700th Verse of Bhagwad Geeta

ARTICLE NO 19: 25TH OCT 2011: TUESDAY (13TH DAY). Loud thinking on the 700TH verse of Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta .It states : “YATRA YOGESHWARAH KRISHNO YATRA PARTHO DHANURDHARAH TATRA SHRIRVIJAYO BHUTIRDHRUVA NEETIRMATIRMAMAH “ First let me try a verbatim translation: “The Victory and wealth shall be permanently on that side where Arjun is holding the bow and where there is Lord Shrikrishna “ Let us rearrange : “The victory and wealth shall remain on that side where none other than Lord Shrikrishna is available for guidance and where Arjun ,holding the bow is geared up to carry out Lord’s instructions ; this is what I think “ “Sanjaya says : To my mind , wherever Lord himself is present for providing the guidance and wherever Arjuna is poised to execute His instructions the victory and wealth have to be available on a permanent basis “ Now a liberal transcription: This is the final verse of The Bhagwad Geeta. Here the Eighteenth chapter is going to conclude. So the entire knowledge and teaching of Geeta has to be retold in a way that could be easy to remember and follow. Lord Shrikrishna has been described in many ways throughout the Geeta . for example : Hrishikesh, Keshav, Madhusudan , Krishna , Achyut etc. But in the last verse, Shrikrishna is being addressed as “YOGESHWARAH”. Why so ? I think because it is implied that the teacher is “ Yogeshwarah” . What’s yoga ? Geeta describes “ Samtwam yogah uchyate “ yoga means equality, lack of bias or prejudice. In the 9th chapter of Geeta ,the word Yoga has been used as “ YOGKSHEMA VAHAMYAHAM “ means providing what’s not there ( YOGA ) and protecting what has been provided ( KSHEMA ) On similar lines, Arjuna has also been described by other adjectives such as “Partha, Dhananjaya, and Kaunteya etc. However, in this verse, Arjuna has been addressed as the “Partha Dhanurdharah “Why this repetition? Partha itself was adequate to tell about Arjuna .Why then “Dhanurdharah Partha”? My view: Shrikrishna symbolises the Guru or the teacher and Arjuna the Shishya or the disciple. Dhanurdharah adjective has been used to describe Arjuna in the posture of readiness. He actively possesses the bow. He is on a standby mode for the task. He just needs a signal from Teacher. After receiving signal, there shall not be any delay. That kind of alertness is implied. Here Kaunteya (Son of Kunti) is not used to describe Arjuna. There is one more thing .The second line emphasizes that both “Shree “and “Vijay” shall be eternally on that side where Yogeshwarah Krishna and Dhanurdhari Arjuna are present “ What is this Shree? It has got many hues such as “Lakshmi, wealth, prosperity, stability, durability, longevity, money, esteem, respect or any virtues which make a person truly respectable in the society. What’s Vijay? It’s Victory, winning, decision in one’s favour. So is “Shree” end result of “Vijaya”? Or” Vijaya” implies the possession of “Shree “? To my mind Shree and Vijaya are two sides of the same coin. Then why there is this repetition? “Shree r Vijayo “? Or maybe the word Shree is prefixed to Vijay to indicate that it shall be a well deserved victory?