Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Seeing all these Bhisma feel pity about Duryodhana what is the use of all these now the time for war has come let us fight.

Bg 1.12

tasya sañjanayan harṣaṁ
kuru-vṛddhaḥ pitāmahaḥ
siṁha-nādaṁ vinadyoccaiḥ
śaṅkhaṁ dadhmau pratāpavān

Word for word: 

tasya — his; sañjanayan — increasing; harṣam — cheerfulness; kuru–vṛddhaḥ — the grandsire of the Kuru dynasty (Bhīṣma); pitāmahaḥ — the grandfather; siṁha–nādam — roaring sound, like that of a lion; vinadya — vibrating; uccaiḥ — very loudly; śaṅkham — conchshell; dadhmau — blew; pratāpa–vān — the valiant.

Translation: 

Then Bhīṣma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the fighters, blew his conchshell very loudly, making a sound like the roar of a lion, giving Duryodhana joy.

tasya sañjanayan harṣaṁ, his harṣaṁ his joy is increasing who is tasya? That is Duryodhana, increasing the joy of Duryodhana 

kuru-vṛddhaḥ pitāmahaḥ, kuru-vṛddhaḥ is he is elderly, pitāmahaḥ, pitāmahaḥ refers to the grand shier grand father, we discuss how he is grand father he is from the same generation as the grand father although he doesn’t have any sons.

siṁha-nādaṁ vinadyoccaiḥ, he blew his Shankh.

Pratāpavān, he is valiant pratāp he has got tremendous courage and power and when he blew up his conchshell the sound which came was like roar of lion 

Bhisma was a fascinating character. Having being lived in palaces and maintain celibacy is great (as all beautiful ladies /maid servants were there in the palace and all other opulence were present), to maintain celibacy was a very difficult task in that situation.

In Vedic time women can be Bramchari in spirit (Bramacharte eti bramchari – spirituality). All the women have to marry, polygon was allowed in some cases when they can take proper care of many wives. In Kaluga it is not required as maintaining one family with one wife is difficult we should not have to complicate our material life.

Bhisma having been taken vow to protect throne of Kuru and also he has enjoyed money of kurus these are two external reason for him being side of Kaurav, but it was actually Lord’s will, Lord wanted to give this lesson to the world that no matter how much powerful one may be if he is on the side of adharma he will be destroyed. He has defeated all kshtriya when he abducted the 3 queens for his princes. He has fought with Lord Parsuram for 27 days, he not only equaled him in war but almost defeated him, in that war at the end sound from sky came and instructed Bhisma not to kill Parasuram as he is a brahmana.

End of transcription.