Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta Shlok Blog-3
Shlok-3
पश्यैतां पाण्डुपुत्राणामाचार्य महतीं चमूम् । व्यूढां द्रुपदपुत्रेण तव शिष्येण धीमता ॥ १-३ ||
English Transcription
Pashyaitaam Paanduputranamacharya Mahtim Chamoom | Vyoodhaam Drupadputren Tav Shishyen Dheemta || 1-3 ||
Hindi Translation
Duryodhan Guru Dronacharya se kehte hai ki aacharya ji, aap dekh rahe hai ki kaise Pandavon ne itni badi fauj khadi kar li hai or apna senapati bhi drishtadyum ko chuna hai, jo ki drupad ke shishya hain or aapke hi shishya hain.
Meaning
We had discussed in the previous blog of Shlok-2 of Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta about the reason Duryodhan was angry and baffled at Pandavas making a huge army to fight for their rights. He knew he had to have someone influential with him. He had already missed a chance to talk properly, lower his ego and request Lord Krishna to be at his side. Now, he knew he would need someone with experience to give a good fight to the lost opportunity. So he had two options his teacher Guru Dronacharya and his grandfather Bhishma Pitamah. He knew he will be able to convince his grandfather later on also to join him and not side with the Pandavas, but the only thing that can save him from a devious-looking attack from the Pandavas was the warfare tactics and training of Guru Dronacharya.
So, Duryodhan went up to Guru Dronacharya and said that he could see the Pandavas trying something nasty. Their warfare was seeming on point. This is why he was tense. He addressed Guru Dronacharya as a Paramguru, the one who knows all. He said this because Guru Dronacharya was the teacher of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He will never be partial to anyone in any manner. This is exactly why Duryodhan went to Guru Dronacharya asking for his help and convincing him to fight the case of the Kauravas from the side of the Kauravas.
Duryodhan had seen that the Pandavas had appointed Drishtadhyuma as their chief of the army. Now, to understand why Duryodhan had to panic about this move of the Pandavas, we need to understand a little story about Drishtadhyuma. There was a ruling king, Drupad. He was a very big king and a leader. He was the keeper of his kingdom and his people were happy and satisfied with his rule. But Drupad was the second most popular ruler. The first was still with the rulers of Hastinapur. He had tried a lot of times to infiltrate their army positions and try his hand at having Hastinapur for himself. He knew he would never be able to break the pattern, army force, or strategy of Hastinapur because it was leak-proof and mistake-proof. He also knew that a head-on fight against any area under Hastinapur will also lead to his defeat in entirety, and he wanted the entire Hastinapur. So, the only next thing he could think about was planting a spy. There were multiple times his efforts at doing so also failed. So now, he needed to find the root cause of his defeats. It was then that he got to know about Guru Dronacharya. He learned that Guru Dronacharya was the kingdom teacher (Rajya Guru) and he held the strategy to Hastinapur in his control. There was nothing that would skip the eyes of Guru Dronacharya. At first, Drupad wanted to eliminate Guru Dronacharya and take control of the kingdom of Hastinapur. But then he understood that only taking down Guru Dronacharya will not suffice the purpose. He would still lose the battle because the entire kingdom was trained by Guru Dronacharya. So he improvised his plan. He decided that he will send his son there to learn the warfare tactics from Guru Dronacharya. This will teach him everything about the kingdom and then, he will be able to infiltrate easily.
Having this thought in mind, he collected two priests (Brahmin) named Yaaj and Upyaaj. These two priests are highly renowned for their Pooja and Anushthan. They were blessed with the power of creating anything asked for in the worship due to their Siddhi (power). They created an individual, called Drishtadhyumna, the son of Drupad. The reason was that everyone in Hastinapur knew what Drupad’s family looked like. They had been arch-enemies for a long. So Drupad needed a new face for infiltration. This new face should be powerful and learned. Since there was no time to wait, Yaaj and Upyaaj had to make a life from scratch who has all the wit, knowledge, power, and strength to be and behave like a proper individuals. When Drishtadhyumna was born, the only aim was to send him to Guru Dronacharya’s ashram so that he can learn from his Gurukul and be the one to understand everything about Hastinapur’s defense system. This will help them in their invasion.
When Dritadhyumna was sent to the Gurukul, he knew his aim was to learn everything, eliminate Guru Dronacharya, and open gates for his army to infiltrate. He was there as a spy to learn and destroy. Guru Dronacharya was no ordinary person. He understood Drishtadhyuma’s intention due to his excessive inquisitiveness about a lot of things. But he was a Guru and just like every child taking admission in Gurukul had taken a pledge to give it their all to make the best use of the education obtained, the Guru had also taken a pledge and this pledge was an unbreakable bond of promise. A student is always taught to honor the words and this teaching is always given by a teacher. Similarly, a teacher also needs to honor their words and promises. This is exactly why Guru Dronacharya honored his promise of providing truthful information and education about everything to Drishtadhyumna.
At the end of the course, when it was time to bid goodbyes, Drishtadhyumna had to kill Guru Dronacharya and finish everything once and for all. This would make a dent in the security system and will make gates open for open-ended attacks on the kingdom of Hastinapur.
