Shloka 1
Karma-Yoga, Yajña-Cakra, and the Governance of Desire (कर्मयोग–यज्ञचक्र–कामनिग्रह)
अपने-आप बछ। अर: पञ्चविशो< ध्याय: (श्रीमद्धगवद्गीतायां प्रथमो<5ध्याय:) दोनों सेनाओंके प्रधान-प्रधान वीरों एवं शंखध्वनिका वर्णन तथा स्वजनवधके पापसे भयभीत हुए अर्जुनका विषाद धृतराष्ट उवाच धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सव: । मामका: पाण्डवाश्वैव किमकुर्वत संजय,इति श्रीमहाभारते भीष्मपर्वणि श्रीमद्धगवद्गीतापर्वणि श्रीमद्भधगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मुविद्यायां योगशास््त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादेडर्जुनविषादयोगो नाम प्रथमो5ध्याय:
dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca | dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ | māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva kim akurvata sañjaya ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “On the field of dharma—Kurukṣetra—when my sons and the sons of Pāṇḍu had assembled, eager to fight, what did they do, Sañjaya?”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The opening frames the war as a moral arena (“dharmakṣetra”), highlighting that actions in conflict are ethically consequential. Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s possessive “māmakāḥ” signals attachment and partiality, setting up the Gītā’s later emphasis on seeing beyond egoic ownership and acting according to dharma rather than blind attachment.
The blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra asks his charioteer-narrator Sañjaya—who can ‘see’ the battlefield by divine boon—what his sons (the Kauravas) and the Pāṇḍavas did after assembling at Kurukṣetra, both sides ready for battle.