As you know, in the first shloka of the Giitá it has been said –

Who said? Dhritarastra said. What did he say? Who is Dhritarastra? Dhrta means “holding” or “holder”, dhárańkárii or dhartá, and ráśt́ra means “structure”, “framework”. So dhrtaráśt́ra means “the holder of this physical structure”, “holder of this physical framework”. Who is the holder of this physical structure? The mind. When the mind gets dissociated from the physical body, the physical body ceases to function, it starts decomposing. So Dhrtaráśt́ra uváca means “The question came from the mind,” “the mind asked.”

And you know, without the help of the viveka, the conscience, the mind is nothing but a blind force. The mind is a blind force if there is want of conscience, if there is want of viveka. What was Dhritarastra? He was janmándha [born blind]. He could not see, because the mind is a blind force; to see, the mind requires the help of the conscience. Sam – ji + al = saiṋjaya. Saiṋjaya means “conscience”. Dhritarastra asked Sanjaya, that is, the conscience:

Dharmakśetre Kurukśetre samavetáh yuyutsavah;
Mámakáh Páńd́avashcaeva kim akurvata Saiṋjaya.

[“O Sanjaya, now that my children and the children of Pandu have gathered on the battlefield of Dharmakśetra, of Kurukśetra, eager to fight, what is taking place?”]

Bho Saiṋjaya vada⁽¹⁾ [“O Sanjaya, tell me”]. Asmin Dharmakśetre Kurukśetre [“On this field of dharma, on this field of the universe”] yuddhárthaḿ [“for war”] samavetáh [“gathered”] mamapakśiiyáh [“my party”] mámakáh [“my people”] Páńd́avaschcaeva [“and the Pandavas”] Páńdupakśiiyaca [“and the Pandava party”] te kim akurvata [“what are they doing?”]. Bho Saiṋjaya vada [“O Sanjaya, tell me”].

“O Sanjaya, say, in this battle of Dharmakśetra and Kurukśetra, when two belligerent parties came – that is, my party and the party of Pandu – what did they do? O Sanjaya, you can see; O conscience, you can see,” said the blind mind, Dhritarastra.

Now this fight is going on between the evil force and the good force. They are the two belligerent parties, and they will be belligerent forever. Now, a good man is to strengthen merit, a good man is to strengthen the puńya shakti [virtuous force] and fight against the pápa shakti [sinful force] both within and without.

What is Dharmakśetra? This physical body is dharmakśetra, because in this physical body you are to perform dharma [and kśetra = “field”]. Without a physical body nobody can perform dharma, and that’s why it is said that even the gods will have to take human structure, human framework, if they want to perform dharma. And certainly you are blessed beings, because you are in human structure; you are certainly fortunate, because you are in human framework. So this is dharmakśetra.

And Kurukśetra. What is Kurukśetra? The root verb kr + the imperative hi: that is, imperative mood, second person. Kuru means “do” – the imperative mood. Kurukśetra means the field that is always saying: “Do something, O man, do something. Don’t sit idle – do something. Be engaged in [[work]]”. That field is kurukśetra. So what is kurukśetra? This world is kurukśetra. You have come, you have to do something. So “In this world, kurukśetra, and in this physical body, dharmakśetra, what were Páńdupakśiiya [the Pandavas] and Dhritarastra’s Kaoravapakśiiya [the Kaoravas] doing? O Sanjaya, let me know.”

Samavetáh yuyutsavah [“gathered eager to fight”]. In this physical world, and within this physical structure, two belligerent parties have appeared, one belonging to Pandu and the other belonging to the Kaoravas. Now who are the Pandavas? Páńd́u + śńa = Páńd́ava, “pertaining to páńd́u”. Páńd́u means “[the path to] Self-realization”: Átmajiṋánam, or vedojjvalá jiṋána – “I am He, He is I” – this idea is called pańd́á. One who has acquired pańd́á is called a pańd́ita – Ahaḿ Brahmásmiiti buddhih támitah práptah pańd́itah. And one who is a seeker for knowledge, that man seeking knowledge, moving towards knowledge, moving towards acquiring this supreme knowledge, is called páńd́eya. In North India, you know, there is a title Páńd́eya, Pánd́ejii? The original word was páńd́eya.

Now, Páńd́upakśiiya means five phases of internal development, five phases of exaltation, starting from the supreme negativity, the kulakuńd́alinii, and proceeding towards the supreme positivity, the controlling point of the pineal gland. This movement is divided into five phases, from the crude to the subtle. The lowermost is – what? Sahadeva, that is, the crudest base. Then the next final one is Nakúla. Na means “not”, and kúla means “bank”, “coast”, “shore”. Yasya kúlam násti nakúlah means apatattva, or jalatattva, the aquatic structure, the aquatic sphere.⁽²⁾ Then Arjuna. “Arjuna” means “energy”, indra, kriyáshakti, in the navel portion of the body. Then comes pavanaputra Bhima, the gaseous portion, the anáhata cakra.⁽³⁾ Bhima was called “Pavananandana”, that is, “Controller of Air”, the controller of the aerial factor. Then comes the vishuddha cakra,⁽⁴⁾ that is, the controlling point of the ethereal structure, the ethereal plane – that is, Yudhisthira – “that which maintains the balance”. Ether exists, but it does not come within the scope of the sensory organs. Yudhi means “in battle” and sthira means “fixed”, “stationary”. That is, the entity that maintains its balance even in war is yudhi + sthira = yudhiśt́hira.

These are the five Pandavas, that is, five phases of human development, starting from the supreme negativity and moving towards the supreme positivity. The fight is between this sádhaná márga [path of spiritual practice] – the movement from the lowermost point to the uppermost point – on the one side, and, on the other side, mámakáh, that is, “my party”. “My party” means the party of Dhritarastra.

Now, who are the parties of Dhrtarastra? Dhrtaráśt́ra, as I said, means the blind mind that cannot see anything without the help of conscience, without the help of the saiṋjaya, without the help of the viveka. The blind mind functions in ten directions – púrva, pashcima, uttara, dakśińa, urdhva, adhah, iishána, váyu, agni, naerta – with the help of ten indriyas;⁽⁵⁾ so its movement, that is, the internal and external movement of the blind mind, will be ten times ten, that is, one hundred directions. That is, the blind mind, the depraving mind, the degenerating mind, functions in one hundred directions. That is why it is said that Dhritarastra had one hundred sons. On one side there are five Pandavas, and on the other side there are one hundred Kaoravas. This is the fight between merit and demerit, puńya and pápa, good forces and evil forces. This fight is going on within each and every physical structure, in each and every family, in each and every village, town, country, and in the entire Cosmos. But the blind mind cannot see properly, cannot understand it properly. It will have to take the help of the saiṋjaya, the conscience, to know all these things, to know the details of the fight – the fight that takes place between these two belligerent parties. Bho Saiṋjaya kathaya – so Dhritarastra says: “O Sanjaya, please let me know what has been the result of the fight.”

Footnotes

(1) After quoting the shloka as it appears in the Bhagavad Giitá, above, the author now proceeds to give a prose Sanskrit paraphrase. –Trans.

(2) For further explanation of the name “Nakúla”, see “Spiritual Lessons of the Giitá – 3”. –Trans.

(3) The fourth psycho-spiritual centre, or plexus, located at the mid-point of the chest. –Trans.

(4) The fifth psycho-spiritual centre, or plexus, located at the throat. –Trans.

(5) An indriya is a sensory or motor organ, together with its respective nerves, nerve fluid, and site in the brain. –Trans.