Story of Ekalavya

courtesy: Sri.Bryan Hill

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Hare srinivasa

 

• Ekalavya is known for the Guru bhakti in the popular history,
• His story has been celebrated as cruelty on part of Guru Dronacharya
• Also Ekalavya has been portrayed as that of being a victim to the partiality of Acharya Drona ,for his love towards Arjun.
• Ekalavya is supposed to have learnt everything all by himself .
• Ekalvya is portrayed as one from lower caste and untouchable.
• Ekalavya is seen as another victim of Pandav favoritism ,just like Karna
• Incidently Ekalavya is brother-in law of Karna .

Contrary to the above popular belief let me give you the real facts to uncover the myth  about EKALAVYA .

Before venturing into the character named Ekalavya ,it is important to know the greatness of Acharya Drona .

• Dronacharya was a man without desires ,he used to live on shillonch vrutti [ that which prohibits one to ask anything from anyone ]
• He was taught astra Vidya By Lord Parshurama [ not different from Krishna] .
• He was very devoted to Lord and his Guru .
• He was true to his profession of teaching and to his employers and kept his words always.

Arjuna had promised to caryy his mission [ to conquer Drupad] ,and thus HE had promised Arjun to make him the greatest Archer .

• Archery consists of plain skill of holding bow and relieving arrows + knowledge of astras [missiles]
• Without knowledge  of missiles plain archery is of limited use.
• Astras involve usage of vedic techniques .[these can be learnt only from Guru ]

Drona was divine personality , his grace would make anyone a great .

Now let us move to Ekalavya ,

• Ekalavya was not a lower caste , He was nishada prince [ a son of nishad king].

• Nishada is a caste sprung from the intermixing of bramhins and sudras[ parasava + kshatra] . These are tribes that dwell in forests and are adept in various skills from hunting to boating . They form an important part of forest life and governance in general , as they are cheitains overwhich a kingdom stands.
• Ekalavya and his father etc were in the service of Kashi raja .

Ekalavya went to Drona to learn Vidya Why?

• Ekalavya had a inherent hate towards Lord Krishna .
  
• Ekalavya was the incarnation of demon MAnimanta .
• He had gone into deep forest to learn astras from Pisachas .[ Paisaach vidya and paisaach astras]
• He had used them against Krishna but could not succeed ,thus he understood that he should acquire Deva astras .
• Only Guru Drona could impart such Knowledge .
• Thus he Approached Drona
• Why did Drona reject Ekalavya ?
• Drona knew he was inherently a hater of Lord Srikrishna [ His Guru not diffrent from Parashurama]
• Entertaining him would be to go against his Guru .
• Secondly By then Guru Drona was in the service of teaching Princes of Hastinapur.
• School where Princes are taught ordinary citizens are not allowed to learn by their side.
• Only Royals  and bramhins in Royal service  could enroll themselves in such schools.
• This is the reason why even Karna was rejected .
• Those were the days when Governance itself was beased on a caste .
• Hence an outcaste could not have dared to go to a bramhin [ A Royal servicemenin the service of Monarch of the world] to teach him if it were against rules .So Ekalavya was not an

outcaste . neither a low born because astra vidya could be taught to only higher caste warriors. Disappointed Ekalavya went to the forest , prepared a IDOL of Dronachary and started practising the archery .

• This gave him profound mastery in archery .
• This is not the greatness of Ekalavya but greatness of Dronacharya himself ,that even worshipping his idol too gave extraordinary brilliance in the vidya. If this was not so , then Ekalavya could have practised all by himself without the idol . But He knew the greatness of Drona and thus resorted to this form of Practise.
• This shows extreme determination of Ekalvya to gain the vidya [ determination to kill Krishna] .
• But all daitya [rakshasas ,demons] are known to have done tapasya earlier and gained boons from Shiva and others , this is just another example of Ekalavya doing tapasya to Dronacharya.

