Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 1, Verse 7: Arjuna to Krishna — Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga
Know them well, O best among the twice-born: I name the outstanding commanders of my army so you have a clear picture of our forces.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
Duryodhana catalogues the distinguished (viśiṣṭāḥ) among his forces and bids Droṇa know them — not from any principle, but from the ego's compulsive need to count, possess, and secure. The very act of naming commanders for identification (saṃjñārtham) is the ahaṃkāra (ego-sense) at work: dividing an undivided field into 'mine' and 'theirs,' assigning identity-tags to what is in truth one undifferentiated consciousness. Śaṅkara would note the address dvijottama ('best of twice-borns') as a further play of māyā — flattery deployed to conscript the teacher into the project of saṃsāra.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
Duryodhana, having surveyed the Pāṇḍava host guarded by Bhīma and his own host guarded by Bhīṣma, perceived the insufficiency of his army for victory and fell inwardly despondent (viṣaṇṇaḥ) before his teacher; he then enumerated the viśiṣṭāḥ (distinguished ones) not in pride but in anxious supplication — offering Droṇa a full accounting so that the Bhagavān's sarva-kāraṇa-niyāmaka (universal governing intelligence), incarnate as the charioteer of Arjuna, might be contextually met. For Rāmānuja, this inventory of warriors is a scene within the divine drama: every jīva named here — commander or foot-soldier — exists as a mode (prakāra) of Bhagavān's body, being led, unknowingly, toward the Bhagavān's purpose.
- Madhvadvaita
Duryodhana names the viśiṣṭāḥ — the distinguished — on his side, each warrior an eternally distinct jīva (individual soul), never to be conflated with Hari or with one another. The address dvijottama to Droṇa is exact: Droṇa is a specific, irreducible individual whose svarūpa (essential nature) is permanently other than Duryodhana's. Madhva reads this catalogue of names as confirmation that real multiplicity is real: these are not illusions of an undivided consciousness, but genuine persons each standing in a graded relationship of dependence (pāratantrya) upon Hari — and Duryodhana, in mustering them for his own ends, is deploying divine property without acknowledging the true owner.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Duryodhana's anxious tallying of viśiṣṭāḥ — 'know, O dvijottama, the outstanding ones on our side' — is Kṛṣṇa's own līlā (divine play) unfolding: the proud king is unwittingly a pawn in the rasanāṭaka (drama of divine delight), his boast of commanders a note in a score that Śrī Kṛṣṇa has already composed. For Vallabha, even Duryodhana's viṣāda (despondency perceived by his teacher) is prasāda (grace) in disguised form — the contraction before the great illumination that will be given to Arjuna. The naming of commanders is not strategy; it is the world-stage set by Puruṣottama for his own relish.
- Śrīdharabhakti
Duryodhana turns to Droṇa with a direct summons: 'Attend (nibodha — budhyasva), O best of twice-borns; I speak to you the leaders (nāyakāḥ — netāraḥ) of my army for the purpose of accurate, complete knowledge (saṃjñārtham — samyagjñānārtham).' The particle tu (here rendered 'on our side') marks the contrast — not merely enumerating, but distinguishing our viśiṣṭāḥ against theirs already catalogued. Śrīdhara's gloss saṃjñārtham = samyagjñānārtham is precise: Duryodhana is not boasting but ensuring his teacher holds an unambiguous, complete picture of the Kaurava command structure before the conches sound.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
The particle tu (but) performs double duty, as Madhusūdana sees it: it conceals an inner arising of fear (antarotpannam api bhayam tirodhānam) and instead projects boldness (dhṛṣṭatā). Duryodhana says 'know the viśiṣṭāḥ — those excelling above all' with the verb nibodha meaning 'hold it as certainty from my word' — the bhvādi-class parasmaipadin budh, not mere hearing. Saṃjñārtham is glossed precisely: by naming a few (katicinnamabhiḥ gṛhītvā), the remainder are indicated by inference (pariśiṣṭānupalakṣayitum). The address dvijottama is calculated flattery: Duryodhana, by praising Droṇa's brāhmaṇa-hood, simultaneously implies that a brāhmaṇa (yuddhākuśalaḥ — inexpert in war) facing hesitation cannot really diminish the army, since the kṣatriya-heroes Bhīṣma and others will carry the battle regardless — a subtle, cutting reassurance wrapped in praise.