Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

So Arjuna continued his request why he wanted to go there?

Bg 1.23

 yotsyamānān avekṣe ’haṁ

ya ete ’tra samāgatāḥ

dhārtarāṣṭrasya durbuddher

yuddhe priya-cikīrṣavaḥ

Word for word: 

yotsyamānān — those who will be fighting; avekṣe — let me see; aham — I; ye — who; ete — those; atra — here;samāgatāḥ — assembled; dhārtarāṣṭrasya — for the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra; durbuddheḥ — evil-minded; yuddhe — in the fight; priya — well; cikīrṣavaḥ — wishing.

Translation: 

Let me see those who have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

yotsyamānān avekṣe ’haṁ, avekṣe means to see, so I wanted to see yotsyamānān those who have come to fight

ya ete ’tra samāgatāḥ, those are assembled over here

dhārtarāṣṭrasya, here it is referred as son of Dhritarastra not all the sons but specially one obstinate son Durbuddher i.e. Duryodhana 

yuddhe priya-cikīrṣavaḥ, desiring his success, who could be desiring his success? how could they be siding on such a person who is a personification of irreligion. On a large number gathering to fight, is it really true that all these people are fighting on his side! I want to see it avekṣe ’haṁ.

So we will see there, the word “I” is coming so much here Eksha, avekṣe means “to see” that has root Eksha.

In the previous verse, it is used as Nirikshe Aham.

So Avekse and Nirikshe.

Nirikshe is used in 21.c (in 21 & 22 1.5 verses are made as 2)

So in 21 to 23 many times “I” is used.

BG is like a nested dialog, meaning dialogs happening at multiple levels. There is a dialog between Sri Krishna and Arjuna which is going to start, then there is a dialog between Dhritarastra and Sanjaya which is second level and beyond that, whole Mahabharat is a conversation between JanmeJaya who was son of Parikshit and Vasampayan Rishi who is narrating full Mahabharat to JanmeJaya.

So, now camera is moved back to Sanjaya speaking to Dhritarashtra, the camera moved from Kurushetra to Hastinapur and in Hastinapur what is reported is being described.

End of transcription.