Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre

The Bhagavad Gita opens with a question. The blind king Dhritarashtra, sitting far away in his palace at Hastinapur, asks his minister Sanjay: "On the sacred field of Kurukshetra, my sons and the sons of Pandu gathered, eager to fight. What did they do, Sanjay?" It is the question of a father gripped by anxiety, and of a king desperate for news.

Notice the word Dhritarashtra uses: Dharmakshetra, the field of dharma. He knows that Kurukshetra is holy ground. Where dharma stands, adharma cannot hold for long. Perhaps a quiet fear stirs in him. Will the sacred soil change his sons' hearts? Will they waver?

This single question is the doorway to the entire Gita. What begins as a father's anxious inquiry unfolds into Krishna's complete teaching on duty, knowledge, and devotion.

This is the very first shloka of the Bhagavad Gita. In the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, the sage Vedavyasa granted Sanjay divine sight, allowing him to witness every event on the Kurukshetra battlefield while sitting in the palace at Hastinapur. Dhritarashtra, being blind from birth, relies entirely on Sanjay's account.

This shloka begins the first chapter, called Arjuna Vishada Yoga (The Yoga of Arjuna's Grief). The chapter covers the scene before battle: both armies arrayed, warriors named, and Arjuna's rising despair at seeing his own family on the opposing side.