Dronacharya asked his right thumb

• Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya Adhyaya 15 - shlokaas 61, 62, 63
• Ekalavya shooted "Shabdavedi" arrow at a dog which was barking, from a long distance, without injuring the dog.  The dog went near Paandavaas.     On seeing the dog, both Pandavaas - Kauravaas were searching for the one who has shooted at the dog.    There they saw Ekalavya.
• This Ekalavya had earlier joined Jarasandha in his fight with Krishna.  He had learnt some astra vidye from Pishachees.  He wanted to learn divyastra from Drona, which Drona had rejected.  So, Ekalavya had created an idol of Dronacharya with mud and was worshipping Dronacharya with the desire of learning Divyastra.
• Arjuna told Drona that "your words to me went wrong".  Drona had told Arjuna in Astra Kaushala vidya no one can be more stronger than Arjuna.  Now, with Ekalavya using Shabdavedi, which Arjuna had not learnt, this has become negative.
• Here Acharya Madhwa clarifies that "Shabdavedi Astra Vidya which was known to Ekalavya not known to Arjuna is wrong".  Actually Arjuna knows the Shabdavedi astra vidya.   Arjuna had learnt Shabdavedi astravidya of his own (self learning). 
• He had learnt throwing shabdavedi arrow in the dark itself and was an expert in the use of Shabdavedi. 
• As such, both Ekalavya and Arjuna were known of Shabdavedi use.   But were equal in their capacity of using that arrow.  As such, it does not mean that Arjuna was not known of Ekalavya's vidya.When in the forst ,royal dog was stopped from barking by Ekalavya [without hurting the dog , ekalavya had gagged the dog with the arrows]
• This created a concern in the mind of Arjun and asked whether Drona was true to his words.
• Drona to keep his words and to prevent Ekalavya from going against his guru [ Lord] and
  principles , asked for his right Thumb as Gurudakshina .
• Ekalavya cut off his thumb
• • because , he knew refusing Gurudaksina would render his Vidya useless [ just as Karna had suffered] thus it is better to give up the thumb rather than risking curse.
  • Dronacharya was divine from the fact that he restored The THUMB equivalent to Arjun in plain archery and less stiff when using astras .
  • This way Acharya Drona fulfilled his words and also kept his duty .
• Later on th mount Raivat Dronacharya taught Astra Vidyas to Ekalavya .

• Equipped with the Astra Vidya ,

  • Ekalavya along with Paundraka Vaasudeva [ another son of Vasudev from the diti ] attacked Dwaraka in the night .
  • Krishna had gone to Kailash to beget a son .
  • Satyaki and Balaraam alongwith the army fought with the Ekalavya and Paundraka Vaasudeva

their army with lamps. Ekalavya and others extinguished all the lamps . So Balaraam went to back to bring additional Lamps Satyaki kept at bay both Ekalvya and Paundraka . Just then Krishna returned , he cut all the weapons of Ekalavya and Paundraka and destroyed their chariots. Balaraam then happy at the return of Krishna , with full vigour raised his musal and attacked Ekalavya . Ekalvya afraid of furious Balraam , started running away . HE ran and fell in the ocean . Balaram stood near the banks , but ekalavya fearing and assuming Balraam is chasing , swam 80 yojanas and reached an island . there he looked back and seeing Balraam at the banks relieved a sigh . Then Ekalavya undervent tapasya to Shiva to get the boon of being defeatless . ever victorious . Shiva granted him the boon . Now with much more pride and strength Ekalavya attacked Krishna again and used all the astras given by Drona and Shiva but Krishna cut all the astras and finally with his Sudarshan cut his head off .

Story of Ekalavya is the portrayal of greatness of Dronacharya as how when in dilemma a man shouldcut his head off .

Story of Ekalavya is the portrayal of greatness of Dronacharya as how when in dilemma a man should act and yet uphold the Dharma ,and duty towards society , king , Guru and pupils and finally towards GOD .

Gurubhakti is not in showing histrionics before GURU , Guru bhakti is in total surrender to teacher , obeying his everyword , upholding his every value and treading the path shown by him. Ekalavya only showed histrionics and acted contrarily to his guru's views , loyalties and culture and principles.This is GURU DROHA , thus  finally he achieved nothing and met with death at a young age at the hands of Lord SRIKRISHNA .

krishnarpanamastu.

 knr

--
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