We are still in the first chapter. In this case, we continue from the twenty-first and twenty-second verses.
om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
arjuna uvāca
senayor ubhayor madhye
rathaṁ sthāpaya me 'cyuta
yāvad etān nirīkṣe 'haṁ
yoddhu-kāmān avasthitān
kair mayā saha yoddhavyam
asmin raṇa-samudyame
Arjuna said: O infallible one, please draw my chariot between the two armies so that I may see those present here who desire to fight, with whom I must contend in this great battle.
Purport:
Although Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, out of His uncaused mercy He was engaged in the service of His friend, Arjuna. He never fails in His affection for His devotees, and thus He is addressed herein as infallible. As a charioteer, He had to carry out the orders of Arjuna, and since He did not hesitate to do so, He is addressed as infallible. Although He had accepted the position of a charioteer for His devotee, His supreme position was not diminished. In all circumstances, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hrishikesha, the lord of all senses. The relationship between the Lord and His servitor is very sweet and transcendental. The servitor is always ready to render service to the Lord, and similarly, the Lord is always seeking an opportunity to render some service to the devotee. He takes more pleasure in taking orders from His pure devotee than in giving orders. Since He is master, everyone is under His orders, and there is no one to order Him. But when He finds a pure devotee ordering Him, He obtains transcendental pleasure, although He is the infallible master in all circumstances. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Arjuna had no desire to fight with his cousins and brothers, but he was forced to come onto the battlefield by the obstinacy of Duryodhana, who was never agreeable to any peaceful negotiation. Therefore, he was very anxious to see who the leading persons present on the battlefield were. Although there was no question of a peace endeavor on the battlefield, he wanted to see them again, and to see how much they were bent upon demanding an unwanted war. What do we see here? Up until now, the talk was about preparations being underway, everything is just about to start, and not only that, Krishna and Arjuna have already blown their conchshells, and also the Pandavas blew their very powerful conchshells from one side, and the opponents from the other side, and in short, a great battle is about to begin. At this time, Arjuna gets the desire to look at whom he has to fight, and he asks the Lord: "Take me close," to Krishna, "that is, place my chariot in the middle between the two armies so that I can take a good look at who is standing there on the opposing side." And so begins, so to speak, the intensifying of the plot in this case. Now, Arjuna is a devotee of Krishna, and Krishna is the Supreme Lord, but it is very... this is something unique, something brilliant, which we only see in the Vaishnava tradition. God Himself is the servant of His devotee, standing as his charioteer. Can you imagine? Can you imagine, He executes his order, and why? Of course, He takes orders from no one, but His devotee subdues Him so much with his love that Krishna enjoys fulfilling his desire or even order more than ordering something to the devotee Himself. This is a fact, this is the nature of love; true love is like this. There is no great or small there. Here, on the contrary, the more you serve Krishna, the more He wants to return everything to you in service. This is the extraordinary nature of the relationship with Krishna. Verse 23:
yotsyamānān avekṣe 'haṁ
ya ete 'tra samāgatāḥ
dhārtarāṣṭrasya durbuddher
yuddhe priya-cikīrṣavaḥ
"Let me see those who have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra."
Purport:
It was an open secret that Duryodhana wanted to usurp the kingdom of the Pandavas by evil plans, in league with his father, Dhritarashtra. Therefore, all the kings who joined the side of Duryodhana must have been birds of the same feather. Arjuna wanted to see them on the battlefield before the fight began, to know who they were and to evaluate their strength, but he had no intention of proposing peace negotiations with them. It was also a fact that he wanted to see them to estimate the strength of the enemy, although he was confident of victory because Krishna was sitting by his side. Text 24:
sañjaya uvāca
evam ukto hṛṣīkeśo
guḍākeśena bhārata
senayor ubhayor madhye
sthāpayitvā rathottamam
Sanjaya said: O descendant of Bharata, having thus been addressed by Arjuna, Lord Krishna drew up the finest chariot in the midst of the armies of both parties.
