The world’s best archer
The story of Arjuna and Ekalavya from the Mahabharata, I feel, is one of the saddest and most beautiful stories ever told. I also think that it makes for a very useful example when it comes to demonstrating the difference between being a professional and being an amateur.
For those of you who don’t know the story, here it is in brief.
Drona was the best master of archery in the world. He taught his favourite student Arjuna everything he knew. In time, Arjuna became the best archer in the world. None could beat him at speed, skill or concentration.
There was another young man by the name of Ekalavya. He had approached Drona once to be his disciple. But Drona had rejected him as he only taught royalty. Saddened but unfazed, Ekalavya had gone back and sculpted an image of Drona. He prayed to that image everyday and practised shooting arrows all by himself. In time, he excelled at the craft he so loved. What’s more? He never stopped considering Drona his master, even though Drona had put him completely out of his mind.
Then one day Arjuna met Ekalavya and was blown away by what the forest dweller could do. Ekalavya was far more skilled and much faster with his arrows than Arjuna – the so-called best archer in the world – had ever been. When Arjuna asked the simple, unassuming youth where he had learned archery, the boy replied with reverence that Drona was his master.
The dejected prince went back to Drona and accused him of deceiving him, of having taught Ekalavya better than him. Besides, how could he, a prince, live with the shame of being inferior to a mere forest dweller? That too, at something he was supposed to be the best at?
Drona, obviously, had no idea what Arjuna was talking about. Perplexed, he went to the forest with him and met Ekalavya. Now he recognised the young man to be the same who had come to him for guidance years ago. Ekalavya, overjoyed by the visit, showed Drona all that he could do. He even showed Drona the image of him he had made, his God, his master, and the source of all his inspiration and power.
Drona was moved by the young man’s devotion. Even he, the so-called best master of archery in the world, could not teach Arjuna anything more. There was no way the prince could ever be better than the simple-minded Ekalavya. Ekalavya had defeated them all, all by himself.
Drona knew Arjuna would never again be the world’s greatest archer. But he could not allow someone as common as Ekalavya to excel prince Arjuna. So, swallowing his pride, he asked Ekalavya for payment – payment for being his master – his guru dakshina. Ekalavya, extremely happy for getting a chance to repay his master, asked Drona what he wanted. Drona asked for Ekalavya’s thumb – the one on his right hand.
Without uttering a single word, Ekalavya pulled out an arrow, cut off his right thumb with the arrowhead, and handed it respectfully to his master.
The point I am making is this. Arjuna was a professional. Ekalavya was an amateur.
Arjuna was a prince. He learnt his craft from a legitimate master. He aimed to be the best. He took his lessons seriously. He became the “best archer in the world” and he treasured that label. But somewhere along the line, Arjuna started considering himself superior to his craft.
Ekalavya, on the other hand, didn’t care about skill or speed or beating anyone. Not having a legitimate teacher didn’t stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Not knowing what he was doing didn’t stop him from doing it either. He did it for the love of it.
aah… i’ve read or heard this story, so many times, mostly from teachers who always end up making the point about how much a student can revere a teacher and how i obviously wasn’t… this is a much better lesson to take away.
cheers!
Vijayendra Mohanty Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
I think anyone can derive any meaning from any story.
Akshay
18 Dec 09 at 10:09 am
“The point I am making is this. Arjuna was a professional. Ekalavya was an amateur.”- I agree
Prats
18 Dec 09 at 11:00 am
To be frank…i could not understand the connection u are trying to make between the Arjuna-Ekalavya story and professional-amateur theory. You might be having a point to make, but without practical/real life examples, you may not be able to convince about your theory.
Bharath Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Well, Vijay’s trying to point out that is that one must never hesitate to do what one loves doing, whether you are trained for it or not. The other lesson is that as a professional you need to learn to respect your profession – you can never let your ego come in the way of your work.
Vijayendra Mohanty Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Thank you for stepping in with the explanation Bharath.
Krishna
18 Dec 09 at 5:06 pm
Thanks Vijay for posting this. It is a thought provoking story.
To master archery even with a guru’s guidance was a daunting task. To do it with only guru bhakthi in one’s heart and soul was possible only for one man even in the magical times of the Mahabharatha.
IMHO, to describe such a character as simple and amateur is too casual an analysis.
I agree with the comment of Krishna above. I think the transition to your main conclusion is quite surprising. I expected the exact opposite!
Ekalavya is the professional and Arjuna and Drona are a notch below him.
Let me explain why.
The important qualities of a professional like complete dedication to one’s craft, infinite capacity for efforts to improve and the courage to honor commitments at any personal cost are personified in Ekalavya. He remains true to the spirit of the archer in a lot of ways. Focus, determination and even speech. A word once given is like an arrow released to a target. It cannot be taken back.
Imagine Ekalavya as a boy, deciding he is going to be an archer despite being completely disappointed and without a well defined path in front of him, leave alone any promise of success. Then imagine the attitude it would have required to constantly work and improve every aspect of his craft. Finally, after knowing fully well the consequences of cutting off his finger, he honors his word. In doing so, he transcends both his rival and his Guru.
I do appreciate the theme of your post that love/devotion/bhakthi for the work in which you engage can break all barriers for achievement.
I do not understand your classification of professional and amateur.
Vijayendra Mohanty Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Hi Alok. Thanks for dropping by.
I consider the amateur superior to the professional as far as devotion to the craft goes. The amateur does it only because he loves doing it while the professional has other considerations — sustenance, ego, approval of others — in his mind.
It is through sheer raw dedication and enthusiasm that the amateur sometimes becomes better than the professional too. As an example, take the divide between mainstream media and the blogging circle. Both do news. But while the MSM does it with presumptions like ethics, objectivity, and expertise (devastras, reknown etc.) the news blogger does it with no such pretense. He simply does it because he loves news.
And then occasionally, a news blogger surpasses a news channel when it comes to sensitivity, speed and even accuracy.
Alok
30 Dec 09 at 5:45 am