pitamah and thus he also called him Pitamah. It was very late that he realized that Bheeshm was not his father but his grandfather, so higher than the father's position also. He remembered how Bheeshm used to teach him small and basic things before he went to Gurukul and how Bheeshm always treated him like a son. Whenever Arjun made a mistake, Bheeshm would scold him and correct him, but never fight him. This was where Arjun could not understand that when Arjun was wrong, Bheeshm tried to correct him, not fight him and kill him, so how can Arjun do the same?
Also, Arjun was related to Guru Dronacharya because not only Guru Dronacharya was his Gurukul teacher but also the person who truly believed in him in every aspect of his life. Guru Dronacharya was a fighter and he had taught some special warfare tactics only to Arjun, who was his Magna-cum-Laude student in the Gurukul. Although everyone was a good fighter, Guru Dronacharya made sure he preferred Arjun over anyone else and he had a soft corner for Arjun because of which there were times he went a little soft on him if he was inaccurate in something. Then how can Arjun now kill him because he was inaccurate in making the final decision of joining the Kauravas, only under the brainwashed influence of Duryodhan?
Arjun also stated one more point that these were the people who taught him to be connected to his roots and they taught Arjun a lot of things he knows now. These people have taught Arjun to fight. So it is no more a concept of if Arjun can fight them or not, but how can Arjun fight with the equipment which was a showpiece to him till he was taught how to use them by these people only?
Moreover, since these people are elder than me, they have the right to scold me, fight me, or attack me also. How do I have the right to even think about doing the reverse to them? It’s unjustified.
This was why Arjun denied any kind of combat with Guru Dronacharya and Bheeshma Pitamah not because he was scared of death of his own, but because he was scared he will deal with the detachment that follows if they are killed and no more around Arjun. Arjun did not know how to recover from the loss of a loved one.
Conclusion
The fear of losing starts to grow within you when you see the loss of your loved ones in front of you. Arjun saw the loved ones, to whom he was attached and he realized that it was worth dying for them than letting them die for him and thus, he decided to pull back upon all his efforts of fighting the battle. He was not scared of death of his own, He was afraid of the end of his people.
That was all about Shlok-4, Chapter-2 of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta. See you tomorrow with Shlok-5, Chapter-2. Also, catch up till Shlok-3, chapter-2 here.
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