Thursday, August 30, 2012

Dronacharya - A Brahmi, A Warrior, A Teacher


Drona, popularly known as Dronacharya, was a Brahmin, and had a childhood friend Drupada, who became a king. Once Drona went to Drupada and reminded Drupada of Drapuda’s childhood vow, of sharing some wealth with Drona. Hearing that, Drupada laughed out and said, that was a vow taken in child hood, when they were immature kids and now Drupada cannot do so, as he is a king. As a king, he can't share his wealth with a lower caste person. These words of an old friend hurt Drona and he angrily departed from there with revenge in his heart.

After that, Drona met Pashurama, a man well verse in all Vidyas. Pashurama was against the way, the kings were running their kingdoms. Drona asked Pashurama to teach him warfare techniques and Pashurama did so, only if, Drona took a vow of not ever sharing the Vidyas with any king.

Under the ages of Pashurama, Drona, learnt all the arts and became the greatest warrior. But soon, he broke Pashurama’s promise and became a teacher to Kauravs and Pandavs. He asked one part of Drapuda's kingdom as his Guru dakshina.

Drona made Ashwathama the king of the kingdom he got. By dividing the kingdom, Drona started a set of events: Drapuda prayed for a son, who would not shy from killing Brahmins and he asked for a daughter, who would divide the Pandava family property.

Now the question arises, whether Lord Krishna was right in killing Dronacharya, by beheading an Elephant, named Ashwathama and asking Arjun to rain arrows on Drona as soon as Drona heard about the news of Ashwathama’s death.

Drona did three grave mistakes:

1. He broke the holy Vedic caste system and became a warrior from a Brahmin
2. He broke the promise he made to Pashurama
3. He made his son a king, once again broke the caste system and showed favouritism.

Apart from that, there were other points too, the story of Ekalavya - a warrior. Ekalavya, was a tribal boy and Drona didn't teach him Dhanush Vidya, on the grounds of Eklavya's tribal background. Moreover, when Eklavya learnt Dhanush Vidya all by himself, just by erecting a life size statue of Drona and imbibing inspiration from it, Drona asked Eklayva to give Guru dakshina - Eklayva's Thumb.

Yet another crime is committed - demanding guru dakshina for teachings that were never taught by him.

These could be the main reasons, why Lord Krishna didn't shy away from killing an unarmed man, Brahmin and teacher.

8 comments:

  1. The logic is quite right but is it good to practice something unethical and then justify that other also did the same things...???

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    1. Dear Akshat,
      What ever Lord Krishna did, was not wrong. Technically he was correct. The Kauravs needed to be taught a lesson in their way, i.e being technically correct. Throughout the Mahabhartha, except the Abhimanyu's killing in Chakraview , no one did any thing which one's dharma didn't allow to.

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  2. Something good read.. i never knew the real thing. thanks buddy.

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  3. This is great, but the only reason he was killed was because he was fighting for the Kauravas.

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  4. u are wrong in eklavyas case :
    Ekalavya has been portrayed as that of being a victim to the partiality of Acharya Drona ,for his love towards Arjun.
    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] . 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 ]Ekalavya was not a lower caste , He was nishada prince [ a son of nishad king].
    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 . .
    •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 .
    •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 .

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  5. 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
    •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.
    •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 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
    see www.chiraan.wordpress.com

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  6. Ekalavya did steal the vidya from Drona.Drona from the first meeting noticed the deep cruel intentions that was could be seen in anarya caste,in Ekalavya.Lord Krishna also agreed the same.

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