Therefore, he will begin to encourage his generals, especially Dronacarya, and tell him how brave, strong, and prominent warriors are on their side, so that he does not lose heart. Text 11:
ayaneṣu ca sarveṣu
yathābhāgam avasthitāḥ
bhīṣmam evābhirakṣantu
bhavantaḥ sarva eva hi
Translation: All of you must give full support to grandfather Bhisma, as you take your positions at the strategic points of entrance to the battlefront. Purport: In the previous verse, it was shown how Duryodhana praised Bhisma's bravery, but he also took into consideration that the other warriors might feel belittled. Therefore, in this verse, with his customary diplomacy, he tried to remedy the awkwardness created. First, he emphasized Bhismadeva's undoubtedly greatest heroism, but since he was quite old, everyone had to take special care for his reliable protection. If Bhisma fought on only one flank, the enemy would take advantage of this and shift the full weight of the battle to the other flank. Therefore, it was of great importance that the other heroes not abandon their strategic positions, so that the enemy would not break through the battle formation and be given the opportunity to realize their plan. And this required self-sacrifice from them. Duryodhana felt that the victory of the Kurus depended most of all on Bhismadeva. Along with him, he also placed his hopes in Dronacarya. He remembered how Arjuna's wife, Draupadi, was about to be disrobed before an assembly of the world's great generals. The helpless woman called upon everyone for justice, yet they did not utter a single word. He knew that these two generals shared a certain affection for the Pandavas, but he still hoped that this feeling would not influence their behavior here either, just as had already been manifested during the gambling match between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Again Duryodhana tries to somehow fix this situation, this awkwardness, and encourage his side.
tasya sañjanayan harṣaṁ
kuru-vṛddhaḥ pitāmahaḥ
siṁha-nādaṁ vinadyoccaiḥ
śaṅkhaṁ dadhmau pratāpavān
Then the great, valiant grand sire of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the warriors, Bhisma, blew his conchshell forcefully and uttered a sound like a lion's roar, the resonance of which filled Duryodhana's heart with joy. Purport: The patriarch of the Kuru dynasty understood the inner feelings of his grandson Duryodhana, and as a sign of sympathy and encouragement, he blew his conchshell loudly, which fully befitted Bhisma's lion-like strength. The conchshell was also a symbolic sign in Bhisma's hand, by which he signaled to his wretched, grieving grandson Duryodhana that victory in battle was not destined for him, since the Supreme Lord Krsna was on the opposing side. Nevertheless, it was his duty to fight untiringly. Here Bhisma, who is on Duryodhana's side, realizes that Duryodhana is very frightened, and therefore blows his powerful conchshell and makes a sound like a lion's roar. By this he seemingly wants to encourage him, but at the same time he secretly or subconsciously informs him that victory will be on Krsna's side, that is, on the other side. Why? Because Krsna is on the side of the opposing army—even though He is simply Arjuna's charioteer, wherever Krsna is, victory will be there, and this is their problem. Bhisma did not want at all and had no great desire to fight, especially against the Pandavas, but such is politics, and since he was entangled, he had an obligation to fight on the side of the Kauravas, that is, against the Pandavas. Now let's look at the 13th verse:
tataḥ śaṅkhāś ca bheryaś ca
paṇavānaka-gomukhāḥ
sahasaivābhyahanyanta
sa śabdas tumulo 'bhavat
After that, suddenly there resounded a deafening sound of large and small conchshells, kettledrums, bugles, and horns.
tataḥ śvetair hayair yukte
mahati syandane sthitau
mādhavaḥ pāṇḍavaś caiva
divyau śaṅkhau pradadhmatuḥ
After that, from the opposite side, seated in a magnificent chariot yoked with white horses, Lord Krsna and Arjuna blew their divine conchshells. Purport: Unlike Bhismadeva's conchshell, the conchshells of Krsna and Arjuna are called divine conchshells here. Their sound signaled to the opponent that since Krsna was supporting the Pandavas, they should have no hope of victory.
