Photo Courtesy of Jo Jakeman

Arjuna of Mahabharata (An Indian epic) is well known as a skilled archer. It is said that once Arjuna focusses on a target, he always hits it.

Following is an inspiring scene from Mahabharata showing Arjuna’s razor sharp focus:

Drona Archarya was the greatest teacher in Archery who ever lived. Following him as a group of students were Arjuna, Ashwathama, Yudhistar and many others. Among these Arjuna excelled in archery. One day other students openly criticized Drona for favouritism towards Arjuna, telling him they too were not less skillful in archery.

“Tomorrow, there will be an archery competition to find out the best archer,” Drona replied. The next day Drona hung a wooden bird on a tree far from them. “See that wooden bird perched on the tree ahead of us? Aim at its eye,” he said.

He calls the first student – Yudhistar. Yudhistar plucked an arrow from the quiver, placed it on the bow, and pulled the string. “What do you see?” Drona asked. “I see the sun, the clouds, the trees,” Yudhistar replied as he released the string. The arrow shot forward and landed yards away from the tree.

Another student – Ashwathama took his position. He plucked an arrow from his quiver, placed it on the bow, and pulled the string. “What do you see?” Drona asked. “I see the bird, its legs, the twigs on the branch in which the bird sits, the small mango behind the bird, the leaves surrounding the bird, a small worm on the branch that approaches the bird.” The surrounding crowd is amazed. Other students could barely see the bird and nobody else had the eyesight to spot so many small details that Ashwathama so casually spotted. As he released the string, the arrow shot forward and landed near the roots of the tree. Similarly the rest tried but none succeed.

Finally it was Arjuna’s turn. He plucked an arrow from his quiver, placed it on the bow, and pulled the string. Following is the conversation between Drona and Arjuna emphasizing on how focussed Arjuna was:

Drona: “What do you see?”
Arjuna: “I see the eye of the bird”
Drona: “Do you see the tree?”
Arjuna: “No”
Drona: “Do you see the branch?”
Arjuna: “No”
Drona: “Do you see the bird?”
Arjuna: “No”
Drona: “Then what else do you see, Arjuna?”
Arjuna: “Nothing. I see only the round black eye of the bird”

As Arjuna released the string, the arrow shot forward with a swoosh. It pierced the center of the eye of the wooden bird.

Do you have arjuna-eyed focus? How does one get focus like Arjuna? I would love to hear from you.