Comments on: The world’s best archer

By: Vibhas K Dhingra

Vibhas K Dhingra — Thu, 20 May 2010 06:52:51 +0000

All good, story in taughtness of its narrative and then relating it to ‘amateur’ vs ‘professional’. Interestingly, ‘am-a-teur’ etymologically breaks down to ‘am in love’, so no wonder this was considered of higher value even as late as 1950-60′s. Guess it was only with increasing ‘modernization’ and ‘urbanization’ that being a ‘professional’ gained currency. Going back to the story, have this variation in mind, which relates to the two meeting in battle of Mahabharat. And it is there that this tension and this question, as to who is the world’s best archer, find its resolution.
Moreover, for now, the above story can also be taken as the first recorded instance where someone trained informally was better than a formal educated student. And this phenomenon, as Vijayendra too notes, is visible daily in ‘cyber’ world. Only now everyone from companies to governments want to embrace it, unlike Eklavya’s case, which ended in tragic rejection.

By: Vijayendra Mohanty

Vijayendra Mohanty — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:33:26 +0000

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.

By: Alok

Alok — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:15:33 +0000

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.

By: Vijayendra Mohanty

Vijayendra Mohanty — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:52:43 +0000

I think anyone can derive any meaning from any story.

By: Vijayendra Mohanty

Vijayendra Mohanty — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:52:06 +0000

Thank you for stepping in with the explanation Bharath.

By: Bharath

Bharath — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:42:24 +0000

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.

By: Krishna

Krishna — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:36:32 +0000

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.

By: Prats

Prats — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:30:14 +0000

“The point I am making is this. Arjuna was a professional. Ekalavya was an amateur.”- I agree

By: Akshay

Akshay — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:39:59 +0000

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!