jayāstu pāṇḍu-putrāṇāṁ yeṣāṁ pakṣe janārdanaḥ
Victory is always on the side of people like the sons of Pāṇḍu, because Lord Krsna is with them. And wherever the Lord is, the goddess of fortune is also with Him. She never leaves her husband, so victory and a bright future awaited Arjuna, as heralded by the transcendental sound of the conchshell of Visnu, or Lord Krsna. In addition, the chariot in which the two friends, the Lord and Arjuna, were sitting this time was presented to Arjuna by Agni, the god of fire. And this indicated the conquest of any country within the three worlds by those sitting in it. If the Kaurava side sounded conchshells, drums, trumpets, and horns, now in response Krsna and Arjuna did the same. The magnificent chariot yoked with white horses in which they sat was given to Arjuna by Agni, the fire god. This is not an ordinary chariot, of course, and it will be victorious in this battle as well. That is one thing. Also, Arjuna's and Krsna's conchshells are referred to as divya, divyau. divyau means two divine conchshells. divya means divinity, divine in Sanskrit. divyau means two. Dual number exists in Sanskrit, just as with us in Georgian, let's say, and also in Svan, by the way, there is a dual number as well. That is to say, if you want to say two, it has a separate number. Here, divyau, this is an indicator of the dual. Now look at the 15th verse:
pāñcajanyaṁ hṛṣīkeśo
devadattaṁ dhanañjayaḥ
pauṇḍraṁ dadhmau mahā-śaṅkhaṁ
bhīma-karmā vṛkodaraḥ
Lord Krsna blew His conchshell, called Pancajanya; Arjuna blew his—Devadatta; and Bhima, the voracious eater and performer of Herculean tasks, blew his terrifying conchshell, called Paundra. Purport: In this verse, Lord Krsna is referred to as Hrisikesa, the director of the senses of the devotees, since all senses belong to Him alone. Living entities are integral parts of the Lord, so their senses also constitute integral parts of the Lord's senses. Impersonalists, by denying the personality of the Supreme, cannot explain the existence of the senses of living entities, so they constantly try to present all living entities as devoid of spiritual senses, that is, impersonal...
The Lord resides in the heart of every living entity and directs their senses. But this happens according to the surrender of the living entity itself. In the case of pure devotees, however, the Lord directly oversees their senses. Here too, on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, He personally directs Arjuna's transcendental senses. Therefore, one of His names is Hrsikesa. According to various events, the Lord is referred to by many names. For example, Madhusudana, because He killed the demon Madhu. Agraja, because He gives pleasure to the cows and senses. Vasudeva, because He appeared on Earth as the son of Vasudeva. Devaki Nandana, because He accepted Devaki as His own mother. Yashoda Nandana, because He bestowed childhood pastimes upon Yashoda in Vrindavana. Partha Sarathi, because He was Arjuna's charioteer. Just so, He is called Hrsikesa, because He directed Arjuna's senses on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. In this verse, Arjuna is referred to as Dhananjaya, because he helped his elder brother, the king, accumulate wealth to defray expenses for performing various sacrifices. Just so, Bhima is known as Vrikodara, because he could eat as much as he performed heroic tasks, even killing the demon Hidimba. Thus, the sound of every conchshell sounded by those on the side of the Pandavas, starting with the Lord's conchshell, added courage to the warriors gathered for battle. The opposing side had no such magnificent heroes. They had no Supreme Leader, Lord Krsna, nor was the goddess of fortune with them. Thus they were doomed to lose the battle. This is precisely what the sound of the conchshells announced to the army stationed on the field of Kuruksetra. Well, this is an amazing verse, isn't it? The purports. That is to say, the names. Look, Krsna is the Absolute Person, meaning He is absolutely spiritual, right? And everything that is an