Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta Shlok-5
Shlok-5
धृष्टकेतुश्चेकितानः काशिराजश्च वीर्यवान् ।पुरुजित्कुन्तिभोजश्च शैब्यश्च नरपुङ्गवः ॥ १-५ ||
English Transcribtion
Dhrishtaketusshchekitaanah kaashiraajayachsha veeryavaan | Purujitkuntibhojshch Shaaibyashch Narpungavah || 1-5 ||
Hindi Translation
Ab to Pandavon ki sena me Dhrishtaketu bhi Shaamil ho gaye hain. Unke saath sath Chekitaan or atyant parakrami Kashiraj bhi Pandavon ka saath den eke liye taiyar hain. Itna hi nahi, Pandavon ne to manushyon me sabse sarvashreshtha, Purujit or Kuntibhoj, dono bhaiyon ko bhi apni sena me bharti kar liya hai.
Meaning
We saw in the previous verse how Duryodhan was blabbering about how the Pandavas have included their army and then how they were preparing for the war. When he saw that all this did not affect Guru Dronacharya to take his side, he shifted to mincing his words and instigating a feeling of revenge in Guru Dronacharya by placing names of Pandava army members in a synchronized and proper manner. He took the name of Drishtadhyumna first, who learned the skills of warfare from Guru Dronacharya with an aim to kill him afterward and take control of Hastinapur. Although he couldn’t do it, his name did ignite a feeling of mistrust and misjudgment in Guru Dronacharya. Duryodhan then named Yuyudhan, who was Arjun’s prodigy, and thus, ignited a feeling of hate for both Arjuna and Yuyudhan together. After this, he named King Viraat, who defeated Guru Dronacharya with his smartness and left a feeling of overpowering guilt in Guru Dronacharya’s mind for winning against King Viraat once to show him his actual power. Duryodhan then nicely placed the name of King Drupad, who betrayed his oldest friend Guru Dronacharya after he became the king of his kingdom and Guru Dronacharya was still a saint in his quest for knowledge.
Duryodhan was now sure that he had given a lot of personal reasons to Guru Dronacharya to side with him and not question his intentions to just use him. So now, he started keeping names to just prove his previous point and establish a feeling of the possibility of victory over the Pandavas by letting down their choice of army men. He also knew that the first set of names was those with whom Guru Dronacharya had a score to settle and the next set of names will be placed in a manner that they will seem like these names are the ones to protect the first set of names from any dangers. Basically, he wanted to establish the fact that all the enemies of Guru Dronacharya have joined the Pandavas and thus, there is an excellent motive for Guru Dronacharya to join the Kauravas and settle his wounds once and for all. He also added the second set of names to tell Guru Dronacharya that he had done his research and there were just some more people other than these enemies of his to protect the battlefield and all others are just useless. The fact that he placed the second set of names in a manner that they sounded weak made Guru Dronacharya’s affinity towards Duryodhan increase more and also made ground for his approval to join the Kauravas and teach Pandavas, or the ones siding with the Pandavas a lesson. Was this extremely biased on his part? Let's find out with the next set of names ousted by Duryodhan.
So, after Duryodhan had talked about the personal level betrayal of King Drupad to Guru Dronacharya, he talked about Dhrishtaketu. Dhrishtaketu was the son of Shishupal and Shishupal was insulted and killed by Lord Krishna in an open courthouse. To understand more about why Duryodhan took Dhrishaketu’s name, we need to understand the story of Shishupal.
As per Mahabharata, Shishupal was born with three eyes and four limbs/ arms. He was not liked by his parents and they wanted to abandon him forever. Everyone related to Shishupal hated him or was embarrassed by him and therefore, Shishupal grew up to be a rebel and a burden to society, and an embarrassment to his parents. When he was born, his parents were sure of abandoning him but they were restricted otherwise, due to a voice from heaven (Akashvaani), that said that the parents will be subjected to a big huge crime if they separated a newborn child with a disability. The voice also said that there is only one person on earth who can heal Shishupal and when this person will visit and take Shishupal in his lap, he will completely be healed. Although, this will be the same person who will be the cause of death of Shishupal also after he had committed his one hundred and first crime. Basically, Shishupal will be healed and killed by one person only. This person will forgive him for his hundred crimes and will kill him on his one hundred and oneth crime.
