We’re at a critical juncture wherein the “Svayamvara” event is moving on and king after king fail to qualify. As “greats” like Duryodhana, Shalya, Karna and the others end up in a failure, doubts start creeping into the minds of all people assembled there. Are they being fooled by King Drupada? Are they called to be insulted and shamed in public? Is it an unachievable target? Many questions were running in the kings’ minds and gradually as every king meets with the same failure, the thoughts transform into murmurs. It is at this time, Arjuna gets up from his seat from a corner of the courtroom. It was his turn now and the entire audience was taken by surprise as a “Brahmana Rishi” was taking to the center-stage. They were skeptical about how a Brahmana Rishi would be able to succeed in this pursuit when even highly trained Kshatrya kings aren’t! As Arjuna approaches the bow, he quickly confirms with Drshtadhyumna whether if he manages to win the competition, will Draupati be given in marriage to him or not. Drshtadhyumna too clears the air by giving an assurance that he’s ready to give his sister in marriage to anyone who wins the competition, irrespective of him being a Brahmana Rishi or a Kshatrya prince.
As the assurance comes by in front of the entire audience, Arjuna keeps his hands on the bow for the first time. The way in which Arjuna kept his hands on the bow astounded many people, especially the Maharishis. Bhagawan Krishna is also looking at the proceedings with awe. While this was happening, the Maharishis commented within themselves thus, “Oh wow! Look at this sage’s approach towards the bow and arrow. I guess today is an important day wherein the world would come to know that Brahmana Rishis aren’t just known for performing penance and leading a simple and a quiet life. Brahmana Rishis can take the bow and fight too, if required! This Sanyasin is going to prove this point and is going to silence many of our critics today!” Thus, as Arjuna catches hold of the bow from the ground, he starts invoking all the important “Devatas” with his prayers. Most importantly, Arjuna invokes Bhagawan Krishna into his prayers as well. Bhagawan Krishna is sitting right in front of him and Arjuna invokes him with a request that it is only with His divine “Anugraha”, the event should be successful.
As Arjuna offers his prayers thus, his strength and concentration increases manifold! We’ve to understand an important point here – We cannot achieve everything in life with just our effort alone. Of course, our effort is very important, and there’s no denying that. However, we also require Bhagawan’s “Anugraha” along with our effort, to achieve success. This is exactly what Arjuna is doing here. By employing his strength and concentration, Arjuna is invoking Bhagawan Krishna’s “Anugraha”, and this is a formidable combination. Thus, within a fraction of a second, Arjuna lifts the heavy bow in his hands and with this itself, many people were stunned! With the way in which Arjuna lifted the bow, everyone were damn sure that he’s the person who is going to achieve the target! Thus, within a whisker, Arjuna looks at the target while locking the arrow into the bow, looks down at the water table, aims his arrow upwards towards the target with the help of the shadow that falls on the water surface, releases the arrow and it straightaway goes and hits the “bull’s eye”! The fish is hit correctly where it had to be hit, with just a single arrow!
As Arjuna achieves this quite easily without much effort, the audience were completely taken aback! Duryodhana couldn’t believe his eyes! Karna and Shalya were stunned beyond words! King Drupada and Drshtadhyumna were in awe of this “Brahmana Rishi” who has achieved something that even trained Kshatrya kings and princes couldn’t! This was an unbelievable success and it took a few minutes for this to sink into everybody’s minds! Moreover, this was the time that Arjuna obtained the name called “Savvyasaachi”. This word “Savvyasaachi” in English means “Ambidextrous”, which means that a person is equally powerful and capable with both left and right hands. Most of us might only be capable either to our left or to our right, isn’t it? We can’t be both. For instance, if we’ve to write something on a paper, we would only be able to write with either our left or right hand. We can’t do it with both our hands with equal capability. Only a very few people have that unique capability of being able to use both their hands to equal effect. Arjuna was amongst that exception and this was his secret of success!
So why do we say that Arjuna’s “Ambidextrous” capability made him successful? We shall witness Arjuna’s “Secret of success” in our next episode! For now, let us understand and celebrate Arjuna’s victory over the other kings and let us soak into this victory for today. We shall continue this discussion in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 