Eklavya

Man! I have already learned so much from this girl. Look at the previous blog – so many insights and learnings. And many of the last 10 blogs are insightful blogs. All these blogs were written with her as my inspiritation.

Now I know that she will say “how does this make me your teacher? I didn’t have any active role in your learning. You learned all these things on our own. These are your own insights, and none of this was told by me to you.”

To this I say – remember Eklavya. He took Dronacharya (henceforth referred to as The Dude) to be his guru, even though The Dude refused to teach him. So what did Ekalavya do? He made an idol of The dude and took him to be his guru and started practising under the watchful eye of his guru. And under this so called guidance he became more accomplished and skilled than any of The Dude’s own students, including Arjuna et al. One day The Dude happened to be walking in the jungle and he saw Ekalavya and was amazed by his skill. Then he asked him who is your guru, and Ekalavya replied “Dude, you are my guru.” And showed him the idol that he had made. Realising that this boy could easily outshine his own students The Dude then asked Ekalavya for Guru Dakshina (something akin to tuition fees, but a much bigger deal). And as his guru dakshina, he asked him for his left (or maybe right – I forget which one, and it doesn’t really matter) thumb. This would leave Ekalavya a cripple with only half of his marksmanship still remaining with him, and yet Ekalavya readily agreed. Without a moment’s hesitation, he took out his knife, cut off his thumb and presented it to The Dude.

So why did I go into such a lengthy aside? Well, it was pretty good wasn’t it? This is what happens when u write under the influence. You tend to get lost in your asides. So anyway, my rather long and elaborate point is simply this – even though you do not see yourself as my guru, I do. Same as Ekalavya did. You were the inspiration for my learning, which is really the most important thing.