One fine day, Lord Krishna, the cousin of Shishupal visited him and playfully took him in his lap. This made Shishupal heal completely and his extra eyes and limbs disappeared. This established the fact that Lord Krishna will be the one who will kill Shishupal. Shishupal had been invested in the world of crime already by then and he was also being forgiven each time due to the courtesy of Lord Krishna. Shishupal’s mother had actually persuaded Lord Krishna to forgive a hundred sins of Shishupal because he was crippled and there was a lot of hatred and arrogance inside him due to his state and his appearance for a long time. Lord Krishna couldn’t say no to this and thus, he agreed to the same.
Shishupal was friends with very less people in his life and one of his most genuine friends was Rukmin, the prince of the Vidarbha kingdom. Rukmin wanted his sister Rukmini to marry Shishupal and therefore continue his friendship forever as well as hold control of everything Shishupal’s parents had along with the kingdom.
Rukmini wasn’t happy with this decision and she eloped with her true love, Lord Krishna, the cousin of Shishupal on the day of the wedding. Since that day, Sishupal had developed an inherited hatred for Lord Krishna that just increased by the day. He wanted an act of revenge.
One day, when the eldest Pandava brother Yudhishthir was undertaking the Rajsuya Yagya to prove his power, he invited everyone in their friends, family, and extended families. Shishupal was also invited and Lord Krishna too was invited. When Shishupal saw Lord Krishna and Bheeshma there, he started creating a scene and abused Bheeshma. Bheeshma was about to take action when Lord Krishna forgave Shishupal reminding him that this was his hundredth sin and any one sin after this will be punishable.
Shishupal then uttered bad words for Lord Krishna and insulted him to the very core. When he crossed the line, Lord Krishna didn’t take any more chances and sent his Sudarshan Chakra to cut the throat of Shishupal in the entire courtroom full of people.
This Shishupal had a son called Dhrishtaketu and this Dhrishtaketu had joined the Pandavas knowing well that they were the reasons for his father’s death. Duryodhan told Guru Dronacharya that the Pandavas have manipulated an innocent and foolish Dhrishtaketu into fighting for them because they needed his kingdom's support and his army.
Next up was Chekitaan, the only Yadav from Lord Krishna’s Narayani Sena who refused to join the Kauravas when the army distribution was done and he pledged his alliance to Lord Krishna, so he went to fight for the Pandavas. Duryodhan used this as bait to tell Guru Dronacharya that the Pandavas did not poach Chekitaan, but he was such a betrayer and thus, the probable weakest link in the Pandavas' army who is responsible to protect his most experienced people on the strategy front. He actually was indicating to Guru Dronacharya that if Chekitaan was the front-end soldier, attacking from his end will be easy as he will have to fight against his own Yadav brothers and he will not be able to muster that much courage, and thus, Kauravas have an entry strategy to destroy the Pandavas.
When Duryodhan was about sure that Guru Dronacharya found his words appealing and now was the time to provide some researched names for caution, he placed in the name of one of the bravest fighters of all time, the King of Kashi province, Kashiraj. He said that there is just one issue though. We have to be careful of Kashiraj, who is very brave and very very intelligent in warfare, so he will be a real difficulty to tackle on the grounds. Duryodhan was sure that the name of Kashiraj at this point will act as a point of caution. He knew that if he made everything sound too easy and too quick, Guru Dronacharya might double doubt his words or might want to try to check his own personal front before giving his word. Duryodhan would land in trouble if Guru Dronacharya found out his play before agreeing to him so he had to place in some words of caution just to avoid any suspicion and make the things looks as genuine as possible, even if some of it was highly fabricated.
