Rendezvous with Drona

I met Drona yesterday. Yes, the Dronacharya. I went red with anger. I asked him why he was such a racist and sadist. “Why did you ask for Ekalavya’s thumb?”

“What was wrong with that?” he asked.

“What’s wrong with that? You are asking ‘what’s wrong with that? Oh my Gawd. How can you be so senseless… and feelingless… and… and’’ I gasped for words.

“Wait a minute. Please tell me what happened before getting mad at me.”

“Well, you saw that guy… Ekalayva was an awesome archer… and to save Arjuna’s reputation as the greatest Archer in the world… you tampered with his finger and screwed his career”

“What makes you think so?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Why should I be obvious?”

I was angered more. “So? You have a justification for this?”

“Are you interrogating me? I’m not testifying to a confused guy like you. I know what I did.” And he started to move on.

I mellowed down. Now, I realized that I am standing in front of one of the greatest teachers in the world’s lifetime. I said sorry and begged him to let me into the rationale of why he did that?

“Well. I could have asked for his head, isn’t it?”

“Yes”

“Or as a good guru to Arjuna, could have patented his talent and enslaved him. This way I could have helped Arjuna hone his skills by practicing with Ekalavya, without any threat. I could have used him to raise the bar on Arjuna? Isn’t that logical and better for me?”

“Why did you not do that?”

“Well another question you should have asked is what happened to Ekalavya after all this?”

I blinked.

“Look if he had continued with his career as an archer…. He would have achieved veergathi. But I thought that if this kid had it in him to learn and perfect the art of archery just by observing and visualizing, he definitely can go to greater heights. Do you know that he went on to become Ekalavya Maharishi?”

“Now you are fibbing. I do not know of any Ekalavya Maharishi.” I said.

“How many maharishis do you know? And the hallmark of a true maharishi is anonymity. World has not yet matured enough to recognize real greatness. The world loves to someone like itself…. Mediocre. So it promotes the mediocre guy and revels in thinking that someone like me can make it big in life”

“And my question to you guys is… why you guys attach so much importance to popularity? What’s so great about being the most dangerous weapon in the world? Why should I be obvious to you?”

“Boss. Enough. It’s a lot of gyan for one day”. I said and moved on.