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| The Great Archer |
The Pandava and Kaurava princes grew up together. Their great-uncle Bhishma's word was law.
One day while the princes were playing together as usual, their ball fell into an old well in the garden. The boys could see the ball but had no idea how to get it out. Suddenly a stranger came up to them and asked them about their problem.
"We have lost our ball, " they chorused. The stranger smiled. "Surely that is not difficult for boys so well trained in archery," he remarked, and his eyes seemed to mock them.
"Archery?" they asked laughing. "What has archery got to do with getting a ball out of a well?"
"Everything," answered the stranger, smiling mysteriously. Choosing the longest and strongest of a grass weed he said a prayer and shot it into the well. He then pulled it up with the ball at its end and handed it back to the astonished boys.
"Wonderful!" cried the delighted princes in admiration. The stranger asked them to go and tell their great-uncle what they had seen.
Bhishma knew at once that the man no ordinary archer but Dronacharya, the son of Bharadwaja who was believed to have learnt archery from the gods. He hurried down to the garden and was overjoyed to find that he had been right. He at once engaged Drona to teach the royal princes the art of warfare.
Drona was an excellent teacher. One day he called his pupils to him to test their power of concentration. He pointed out a target- a bird on the branch of a tree. "Bring down the head of the bird for me!" commanded Drona. He told Yudhishthira to come forward because he was the eldest.
But when he drew his bow, Drona held up his hand: "Wait he said, "Tell me first, what do you see"
"I see the bird," answered Yudhishthira, "and the branch on which it sits and the leaves of the tree."
Drona said to him: "Stand aside. You have still much to learn."
After Yudhishthira came Duryodhana who gave a similar answer. Drona was disappointed that his pupils were not up to the mark. At last he called upon Arjuna.
"I see the bird," Arjuna answered.
"Do you not see the tree and sky and the earth, me, your teacher, or your brothers"?
"I see only the bird," Arjuna answered.
Arjuna's answer pleased Drona. He walked up to Arjuna and patted him on his back. "Lower your bow, Arjuna" he exclaimed. "You have proved yourself to be a true archer; when the true archer concentrates, his eyes see nothing but his target and his arrow will reach it unerringly." Ever afterwards, Drona loved Arjuna as his star student. | |
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