Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 1.11

ayaneṣu ca sarveṣu
yathā-bhāgam avasthitāḥ
bhīṣmam evābhirakṣantu
bhavantaḥ sarva eva hi

Word for word: 

ayaneṣu — in the strategic points; ca — also; sarveṣu — everywhere; yathā–bhāgam — as differently arranged;avasthitāḥ — situated; bhīṣmam — unto Grandfather Bhīṣma; eva — certainly; abhirakṣantu — should give support; bhavantaḥ — you; sarve — all respectively; eva hi — certainly.

Translation: 

All of you must now give full support to Grandfather Bhīṣma, as you stand at your respective strategic points of entrance into the phalanx of the army.

 

ayaneṣu ca sarveṣu, so now all of you are situated in different places

yathā-bhāgam avasthitāḥ, which are the strategic place you are situated in 

bhīṣmam evābhirakṣantu, all of you should protect Bhisma

bhavantaḥ sarva eva hi, he has looked at all other warriors and he has used the respectful word bhavantaḥ and said you all have your strategic points and you all protect your strategic points and you attack from them so Bhisma is our commander and he may caught-up in fighting at a particular point and he may not be able to pay attention to all other points and all of you also play important roles so he is trying to get everyone involved.

So we can see from political point of view Duryodhana is expert we can see that even his speech is thoughtful, so we may think that duryodhana is an impressive character he is thinking so much before speaking each word yes that is true but we have to see that a person caliber is determined not just by the expertise of the person’s speech but by the purity of the person’s motive and his motives are not pure and his motives are filled with greed and anger filled with envy. In Mahabharata Duryodhana was considered personification of adharma and an incarnation of Kali who came to start off kaliyuga, he was amsa of kali.

If a person is expert in speaking and thinking it is good but more important is what is his heart what is his intention. If a person has good intention and expert in speaking it is best.

If a person is expert in speaking but his intention is evil then it is like 

Maninam Bhusanam Sharpah Kim Asonah Bhayankarah

e.g. A serpent is decorated by jewels, so jewels is attractive but serpent is still dangerous, and instead of being cautious because of seeing the serpent we become attracted by seeing the jewel and we go towards him instead of away from him.

Sometimes people with demonic propensities have material skills and expertise we get enamored by that and because of that we may lower our guard down and start appreciating admiring them and become contaminated by their godless materialistic immoral ideas so we have to be couscous so we should see the intentions and not just the skills possessed by the individuals and from that we should judge the character.

Even in spiritual things we should not just get attracted by the good speech.

We have to be cautious by seeing intention and character of people.  One of the prominent characters in kaliyuga is Sabda Capalyam, expert in word jugglery is considered as sign of scholarship.

End of transcription.