दृष्ट्वा तु पाण्डवानीकं व्यूढं दुर्योधनस्तदा।आचार्यमुपसङ्गम्य राजा वचनमब्रवीत्॥
dṛṣṭvā tu pāṇḍavānīkaṃ vyūḍhaṃ duryodhanastadāācāryamupasaṅgamya rājā vacanamabravīt
Word by word
The verse says
Sanjaya said: Seeing the Pandava army drawn up in formation, King Duryodhana went to his teacher and spoke these words.
In plain words
The war is about to start. The man who caused it walks away from his own commanders and goes to find his old teacher.
That small movement tells you a great deal. Duryodhana is the king here. He does not need permission from anyone. But the first thing he does, when he actually sees the other army standing there in good order, is go looking for the man who taught him as a boy.
He is about to make a speech about how strong his side is. Watch where he chose to make it.
Where you've felt this · at work
Think of the last time you had to do something frightening, and found yourself calling a person from long before that part of your life. Not because they could help. You told them the plan, out loud, in a confident voice. What you actually wanted was for them to say it sounded fine.
Going deeper
The Gita opens with two men who cannot look straight at what is in front of them. Dhritarashtra is blind and asks for a report. Duryodhana can see perfectly well, and goes to find someone to talk at.
There is a pattern here that the whole book will come back to. Fear does not usually announce itself as fear. It arrives dressed as something else — a briefing, a plan, a show of confidence. Duryodhana is not about to admit he is afraid, possibly not even to himself. He is simply going to review the numbers with his teacher, at length, unprompted, moments before a battle he chose.
Keep this in mind when Arjuna breaks down later in the chapter. Arjuna will say plainly that he is shaking and cannot hold his bow. Duryodhana never says anything of the kind. Of the two, only one of them is going to get taught anything.