Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta Shlok Blog -18
Shlok-18
द्रुपदो द्रौपदेयाश्च सर्वशः पृथिवीपते । सौभद्रश्च महाबाहुः शङ्खान्दध्मुः पृथक्पृथक् ॥ 1-18 ||
English Transcription
Drupado Draupadeyaashch Sarvashah Pritveepate | Saubhadrashch Mahabaahuh Shankhanaadadhmuh Prithakprithak || 1-18 ||
Hindi Translation
Raja Drupad or Draupadi ke paanchon putra tatha lambi lambi bhujaao wale subhadra putra Abhimanyu, sabhi ne apni apni jagah se apne apne shankh bajaye.
English Translation
Raja Drupad, all five sons of Draupadi and the son of Subhadra, Abhimanyu, the one with real and exceptionally big hands, everyone blew their conch shells from their own respective places.
Meaning
In the previous Shlok, we saw how after the five Pandavas, everyone in the major positions started accepting the challenge of the war and initiating their call sound from their own Shankhas to prove that they were ready and not scared. Everyone was pumped up to prove that they were right and that their objective made more sense. So everyone knew that they were a team and the team’s objectives made more sense, yet everyone had their individual reasons to support any idea and to not support any idea.
Then, the people who were remaining also started picking up their conch shells, the most common medium of making a loud sound and making an announcement after drums and trumps, to blow in and mark their presence as well.
For this, as discussed in the previous Shlok, King Drupad had already picked up the conch shell and blew into it. Next in line were the five sons of Draupadi from her five husbands, the Pandavas.
Draupadi was the daughter of King Drupad. King Drupad was in a full-blown mood to attack Hastinapur and finish off the entire ruling capital and take everything under him showing his power. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do this on his own because a flank attack is not possible to win against the Pandavas. Hence, he had sent in his son, Drishtadhyumna to the Ashram of Guru Dronacharya, who was also the teacher of the Pandavas and the Kuaravas. He knew that killing Guru Dron will weaken the Hastinapur defense and then he will be able to win the war. But Dhrishtadhyumna could not gather the courage to do so and then King Drupad had to take another measure and follow the last plan of initiating a fight anyhow. Since the Pandavas were the ones who led that fight and won it, they were deserving a reward. they got King Drupad’s daughter Draupadi thinking that she will be the prized possession of Yudhishthir as his wife since he was the eldest brother.
When they entered the Pandu Mahal, the palace of the Pandavas, their mother Kunti was busy with something. The Pandavas went to Kunti and announced that they have gotten something very precious and they wanted her to see it first.
Kunti was immensely busy so she said without looking, “Divide among yourselves whatever you have gotten.” and she went to work normally.
Since the gift was Draupadi, and the sons had to comply with the command of their mother, so they decided that each of them will marry Draupadi and treat her like her wife. These things can be complicated and twisted, but in Mahabharata times, there was a time when disobeying the elderly was considered earth’s biggest crime and thus, they had to fulfill the wish of their mother.
When Kunti realized that she had consented to this, it was already too late as the five sons had married Draupadi simultaneously and now, they were to make sure that they acted and behaved like the lawfully wedded husband of Draupadi.
Draupadi gave five sons to her five husbands. The son of Yudhishthir came to be known as Prativindhya. The son of Bheem was named Sutsoma. Arjun’s son from Draupadi was named Shrutkarma, Nakul’s son was named Satanika, and Sahadeva’s son was named Shrutsena.
These five sons also announced their positions using their respective conch shells as they embodied the genes of their fathers in an exact manner.
Arjun was parallelly also married to Subhadra, the daughter of the Saubhadra kingdom and he had a warrior son Abhimanyu, who was considered the exact copy of Arjun in everything and even better in some places. He was such a talented person at such a young age that it was impossible for even Arjun to defeat his own son with his own taught tactics to him. Abhimanyu was the only one apart from Arjun who knew how to crack a Chakravyuh (a maze) in the war of Mahabharata Guru Dron and Duryodhan were masters at the building. There were seven levels of Chakravyuh and when Subhadra was eight months pregnant with Abhimanyu, Arjun knew that the child in the womb can listen to and learn from their mother and father’s voice, so he was teaching Subhadra how to crack the Chakravyuh so that Abhimanyu can learn it.
He knew that in the real world, it will be very difficult to find time and teach this to Abhimanyu, and thus, if he learns this since birth, there will be no looking back and teaching. So, when Arjun was talking and he had taught Subhadra till the six gates, Subhadra felt really tired and she didn’t realize when she slept. this was the reason the sound did not travel from Subhadra’s ears to Abhimanyu’s brains and thus later in the war, when there was a need for this, Abhimanyu lost his life fighting the battle at the end of the sixth gate and the entry of the seventh gate that he could not do even when he tried everything in his might.
This Abhimanyu was also pumped up and after the five sons of Draupadi blew the conch shell, Abhimanyu also blew his conch shell to make sure that everyone knew how he never fears anything and he will never be able to back off from a fight to prove himself right.
So, Sanjaya told Dhritrashtra that everyone was standing at their positions and everyone initiated their own calls and sounds and started proving to the people that they are all ready for the fight and that they will try everything in their might to make this a fair fight and achieve the objective of making truth triumph.
Conclusion
We can see how war makes a person so dedicated that all they can think of and do is prove their point, throw challenges, accept challenges, and keep doing these things on repeat continuously so that there is no one to tell them about what to do and what not to do. War is always destructive and whosoever is right, only destruction prevails. Let us see what Dhritrashtra does after Sanjaya stops giving the live feed to switch to a new instance now.
This was all about Shlok-18, Chapter-1 of Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta. We will meet tomorrow with Shlok-19, Chapter-1. If you have missed Shlok-17, Chapter-1, check here.
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