attribute of Krsna, or an object, that He has, or that adorns His body, or everything that is connected with Krsna, so to speak, His personal items and objects, are absolutely one with Krsna, not different from Krsna. In this case, imagine the conchshell that Krsna holds in His hand—it is virtually non-different from Krsna, just as worshipable. This is called Panchajanya, Krsna's conchshell. An amazing name. Arjuna's conchshell was called Devadatta, Bhima's conchshell Paundra. And so on. Now here in this verse, Krsna is mentioned by the name Hrsikesa. Hrishika means—Hrishika means the senses, the sense organs, you know: hands, eyes, nose, tongue, feet. These, by the way, these are also considered senses, right? That is to say, five senses or sense organs are knowledge-acquiring: eyes, ears, nose, tongue as the organ of taste, and skin as the tactile organ of touch, right? And there are five working senses: these are hands, legs, tongue as speech in this case and not as taste-perceiver, genitals, and anus, the organ of evacuation, so to speak. Yes, these are the five knowledge-acquiring and five working senses. Well, this is called Indriya in Sanskrit. And Indriyas, or Hrishika too, right? Look, Hrishikesha is such a city in India, which is simply a name of Krsna. And Isha means master, lord, ruler. Krsna is the master of all senses. That is to say, in reality, all senses must... first let's start with the fact that there are people who think they understand God, they understand the Absolute as impersonal, but in their mind they only meet Brahman, these impersonal rays, this glow, this light. But for them this Person is unacceptable, and they cannot even imagine that God has a personality. Personality means that He too must have senses. For them it is unimaginable that Krsna can walk, Krsna can eat food, and so on. Of course, everything Krsna does is in no way material. That is to say, it is completely different from what is known to us in this world. But whatever is in this world is a perverted reflection of Krsna's reality. Well, in short, just as we have these senses, so does Krsna, of course. Yes, and Krsna also directs all senses, especially those of His devotees. That is, He will make them do everything in the way that will be right. In this case, Krsna ruled Arjuna's senses and directed Arjuna in this battle exactly as was needed. Yes, since Krsna has senses, naturally He has activities too. He does a thousand things. He is not this impersonal Brahman, you see; impersonal Brahman is His effulgence, simply rays subordinate to Him. Yes, because Krsna does many things, right? He even seemingly takes birth, you know, because He is called Devaki-nandana, because He was supposedly born from Devaki. Krsna is not actually born, He always exists, right? But He performs, so to speak, this pastime, sport, as if He is born, which is why He is called Devaki Nandana, the son of Devaki. Or Yashoda Nandana, He gave Yashoda this opportunity to raise Him and be a direct participant and witness of His childhood pastimes. And Partha Sarathi, Krsna is Arjuna's charioteer. So you see He has countless actions, and accordingly He has countless names as well, innumerous. As many waves as there are in the sea, there are that many names of Krsna, and even more. Yes, this is totally unacceptable to impersonalists. How so, what nonsense! Yes, these names of Krsna, all this is some kind of symbols, all this is some metaphorical meaning. By no means—it means directly what is written, because Krsna is material reality. Yes, such a thing. Dhananjaya, well, Arjuna again, well now there are a few stories of Arjuna and his brothers told here in the purports. Dhananjaya, Dhananjaya, one name of Arjuna means that he is a winner of wealth. Because he was a warrior, he was a king, from a royal family, he needed wealth. Why did he need it? Not to use it for his own pleasure, but to perform those pious deeds, to perform those sacrifices to satisfy Krsna and so on. Well, okay, let me continue. Here three verses are already combined: Verses 16, 17, and 18.
