The Master Within

In one of the Toastmasters event, we had DTM Nagaraja Rao, a very experienced Toastmaster, who was speaking about mentors and how mentors help in the learning and growth of a mentee. Explaining one point about learning, he spoke about a well known story from Mahabharata, that of Eklavya and Dronacharya.

Eklavya was a tribal boy who wanted to learn archery from Guru Dronacharya.  But Dronacharya had certain limitations and was not able to take Eklavya as his disciple. Eklavya, as the story goes, made a statue of Drona and kept practicing before it. In course of time, he became a very accomplished archer, even better than Arjuna, the favourite disciple of Drona.

Then he asked us a question. How is it possible that Eklavya, who did not learn directly from his guru, learn archery? The audience could not give any satisfactory answer to this question. Finally, Nagaraja said, as per the story, Eklavya used to practice in front of the statue of Drona. Whenever he faced any difficulty in mastering a particular technique, he would come to the statue, present his problem and seek help. Then he would meditate on it and in his meditation, he used to get the answer to his question.

Nagaraja concluded that it is the same for us as well. The guru or master is always within us. We just need to know that, ask the right question and listen intently. Then the answer will come from within. Meditation is the gateway to the region beyond your consciousness