28. Drona's two favourite disciple - Arjun and Aswathama

As the princes made rapid progress, the fame of Dronacharya reached far and wide across countries and many princes and other worthy students from distant countries and land came flocking to Hastinapur to learn from the Acharya. Although the Master wanted to give more time to his son Aswathama, he was finding it difficult. With the rise in number of students, the problem was compounded. The Acharya then began giving special tasks to the princes to keep them engaged so that he could carve out some time to teach his son exclusively. However, these little tricks did not escape Arjun’s eyes. He somehow managed to finish all errands and be around his Master all the time. As a result, he received the all the lessons that his Guruputra Aswathama received. On the top of these, he also managed to learn something more by his sheer capability and by virtue of making his Master happy.

27. Dronacharya and Arjun

Dronacharya was a veteran teacher – he assessed the individual capabilities and imparted knowledge according to one’s ability to receive and absorb. His discerning eyes observed that out of the whole lot, Arjun was not only was immensely talented but also had an insatiable thirst for leaning and made use of every bit of the waking hours to develop his expertise. Once in the dead of the night the Acharya was surprised to hear the repeated sounds of bowstrings coming from the camp adjoining his house where the princes were lodged. Out of curiosity he followed the sound, reached the camp and discovered while other princes were deep asleep, Arjun was applying the bowstring in his arrow and pulling it in pitch darkness.

The next day on being questioned as to how he could handle the bow in the darkness of night, Arjun said: ‘Master, once in a dark night while eating the candle in my room was blown off by strong wind, but yet I could finish my food. At that time it struck me that though my eyes could not see a thing, my hands were never missing my mouth. Thus I realized practise could do wonders. Since then I have been working hard and I can now feel the bow as an extended arm of mine.’  Dronacharya was glad to hear his disciple.