A Short Story of Eklavya

Childhood years of Eklavya!

Eklavya was a small boy, born in a destitute family, before the rinderpest. His family lived a little away from Hastinapura, the capital of the Kuru kings. They used to clean other people’s dirt for a calling. For this reason, they were disregarded by society. Eklavya and other kids of his bunch knew they too had to take after their ‘parents’ calling’.

Their guardians frequently told them, ‘You are not implied to go to school. What use is a school for carrying trash which is your only job?’ ‘Don’t go close to those individuals, they are high born, we are low born’. Ekalavya didn’t get it. ‘Why, but why?’ he inquired his mother. She answered ‘God set these limits’. ‘God! Why would God need pleasant things for them and messy things for us? Hasn’t God made all of us?’ Ekalavya inquired. She moaned, ‘Darling I do not know, but there are bounds we cannot cross, this can be God’s rule’. Ekalavya got to be calm. From that day the only critical thing for him was to get the ‘meaning of limit’.

You know, grown-ups are in some cases brutal. One day, Ekalavya and his companions caught a small subterranean insect and were observing its attempt to elude. The insect tried and tried until it found a small opening at the edge of the trap and gotten away. Other children went to trap it once more but Ekalavya ceased them yelling. ‘The courageous subterranean insect has broken the bounds. Limits are implied to be broken. I am free, free’.

Arjuna and Drona- Undoubted Relationship between a Great Teacher and A Great Student!

One day, Ekalavya saw lovely chariots came into the forest close to his town. He saw boys of his age get out of the chariot one by one. What dazzling dress they wore! Finally, an old man with blanketed white hair and a spotless white dress came out looking strict and calm. The boys appeared a small frightened of the old man. Ekalavya heard his father’s voice, ‘Come away boy, there’s work to do. Those are the Kuru sovereigns, with their instructor Drona. The boy he just patted is his favorite, Arjuna. They have come to hone ‘archery’. Do not go close to them’. ‘Father, all I need maybe a pat from the amazing old man’, so saying, Ekalavya ran towards the old man Drona.

Arjuna had begun shooting with bows and arrows. He seems to shoot at a target with his eyes closed. He seems to shoot with his left hand as well as the right. Arrows made a fire, chased things in circles., bought rain and lightning. It was enchanted. Arjuna’s eyes never left his teacher. It was like he wanted to retain every bit of Drona and, Drona too was exceptionally glad of Arjuna.

Meeting with Charioteer: An unexpected Rejection!

One day, Ekalavya went up to Drona and with folded hands said, ‘Great sir, please teach me’. ‘I don’t teach the low-born’, was the cold reply as Drona turned away. ‘Master, your arrows don’t seem to mind any limits, they bring rain and fire, they bring night and day. How then can you be bound by stupid thoughts of high and low birth?’ With this Ekalavya walked away from the glaring Drona.

Statue of Guru!

The next day, Ekalavya carved a statue of Drona on a tree trunk with a knife. He made himself a bow and arrows. Each day he would bow before the statue, practice shooting, and imagine a pat on his back from Drona.

The Great devotion of Ekalavya!

Some months passed. The grand princes and their master came to the forest again. As Arjuna reached to take aim at a particularly difficult target, an arrow reached Arjuna’s target before he could even aim. Shocked the boys and their teacher looked around. They saw Ekalavya, who went up to touch Drona’s feet. ‘Who is your teacher?’ Drona asked. Ekalavya quietly led him to the statue. Drona looked at it for some time and said, ‘If I am your Guru, give me my fee, my Guru Dakshina’. ‘Ask, sir’, bowed Ekalavya. ‘I want your right thumb’, replied the stone-hearted Drona. Without the right thumb to support it, how can any archer ever hold a bow? As Arjuna and the other princes watched in shock, Ekalavya wordlessly cut off his right thumb and laid it at Drona’s feet.

Ekalavya: Effective toxophilite!

Many years passed. A great war was on in Kurukshetra between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. His teacher Drona, and many of his cousins, who had been Drona’s students with him, were on the other side. After the days’ battle, a sad Drona was sitting in his camp. Suddenly, like a respectful prayer, arrows fell near his feet one after another. He looked up and who do you think he saw? Why, Ekalavya! The young Ekalavya said, ‘Master I have learned to shoot without my right thumb. I have learned to shoot with my left hand, and with my feet. I have taught others and raised an army. Today I’m known as a great archer’.

Bereft of Speech: Heart-to-heart and Head-to-head!

Drona was speechless. “Master, I set your greatness free from the limits of your own mind. I made it my teacher in the form of your statue. Your great love for Arjuna crossed the bounds of fairness when you asked for my thumb. You thought that it would finish me as an archer. But great masters always end up teaching something. By asking for my thumb, you made me learn to shoot with both hands and feet. And for this lesson, I offer my services to you in this war”, said Eklavya.

Drona’s eyes filled with tears. He answered, ‘Yes, it is true, bounds and limits are in the mind. Real courage is fighting against the wrong limits and respecting the correct ones’.