Sanskrit
पश्यैतां पाण्डुपुत्राणामाचार्य महतीं चमूम् । व्यूढां द्रुपदपुत्रेण तव शिष्येण धीमता ॥
paśyaitāṃ pāṇḍuputrāṇām ācārya mahatīṃ camūm vyūḍhāṃ drupadaputreṇa tava śiṣyeṇa dhīmatā
Translation
"Behold this mighty host of the sons of Pându, O teacher, arrayed by the son of Drupada, thy wise disciple.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Duryodhana’s speech to Drona begins with a pointed detail: the Pândava army has been arrayed by Dhrishtadyumna, Drupada’s son — himself trained by Drona, the very teacher Duryodhana is now addressing. It’s an early, understated note of unease about where loyalties really lie on a battlefield full of teachers facing their own students.
Study deeper
Word by word
- paśyaitāṃपश्यैतां
- behold this
- pāṇḍu-putrāṇāmपाण्डु-पुत्राणां
- of the sons of Pāṇḍu
- ācāryaआचार्य
- O teacher
- mahatīṃमहतीं
- mighty
- camūmचमूं
- host, army
- vyūḍhāṃव्यूढां
- arrayed
- drupada-putreṇaद्रुपद-पुत्रेण
- by Drupada's son — Dhṛṣṭadyumna
- tavaतव
- your
- śiṣyeṇaशिष्येण
- disciple
- dhīmatāधीमता
- shrewd
Commentary
Site Commentary
The detail is barely a sentence, but it’s doing real work: Duryodhana is unsettled enough by his own teacher’s former student commanding the opposing army that he mentions it before anything else. A loyalty formed in one context — teacher and student — doesn’t automatically transfer or dissolve just because the context has changed to battle lines, and naming that discomfort directly beats pretending it isn’t there.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When an old loyalty — a former mentor, an old friend — ends up on the 'other side' of a current situation, name the discomfort directly instead of assuming the old bond has simply resolved itself one way or the other.
Professional
- When a former manager or mentor now works for a rival team or company, don't assume the old relationship cleanly picked a side — acknowledge the ambiguity out loud rather than guessing at their allegiance.
Family & Social
- When extended family loyalties cross the lines of a current disagreement — an in-law caught between two sides — naming the split plainly serves the relationship better than assuming you already know where they stand.
Ask yourself
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