Ekalavya – A teacher's learning?

Guru Dronacharya was the Raj guru or the Guru to the royal family. He taught various skills to the Pandavas and the Kauravas and Drona’s talent as a guru spread far and wide.Ekalavya, the son of Hiranyadhanus, wanted to learn the skills from the master. He approached Dronacharya and Drona himself was very impressed by young Ekalavya’s sincerity.

He enquired about the boy’s lineage and found out that he was the son of a Nishada(local tribe) King. Deep down Drona knew that the young boy, in time will outdo his royal pupils and rejected Ekalavya on account of his tribal parentage.

Undeterred by Dronacharya’s refusal, young Ekalavya made a statue of his Guru in clay and practiced archery every day.

After a few months, Drona, accompanied by the Pandavas and the Kauravas reached the forest where Ekalavya lived. One night when they were camping in the forest a dog was barking incessantly, disturbing the sleep of the campers. Being a new moon day the night was pitch dark and none of the pupils dared to go out into the forest to shoo the dog away.

Suddenly the barking stopped. The Guru and his pupils came out and what they saw made them speechless. Arrows were shot in the dark which precisely had stitched up the dog’s mouth.

Arjuna, the Pandava prince, who excelled in archery, asked Dronacharya how such a thing could have been done in this darkness. Drona replied that this skill was known as ‘Shabdha Bhedi’ or shooting arrows precisely by tracking the sound.Curious to find the archer the campers walked in the direction of the sound. They came to a halt when they saw a young, dark lad, who upon seeing Drona, fell at his feet.

Dronacharya recognized the boy to be Ekalavya and asked him who his Guru was. The boy showed the clay statue of his Guru and a clever Drona asked the boy to give him Guru Dakshina (the fees, in kind, that one pays to the Guru).

Ekalavya gives his thumb as a dakshina to his Guru...

As his Guru Dakshina Drona demanded the boy’s right hand thumb finger. Without a moment’s hesitation the boy cut his finger and placed it at the feet of his Guru.Later on, in the Mahabharata war, Ekalavya is killed by Lord Krishna and his son is killed by Arjuna.

In this story, the learning, I guess was for the great Guru Dronacharya. Later on in the Mahabharata there is a recording of Drona advising his son to throw open the doors of education to all, irrespective of caste or lineage.

Manmade beauty!

One day Emperor Akbar was taking a stroll around his royal garden. His best companion, Birbal was only a step behind the Jahanpannah. Akbar turned towards Birbal and asked told him that the beautiful flowers that had bloomed in plenty around his garden made him feel happy.

“Birbal, these flowers make me lose my belief in mankind. No man on earth can make beautiful things as these” observed the King.Birbal thought for a few seconds before replying. “I don’t think so, your Majesty. Man made things are also beautiful. In fact, there are times when man made things look more beautiful than the natural ones” concluded Birbal.

The King was enraged by Birbal’s observations. “Prove it” challenged the King to which Birbal nodded his head.Without another word being spoken, the two parted ways. Birbal did not attend court for a couple of days.A week later, an artist entered King Akbar’s court and presented a beautiful flower to the King. The King was very pleased with the flower as it was a very rare variety. He ordered his ministers to give a gold coin to the man who brought it.

Couple of days later another craftsman reached the court of Emperor Akbar. With him he carried a bouquet of flowers carved out of pure white marble. The emperor was absolutely impressed that he swiftly walked across to the craftsman, who handed over the piece of art to the King.

He slowly walked back to his throne admiring the craftsmanship and the intricacy of the carving. He ordered his ministers to make a platform for the marble bouquet and exhibit it in the courtroom. “Ensure that the platform has a glass covering to protect the artifact” ordered the King.

The Emperor then turned towards one of his ministers and told him to present the craftsman with 1000 gold coins for the beautiful masterpiece.At this moment, Birbal entered the court and presented himself before the King.

“Your Majesty, hope you are satisfied with the proof” he said keeping his voice as neutral as he could.

Akbar’s pride at Birbal’s intelligence knew no bounds!

A friend in deed!

In the Indian mythology human emotions are described using every day happenings as examples. The visual impact of these common occurrences serves as great teachers.

When you see these happening without associating the connotation you see them as mere, insignificant every day occurrence. But when you know the association, you will not be able to see it as you did before!

One such narration is about the friendship between milk and water!

Water and milk were very good friends and were inseparable. It so happened, that man discovered the way to make fire. In time, he realised that raw food had contamination and decided to boil milk.

One day, when he tried to boil the milk the water became vapour and left its friend. Milk was unable to bear the separation from its friend and followed the vapour in search of water. In the process it swelled up and was about to jump out of the container. On seeing this man poured some water into the milk and the happy milk stayed in the container with its friend!

What we learn from this simple narrative is that there are positive lessons for us to learn from simple things that happen around us. Common things teach us very important lessons that we miss to notice.

Bhima’s encounter with Hanuman

When the Pandavas were on exile, one day, a beautiful lotus with a thousand petals flew in the air and landed near Draupadi. On seeing the flower, Draupadi asked Bhima to get more of the flowers.

Bhima went in search of the lotus and as he wandered into the forest, he came by a lake. As he glanced down towards the lake that was filled with many of the beautiful flower, he almost stumbled upon a monkey that lay in his path. Bhima was irritated and asked the monkey to move out of his way.

The monkey gave a helpless glance towards Bhima and told him that he was too old and weak and did not have the strength to move.

By now Bhima was furious. He yelled at the monkey to take his tail from his path. “You foolish creature, do you know who I am?” Bhima shouted at the monkey. The monkey did not budge. He requested Bhima to remove the tail away and proceed towards his destination.

Bhima could not even move the tail leave alone lifting it!

Bhima finally decided to remove the monkey’s tail and bent down casually and tried lifting the monkey’s tail. The tail, though, had by then decided to give Bhima a tough time. It would not move an inch. Slowly Bhima lowered his mace and placed it on the floor. He then used both his hands to move the tail. The tail was glued to the ground!

Bhima then decided to give it all his strength and effort. The tail would not relent, but Bhima did!

He asked the monkey in the most humble tone, “Oh great one, who are you and why are you testing me?” Hanuman took to his original form and showed his brother who he was.Bhima fell at the feet of his brother and asked for forgiveness. Hanuman explained to Bhima that pride was overtaking his valour and Hanuman wanted Bhima to realise his folly before it got the better of him.

Wisdom prevailed over Bhima and he realised that he had to conquer his pride. He bowed before the mighty son of Vayu and thanked him for his timely reminder.