Arjuna and the Bird's Eye

Long ago, in the kingdom of Hastinapura, a group of young princes went to school in the forest.

There were a hundred and five of them: the five sons of King Pandu, called the Pandavas, and their hundred cousins, the Kauravas. Their teacher was Drona, the greatest master of archery in all the land.

Every morning, the princes practised. They shot at targets. They drew their bows until their arms ached. Some were strong, some were quick, and some were proud. But Drona was waiting to see which of them had something more.

The bird in the tree

One day, Drona took a small wooden bird and fixed it high on the branch of a tall tree. It was so well made that, from below, it looked almost alive.

He gathered the princes beneath the tree.

"Take your bows," he said. "Fix your arrows. Aim at the bird's head. But don't shoot until I tell you."

The princes did as they were told. A hundred and five bows were raised. A hundred and five arrows pointed at the tree.

"What do you see?"

Drona turned to Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas.

"Yudhishthira," he said. "Keep your aim. Now tell me, what do you see?"

Yudhishthira looked carefully. "I see the bird, my teacher," he said. "I see the tree it is sitting on. I see you, standing beside me, and I see my brothers too."

"Lower your bow," said Drona quietly. "Step aside."

Yudhishthira was puzzled, but he obeyed.

Drona turned to the next prince. "What do you see?"

"I see the tree, the branches, the bird, the sky..."

"Step aside."

One by one, Drona asked the same question. And one by one, the princes told him about the leaves and the sky, the other princes, the clouds, the birds flying past, even the teacher himself. One by one, Drona told them to lower their bows.

Arjuna's answer

At last, he came to Arjuna, the third of the Pandava brothers.

Arjuna stood very still. His bow was drawn. His arrow was steady. His eyes did not move.

"Arjuna," said Drona. "What do you see? Do you see the tree? Do you see me? Do you see your brothers?"

"No, my teacher," said Arjuna. "I see only the bird."

"Describe the bird to me."

"I can't see the whole bird," said Arjuna slowly. "I see only its head."

A smile spread across Drona's face.

"Shoot," he said.

Arjuna let the arrow fly. It sped through the air and struck the wooden bird, right in the head, and the bird tumbled down from the branch.

The princes stared. Drona put his hand on Arjuna's shoulder and held him close. In that moment, he knew that this pupil would become the finest archer of his age.

What the others missed

The other princes had good eyes. Some of them were strong archers too. But when their teacher asked them what they saw, their minds were wandering everywhere: over the tree, over the sky, over each other.

Arjuna's mind was in one place only. He was not thinking about who was watching, or whether he would win, or what the others would say. Everything else had faded away, and only the target was left.

This kind of focus is not magic. Arjuna had practised for years, often when the others were asleep. The story goes that he even taught himself to shoot in the dark. When the moment came, his mind knew what to do.

About this story

The Mahabharata is one of the two great epics of India, and at around 100,000 verses it is one of the longest poems ever composed. Tradition credits it to the sage Vyasa. This episode, Drona's test of his pupils, comes from its first book, the Adi Parva, and it is still told to students all over India as a lesson in focus. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.