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Question - 7
Sanjaya was given Divine Vision. Was it a kind of telescopic vision?
Answer:
The Divine Vision was granted by Vyasa to Sanjaya, the charioteer of king Dhritarashtra, to report the events happening in the war field. It was not telescopic vision. The nature of the divine vision is explained by Sanjaya himself as follows:
He “obtained excellent and celestial apprehension, sight beyond the range of the visual sense, and hearing, from great distance, knowledge of other people's hearts and also of the past and the future, a knowledge also of the origin of all persons transgressing the ordinances, the delightful power of coursing through the skies, and untouchableness by weapons in battles” (MB: 6.16.5-10, Ganguli’s translation).
This shows that Sanjaya was moving around the war-field, watching the combatants from close proximity without being attacked or caught in the cross-fire. He had the privilege to enter anyone's camp, listen to their talks without being prevented by anyone. Like a war journalist he had moved around and collected the information which he reported to Dhritarashtra.
He stayed in the war field for 10 days continuously and left the field after Bheeshma fell down on the 10th day. He rushed to Hastinapura to tell the king all the details of the first 10 days of the war. Therefore it was not a running commentary but similar to a report by an on-site journalist.
He returned to the battle-field the next morning and started collecting the information. He faced threat to his life on the 18th day of the war when Sātyaki, searching for Duryodhana, attacked him on sighting him in the Kaurava-camp. At that time, Vyasa appeared from nowhere and rescued Sanjaya from Sātyaki. This shows that Vyasa also was moving around the battle-field and he along with Sanjaya worked as front-line journalists.
Vyasa giving special permission to Sanjaya to report the events from the war field seemed to have an advantage in cross-checking his own observations of the war. To prove this point, we can show that the initial composition of the Mahabharata of 8,800 verses was taught to Sanjaya by Vyasa. Sanjaya was an odd man-out in the comity of Vyasa's disciples who received this composition. This seems to be due to his assistance in providing information on war and also the events at Hastinapur as a close confidante of the king.
Since the nature of the 'divine eye' in witnessing the war is explained by Sanjaya himself and his movement in the Warfield documented in the Mahabharata text, there is no scope to say that the 'divine eye' referred to a telescopic vision.
