A straw parrot
We are a bunch of amazing people. I’m constantly inspired by my students and always surprised when I find out they can do more than get into padmasana. It’s not often that I cry, but this brought a little tear to my eyes. Claire had only just started coming to class before we had to close.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-KoRLrn_E6/?igshid=bn1drjkfp5g5
It’s on my desert island. And yes the Mahabharata is the book I’d take. We ended yesterday with Arjuna being this amazing archer. We now come to a classic story. Drona wants to test the Kauravas and Pandavas and so he sets up a straw parrot on a tree branch and asks all of them to line up and aim their arrows at the parrot. Drona goes along the line and asks each in turn what they can see. Yudhishthira says ‘I can see the parrot’, Duryodhana wants to out whit Yudhishthira and says ‘I see a straw parrot sitting on a branch’, Bhima wants to out do Duryodhana so says ‘I can see the straw parrot sitting on a branch of a tree under the clouds’. Then finally Arjuna speaks up ‘I see the eye’. It’s pretty obvious who was the best archer and the analogy is often used to describe focus during yoga. One day Drona and Arjuna were out in the woods when they met a forest dweller called Ekalavya. Ekalavya knew who Drona and Arjuna were and begged Drona to teach him archery. Drona was very dismissive, saying he didn’t teach the low caste. Which is a bit rich coming from Drona who had already switched caste from Brahmin to Ksatriya. But Ekalavya was not put out and made an earth statue of Drona and practiced day after day. A year latter Drona and Arjuna are back in the same forest this time they are out hunting. Suddenly Arjuna’s dog comes back muzzled with but unhurt with arrows. Arjuna is amazed and says to Drona ‘who did this, they are better than me, you said I’d be the greatest archer?’. Out steps Ekalavya. Drona asks who taught him? Ekalavya shows him the statue he made. Drona says ‘well if I am your teacher I require payment’ ‘Anything you want’ replies Ekalavya. ‘Give me your right thumb’ asks Drona. Ekalavya chops off his thumb without a blink. What can we make of this story. Ekalavya seems hard done by to say the least. Shunned because of his caste and Arjuna’s insecurity. There is only one small temple in India dedicated to Ekalavya. Next to it is a dharma shala, a place of rest for pilgrims.
At the end of the Kaurava and Pandavas training Drona arranges a tournament to showcase all his pupils to Hastinapura. Everyone had come to see Arjuna. And when Arjuna showed how amazing he was with a bow and arrow everyone was impressed. But then suddenly Karna steps out saying ‘I can do that and better’. With that he picks up a bow and arrow and proves his word. ‘Who are you’ ask Drona. ‘I am Karna son or a chariot driver’ (he didn’t know he was really son of Surya and Kunti). ‘A chariot driver can not compete here, it’s only for Ksatriya’ says Drona. Duryodhana realises he has a chance to get one over on the Pandavas and jumps up and makes Karna a prince of part of his land. And now it seemed that the Pandavas and Kauravas were going to start a fight in front the people of Hastinapura. Suddenly Kunti faints, realising Karna was her son. Bhisma and Drona use this excuse to end the tournament there by saving the two sets of cousins from killing each other but also Kunti having to explain who Karna was. But where has Karna learnt all these skills, ah now that is a story for tomorrow…