Focus leads to success

This a story from the Mahabharat era. As you all know Dronacharya was the Guru for the Kauravas and Pandavas. Dronacharya taught them archery. His disciples were gradually gaining proficiency. Dronacharya thought “I am teaching all of them but I have to find out how much skill they have imbibed”. So in order to test their skills, he made a bird out of clay and tied it to a tree branch.

He called all his disciples. He said to them,“I have tied a bird to the tree. You have to shoot the bird’s eye”. He first called Yudhishthira to take the test. He was the eldest among Kauravas and Pandavas. Dronacharya said, “Yudhishthira, mount the arrow on the bow, focus on the bird and aim”.

Yudhishthira mounted arrow on the bow as ordered by Dronacharya. But as soon as Yudhishthira mounted the arrow Guru Dronacharya asked, “What do you see?” Yudhishthira answered, “Gurudev, I can see the tree, the bird, you and all my brothers.” Dronacharya asked him to lower the bow and arrow and go back to his place.

After that, it was Duryodhana’s turn. Dronacharya asked him to mount the arrow and to focus on the bird. As soon as Duryodhana mounted the arrow Dronacharya asked him the same question. “What do you see?”.  Duryodhana replied, “I can see the tree, you, the bird and all my brothers”. Dronacharya asked him to go back to his place. Dronacharya called all his disciples one after the other and asked them the same question which he had asked Yudhishthira and Duryodhana. But  everyone gave the same answer. Nobody answered according to Gurudev’s expectations. Dronacharya did not allow anyone to shoot the arrow at the bird. At last he called Arjuna. He asked Arjuna also to do the same. Arjuna mounted the arrow on the bow and focused on the bird. Dronacharya asked Arjuna, “Arjuna, tell me what do you see?”

Arjuna replied, “Gurudev, I can see only the bird’s eye”. All the disciples laughed at Arjuna’s  answer. But children do you know what happened. Deep within Dronacharya was pleased with Arjuna’s answer. He paused and repeated his question “Arjuna, alright now, look properly. What do you see?”

Arjuna answered, “Gurudev, all I can see is the bird’s eye and nothing else”. Pleased with this answer Dronacharya said, “Child, shoot the arrow”. Arjuna pierced the bird’s eye with his arrow. Dronacharya patted Arjuna’s back and appreciated him. And said “Arjuna, you have passed the test. You will become the best archer of the era”.

So children, what do we learn from this story?. We have learnt like Arjuna our attention should be on the goal, then only will we be successful. So we should also focus our attention on the goal.