Anantavijayaṁ rājā
Kuntīputro Yudhiṣṭhiraḥ
Nakulaḥ Sahadevaś ca
Sugoṣa-maṇipuṣpakau
Kāśyaś ca parameṣv-āsaḥ
Śikhaṇḍī ca mahā-rathaḥ
Dhṛṣṭadyumno Virāṭaś ca
Sātyakir cāparājitaḥ
Drupado Draupadeyāś ca
sarvaśaḥ pṛthivī-pate
Saubhadraś ca mahā-bāhuḥ
śaṅkhān dadhmuḥ pṛthak pṛthak
King Yudhisthira, the son of Kunti, blew his conchshell Anantavijaya; Nakula and Sahadeva blew the conchshells Sugosha and Manipushpaka. Along with them, the great archer the King of Kasi, the mighty fighter Shikhandi, Dhrstadyumna, Virata, the unconquerable Satyaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupadi, and others, O King, such as the mighty-armed son of Subhadra, all sounded their respective conchshells. Purport: Sanjaya tactfully addressed King Dhrtarastra that his shortsighted, wild policy, his attempt to deceive the sons of Pandu and raise his own sons to the throne, was not commendable. Many signs already clearly foretold that in this great battle the entire Kuru dynasty would perish, starting with grandfather Bhishma and ending with the grandsons, who were Abhimanyu and others. Including the kings of the world, everyone without exception was doomed to death. And the cause of all this misfortune was King Dhrtarastra, because he supported the flaws of his sons. Really, these are terrible scenes, you know, that so many—they say 600 million men died in this battle. That is to say,
So many people perishing. And the reason for this was one: that Dhrtarastra, blind, acting king at that time, so to speak—because his brother had passed away, and since he was blind he couldn't become king, but he held the position of king temporarily, so to speak—he strongly supported his sons. And these sons had the most terrible intentions towards their cousins, to whom this royal throne actually belonged, especially Yudhishthira, the eldest brother; they wanted to exile them and do everything to remove them from the royal throne. So the father, their father Dhrtarastra, supported this. This caused almost the entire population of the world to be wiped out in the end. This was it—good and bad people died here, but since no one actually dies, in reality the soul simply changes bodies, and all this was Krsna's plan, which is why this battle took place. This does not mean that all wars are justified. This was a special war; it was the kind of war where it was necessary to kill so many demons. Yes, well, this is something arranged by Krsna, so by no means does this text justify unnecessary wars that are taking place today and that we know from history. Sorry. Verse nineteen:
sa ghoṣo dhārtarāṣṭrāṇāṁ
hṛdayāni vyadārayat
nabhaś ca pṛthivīṁ caiva
tumulo 'vyanunādayan
The blowing of these different conchshells became tumultuous. Vibrating both through the sky and the earth, it shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhrtarastra. Purport: At the sound of Bhishma's conchshell and the conchshells of the other supporters, the Pandavas were not frightened. No such thing is mentioned anywhere. But in this very verse it is indicated that the sounds produced by the supporters of the Pandavas indeed shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhrtarastra. The reason for the Pandavas' perseverance was the faith of the Pandavas themselves in Lord Krsna. One who has taken shelter in the Supreme Lord has nothing to fear even in the greatest trial. Verse twenty, and let's finish with this today:
atha vyavasthitān dṛṣṭvā
dhārtarāṣṭrān kapi-dhvajaḥ
pravṛtte śastra-sampāte
dhanur udyamya pāṇḍavaḥ
hṛṣīkeśaṁ tadā vākyam
idam āha mahī-pate
At that time Arjuna, the son of Pandu, seated on the chariot bearing the flag marked with Hanuman, took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows. O King, looking at the sons of Dhrtarastra drawn up in battle array, Arjuna then spoke these words to Lord Krsna. Purport: The battle was just about to begin. It appears that the sons of Dhrtarastra were more or less disturbed by such an unexpected arrangement of the Pandavas' military forces and by the fact that Lord Krsna Himself was directing them on the battlefield. The emblem of Hanuman on Arjuna's flag is also a sign of victory, since Hanuman helped Lord Rama in the battle against Ravana, in which Lord Rama emerged victorious. Now both Rama and Hanuman were present on Arjuna's chariot to help him. Lord Krsna is Rama Himself, and wherever Lord Rama is, His eternal servant Hanuman and His eternal consort Sita, the goddess of fortune, are with Him. What then did Arjuna have to fear? Furthermore, Lord Krsna, the master of the senses, was personally with him as a leader, from whom Arjuna could receive any necessary advice regarding the conduct of the battle. All these auspicious conditions, which the Lord...