Only the Bird's Eye
What the five princes saw when they gathered by the river to practice archery.
The sun was shining bright when the five princes gathered in the open field by the river to train. Their teacher was a man of few words, so instead of speaking at length about the qualities of a great archer, he asked them to notch their arrows and take aim at the eye of a wooden bird he had placed on a tree some distance away.
“What do you see Bhima?” he asked the tallest and strongest of them.
“I see the village past the tree,” he replied. “I see the smoke rising from the charred remains of huts that were set on fire by our soldiers because the household failed to pay taxes.”
“What do you see Arjuna?” the teacher asked the sharpest of the brothers after getting over the disappointment of Bhima’s answer.
“Only the bird’s eye,” he replied, filling the teacher’s heart with satisfaction.
He moved to the youngest brother. “What do you see Nakula?”
“I see men and women working hard in the fields by the village. They don’t look like they have enough to eat, let alone feed their children.”
The teacher sighed and wondered if this account of poverty had shaken Arjuna’s focus. “What do you see Arjuna?”
“Only the bird’s eye gurudev,” he replied.
The teacher, thus assured, moved to Sahadeva, and found he was not even pointing his arrow at the tree. “What are you looking at Sahadeva?”
“This is wrong gurudev,” he replied, gesturing towards the village. “I see the village elder’s son-in-law threatening farmers. The royal soldiers… our soldiers… are standing by and doing nothing. His men are attacking and beating women and children. Why don’t King Dhritarashtra’s soldiers do anything to stop them?”
Alarmed, the teacher turned to Arjuna and found him still in form, hardly breathing. “What do you see Arjuna?”
“Only the bird’s eye gurudev.”
Relieved, the teacher turned to Yudhisthira, the eldest of the five. “What do you see Yudhisthira?”
But he wasn’t there. Looking around, the teacher found him walking towards the village, seemingly about to do something about all that he was seeing instead of focusing on the eye of the bird.
“ARJUNA!” the teacher thundered as he turned to his favourite disciple one last time so he could be reminded that at least one of the princes still understood what being a great archer meant. “WHAT DO YOU SEE?”
“Only the bird’s eye gurudev,” Arjuna replied, and all was well with the world.
and I thought I knew this story..