After Guru Dronacharya was made aware of one threat, Duryodhan put in two more names as possible threats to their plans. These were the two brothers, Purujit and Kuntibhoj. These two brothers were considered to be an example to humankind because they were considered extremely intelligent and best in whatever they did. They were never wrong, never over the line and they were always the best version of themselves and hence, were always on point. This made them the crowd favorite and the examples of what humans should be and behave like. Duryodhan told Guru Dronacharya that he was sure these two brothers will be a terrible threat because they were technically related to the Kauravas. These two brothers were the brother of Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas and thus, the uncle to the Pandavas and the Kauravas. This made them relatives. Even after this, these two never liked the Kauravas and they always were a little biased towards the Pandavas, who were their indirect blood relatives, and not the Kauravas, who were only distantly related, but not blood-related.
Duryodhan knew that if he put in a little personal angle for himself also after establishing a personal angle for Guru Dronacharya and then establishing a trust factor by throwing in the angle of possible and probable threats, he was a sure shot victory, even if this meeting would take a little more time than he had thought. He only considered the desired outcome and he didn’t care about anything else at all.
Last, but not the least, he also dragged in Shaibya, the father-in-law of Yudhishthir. Duryodhan told Guru Dronacharya how his own relatives like Purujit, Kuntibhoj, and now the father-in-law of Yudhishthir, so an indirect father-in-law of the Kauravas supporting the Pandavas and there was no one in their owns to support the Kauravas. This was all to make Guru Dronacharya feel that in times of need, Duryodhan was ghosted by his own people and that he really needed someone who can make things look better and brighter.
Duryodhan had one more strategy. He wanted to make Guru Dronacharya feel that he was alone enough for all the names mentioned till now and all the names that will be mentioned later in the third set also so that when there is actually thorough thinking about the same, Guru Dronacharya will feel equivalent to the brightest minds of Yuyudhan, the most concentrated approach of Arjun, the best skills of Dhrishtadhyumna, the combined love, and efforts of all the collected forces of the Pandavas, the warfare skills of King Viraat, the need for revenge feeling of Drupad, the innocence of Dhrishtaketu, the foolishness of Chekitaan, the threat of Kashiraj, the on-point execution of Purujit and Kuntibhoj and the power and strength of Shaibya. This was a kind of self-validation and Guru Dronacharya was fascinated by the fact that he actually was better than so many other people.
Conclusion
Duryodhan was always a strategist when he planned and ousted his own brothers to go to the jungle and live an unknown life for fourteen years. He then usurped their kingdom. He then denied giving back even a normal life to the Pandavas. Even after this, he insulted the Pandava wife Draupadi. He then made false claims to avoid returning anything to the Pandavas and then he was adamant about war if the Pandavas did not submit their allegiance. After all this also, he took away the expert army of the Pandavas rejecting Lord Krishna and his proposal to side with him, and then he also kept trying to infiltrate the Pandava camps to know as much as possible about their war and battlefield tactics.
Now after this, he was trying to paint a partly false picture of innocence and suppressed it in front of his teacher, Guru Dronacharya to make sure he sides with him in the wrongdoing even without knowing that he got manipulated. Duryodhan tried all this to prove his point that he was the only one who could ever be the greatest king and the best ruler. He did not know that fighting on his own was never a solution to unity and peace. It is only an invitation to disaster and harm to everyone. We should all also understand the known outcome of Mahabharata. We all fight with our loved ones, but is it so important to escalate matters beyond our control that all our supporting people are also subject to only pain and trouble due to our egos? Is this why we were given the greatest gift of life? To fight with each other till one of them dies and there is nothing that remains useful in any manner.
That's all for Shlok-5 Chapter-1. We'll see you tomorrow with Shlok-6, Chapter-1. In case you have missed out on Shlok-4, Chapter-1, check it out here. Till then, keep worshipping with Rudraksha Hub.
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