Owing to his specific respect towards his teacher and his preacher, as well as knowing the fact that Guru Dronacharya knew about his intentions and still continued to teach him without any biasness, Dhrishtadhyumna couldn’t muster the courage to kill Guru Dronacharya. He had multiple opportunities and yet, he couldn’t do the task he was sent for.
Guru Dronacharya also knew everything and he gave several unsaid opportunities to Drishtadhyumna to carry forward with his plan. He knew it was a risk uncalled for, but he also suspected that there was a high chance of his teaching and mannerisms kicking in and Drishtyadhyumna will not take the shot. After several given and missed opportunities, when the last day of Gurukul was over and everyone was leaving, Guru Dronacharya confronted Drishtadhyumna asking him the reason for not executing the task he was sent for and this gesture made Drishtadhymna fall at the feet of Guru Dronacharya seeking his forgiveness.
Guru Dronacharya had already forgiven him because he knew that prior to Guru Dronacharya’s Gurukul, Drishatdhyumna was thinking from the minds of his creators and the rivals of his kingdom, but soon after taking a proper education at the Gurukul, he was thinking from the manners learned at the Gurukul combined with his own logical reasoning. In his own understanding, there was no chance that he could stand against his teacher. So on that day, Drishtadhyumna had pledged to Guru Dronacharya that he will hold his life out for him and will never use the power and education, and knowledge provided to him by his savior to waste in any manner.
Now, when Duryodhan saw Drishtadhyumna as the leader of the Kaurava army, he could not fathom the fact that this came as an unexpected blow. Duryodhan was furious. Already the army combination of Pandavas was looking in great form. Their combinations were seemingly terrific and they were all very close-knit to each other, so they had little to no differences among them while making plans for battlefield execution. Plu now, they had one more star student of Guru Dronacharya in the form of Drishtadhyumna, who was better than both the Kauravas and the Pandavas combined and everyone was aware of this fact.
This made Duryodhan hatch an idea that if he goes to his teacher, Guru Dronacharya first, who has a special affinity for Duryodhan and who generally never denied Duryodhan for anything, was taken into the army of the Kauravas. This way, Guru Dron will know what he had taught Drishtadhyumna and he will also not be a threat because, on the battlefield, Drishtadhyumna has to stand by his pledge of keeping himself ahead of Guru Dronacharya in case of any attack, ever.
Duryodhan had thought that he will take advantage of a situation such, that he will orchestrate and then smoothly gets rid of one of the strong forces in the enemy army. This will bring down a lot of Pandava confidence and will make for an accurate method to dive in and create a victory-studded performance.
The only game Duryodhana was aware of in such a crucial situation was betrayal and this made outlines his extent of hate for his own people, who were suffering because of him and were fighting also because of him.
Duryodhan wanted to not just create a rift in the Pandava army but also made his ambition seem to look like Guru Dronacharya has an opportunity now, serving revenge on a plate. Guru Dronacharya could take down Drishtadhyumna and avenge the betrayal he was planned against when Drishtadhyumna had the intention to creep into the camps, learn everything from him and then eliminate him forever.
Duryodhan even said that the Pandavas know about Drishtadhyumna’s poor intentions. He said he was sure that if a person can have evil intentions in greed once, he can have it again. He said that even if Pandavas also know about this, they should have made a conscious choice of not taking Drishtadhyumna in their army. Even if they did, the least they could do to respect their teacher was to not allow Drishtadhyumna to take charge of the army and hatch a plan to garner his evil feelings, which were once subdued due to epic guilt. Duryodhan was sure that the only motive for making Drishtadhyumna the kingpin of the army was to allow him a chance to remove Guru Dronacharya from his place. In a fit of rage and anger, Duryodhan had forgotten that he was being rather compulsorily obsessed with the fact that he was in no position to put up a moral high ground when it was him in the first place to have asked the Pandavas to bring in their A-game when all they asked for was their right to own a small piece of land to live their lives, without being a disturbance to anyone at all.
With this, Duryodhan looked up to Guru Dronacharya thinking about what would be his next move if Guru Dronacharya refuses and what will he do if he accepts. He was busy framing and choosing his thoughts wisely so that he would deliver them with ease and make sure to get what he wants.
Conclusion
So we all can see from this shloka that Duryodhan was trying to gain sympathy in times of need, but there too, he denied to agree that he was at fault. He made sure he could keep his point in a manner that he would not look bad at any point and that he will not be held responsible for this entire issue that had escalated. We can all learn two things from this verse. One, if we bring upon a big decision, we need to think and rethink all the available options our enemy can have before we actually take a step because some actions cannot be reversed without making damage. Two, we also learn that none of us are perfect, but if we try to be the devil’s advocate, we should at least know how to defend a wrong in the most courteous and tactfully lawful manner. Here, Duryodhan was wrong, but he made it look like the opponent was siding a bigger wrong, thereby, making his own wrong look negligible. Whether that was the case or not wouldn’t then matter.
We'll see you tomorrow with Shlok-4 of Chapter-1. Till then, have a great time. If you missed Shlok-2, you can check it here.
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