Purport:
In this verse Arjuna is called Gudakesha. Gudaka means sleep, and one who conquers sleep is called gudakesha. Sleep also means ignorance. Thus Arjuna conquered both sleep and ignorance because of his friendship with Krishna. As a great devotee of Krishna, he could not forget Krishna even for a moment, because that is the nature of a devotee. Either in waking or in sleep, a devotee of the Lord can never free himself from thinking of Krishna’s name, form, qualities, and pastimes. Thus a devotee of Krishna can conquer both sleep and ignorance simply by thinking of Krishna constantly. This is called Krishna consciousness, or samadhi. As Hrishikesha, or the director of the senses and mind of every living entity, Krishna could understand Arjuna’s purpose in placing the chariot in the midst of the armies. Thus He did so, and spoke the following words. Gudakesha means the conqueror of sleep. Sleep is equated with ignorance, because in sleep you no longer remember anything, and this state is equivalent to ignorance.
Arjuna conquered this sleep. How did he conquer it? Because he always remembered Krishna — both while awake and while sleeping. Always, throughout the day and night, 24 hours a day, he never forgot Krishna, and that is precisely how he conquered it. By the way, for devotees (now speaking of those who are realized, of course), sleep, just like eating or fulfilling other bodily needs, is less important, and they have reduced it to a minimum. We know this, for example, from the example of the Six Goswamis, who ate so little that another person might simply collapse, die, unable to endure it. Or they slept for two hours, usually no more, because you are forced to give the body this rest; the body forces you to do so because it is like a certain machine after all, it needs this rest, and that's why. By the way, imitating this is a very great foolishness and absolutely forbidden, because if you imitate this, everything will simply end up with you sleeping even more and eating even more, meaning you cannot do this artificially. This will come naturally when you achieve realization. The more you are purified and realize that you are not this body, but a soul to whom bodily needs do not pertain at all and are not needed, the more the time you devote to fulfilling these needs will decrease and be brought to an absolute minimum. Until you reach this, Krishna advises us in the Bhagavad-gita: one who eats too much or too little, who sleeps too much or sleeps too little, who works too much or works too little, cannot be a yogi. That is, the golden balance is to be found in this. Verse 25:
bhīṣma-droṇa-pramukhataḥ
sarveṣāṁ ca mahī-kṣitām
uvāca pārtha paśyaitān
samavetān kurūn iti
In the presence of Bhishma, Drona, and all the other leaders of the world, the Lord said: Behold, Partha, all the Kurus gathered here.
Purport: As the Supersoul abiding in the heart of every living entity, Lord Krishna understood what thoughts were turning in Arjuna's mind. The word Hrishikesha used in the previous verse indicates precisely that the Lord is omniscient. Regarding Arjuna, the word Partha, meaning the son of Pritha, or Kunti, is noteworthy. By this, as a friend, Krishna said to Arjuna: since Arjuna was the son of Pritha, the sister of Krishna's father Vasudeva, He agreed to become Arjuna's charioteer. So, what did Krishna mean when He said to Arjuna: "Behold the Kurus"? Did He perhaps want Arjuna to stop and thereby step away from the battle? But Krishna knew beforehand that His cousin, the son of Pritha, would never make such a decision. Therefore, this was a friendly joke by which the Lord signaled to Arjuna that He already knew his thoughts. A lot of knowledge is often contained in these verses. When He uses names, say, either Krishna or conversely Arjuna, these names are not chosen by chance. Partha means the son of Pritha, or Kunti. Kunti was Arjuna's mother, and Pritha was Krishna's aunt, that is, the sister of His father, Vasudeva. So this means that Krishna pointed out to Arjuna: "You are Partha, look..." Know that you are My cousin. And He also knew that he would not change his mind about stopping this fight. In short, it was like a certain joke by which the Lord signaled to Arjuna that He already knew his thoughts. You know what, for some reason I think my microphone has a problem, so today we will finish here and continue in the near future. Thank you, Hare Krishna!