Contents
Gita Madhurya -Swami Ramsukhdas
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
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After the expiration of twelve years of exile and residing in an unknown place for one year, the Pandavas demanded half of their kingdom from Duryodhana as was his promise, but he refused to give even as much land as could be covered by the point of a needle, without waging war. The Pandavas sought permission from their mother Kunti and accepted the challenge of the war. After this decision both the Kauravas and the Pandavas began preparation for it. Sage Vedavyasa had great affection for Dhrtarastra the blind king of Hastinapura. Due to his affection he said to Dhrtarastra, "War and massacre of the Ksatriyas is inevitable. If you want to see the scene of the battlefield, I can endow you with divine insight so as to enable you to sec the scene of war from the place you are sitting." Dhrtarastra said, "I have been blind all my life. Now I do not want to see the slaughter of my own kith and kin. But I want to hear the details of the war." Then Sage Vyasa said. "I endow Sanjaya with this divine insight by which he will know, hear and see not only the incidents of the battlefield but also 11 the ideas in the minds of the warriors and will narrate them to you." Saying so Sage Vyasa endowed Sanjaya with the divine vision. The battle started on the battlefield of Kuruksetra at the appointed hour. Sanjaya stayed in the battlefield for ten days. When Bhisma being badly wounded with the arrows, fell off the chariot, Sanjaya conveyed the message to Dhrtarastra, who at that time was present in Hastinapura. Hearing this news Dhrtarastra was filled with sorrow and started weeping. Then he asked Sanjaya to narrate to him all the details of the war. Upto the twenty-fourth chapter of the Bhisma Parva (section), Sanjaya narrated the incidents of the war. In the beginning of the twenty-fifth chapter Dhrtarastra asks Sanjaya |
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