Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 -Arjuna Vishada Yoga - Sloka 1

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbahavananda's translation of  The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

Chapter 1 - Sloka 1

Dhrtharashtra uvacha

Dharmakshetre kurukshetre samaveta yuyutsavah I

mamakah pandavas chai va kim akurvata sanjaya II

Dhrtharashtra said,

"Gathered together at Kurukshetra, the field of religious activities , what, O Sanjaya, did my war inclined sons and those of Pandu do?"

Sanjaya is the name of Dhrtharashtra's minister. Literally the word Sanjaya means - He whose victory is decisive. True to his name, Sanjaya had mastery both over his mind and senses. He was not given to partiality or predispositions.Truthfulness and straightforwardness were his characteristics. Because of these virtues, Sage Vyasa temporarily bestowed on him the power to cognize intuitively all that took place at the war front and he communicated them faithfully to his blind monarch. 

The conflict between the contending cousin groups was too sharp to be squared up. One stood for righteousness and possessed legitimate claim to the kingdom. The other was out to usurp it by foul means. War was hence inevitable. Dhrtharashtra knew this. But blind as he was physically, he was blind to this reality in his mind & hence resorted to wishful thinking. Kurukshetra was a field where many holy sacrifices had been performed. It was therefore saturated with a spiritual atmosphere.  The blind king hoped that influenced by this divine atmosphere, the gentle Yudhistra, eldest of the Pandavas, would retreat to the forest, in preference to a sanguine war. If this happened then the odium of usurping the kingdom and waging an unrighteous war would not fall on his covetous and deceitful sons.. This was the mental climate in which  Dhrtharashtra, the embodiment of indiscrimination asked this question. 

Sri Ramakrishna says - However long a stone may remain immersed in a river,  it does not allow even a small particle of water to percolate into it. Even so, the man steeped in worldliness does not permit any ethical or spiritual feeling gain access to his heart.