Ekalavya - Arjuna - Drona - Bheeshma

Eventhough Arjuna and Dronacharya are famous for many things, many people have bad opinion on them for their behavior towards Ekalavya.

Dronacharya promised Arjuna that he would make him as the best archer in the world. Once Ekalavya came to Dronacharya and expressed his interest in learning archery. Drona rejected Ekalavya to teach archery, since he was not a Kshatriya.

Later on, Ekalavya made a deity of Drona, and worshiped him. He practiced archery assuming Drona as his guru and learned many things in archery.

Once Pandavas visited forest. During that time, one dog disturbed Ekalavya a lot by barking repeatedly. Then, Ekalavya used seven arrows in the dog's mouth in such a way that, it does not die and it cannot bark. It went to the Pandava's camp. After seeing this and the way it is used, they wondered who had the capacity of using this. Then, they came to know about Ekalavya. They reported this to Drona, and Drona asked Ekalavya his thumb, so that he cannot practice archery anymore.

This caused many people to have bad opinion on Arjuna and Drona.

Dharma is very complicated, especially in the areas like this. To understand this, one must completely forget our present caste system, and understand the real varnasrama dharma according to the scriptures.

Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vysya and Sudra are according to the nature and the type of the activities performed by one. They are never based on one's birth. If the father is a brahmin, then son won't become a Brahmin automatically. For example, Drona is a Brahmin, but, his son Aswathama is not a Brahmin.

Kshatriyas are supposed to learn warfare to protect people and to rule the kingdom. They are not supposed to use for any other purpose. Whereas, Ekalavya used archery on dogs to show his skill, which was a complete misuse of archery. If he had continued to misuse archery, then, many people would have suffered because of that. To stop the misuse, Drona took his thumb.

Even if he was a proper Kshatriya and learned archery, how can one say that, he is going to beat Arjuna just by showing few skills in archery. The skills that one shows in any show, can be done by any advanced archer. One does not need to be at the level of Arjuna to show those.

Eventhough skill is an important part of the archery, but, in the entire Mahabharath, the weapons that one possessed played major role than the skill. The only reason why Krishna worried about Karna was the powerful weapons that Karna possessed, mainly Shakthi given by Indra and Nagasthram. In both the cases, Krishna directly/indirectly saved Arjuna. Without those weapons, Karna lost even to Bheema many times. Bheema did not kill Karna, because, Arjuna had taken vow to kill Karna.

If Arjuna wanted, he could have used Pasupathastram or any other powerful astras that he had and killed the entire kaurava army in one minute. But, those powerful astras are not supposed to use that way, and he did not use those. [He used Pasupathastram for one specific purpose (to kill Saindhava), and withdrew it immediately after killing him.]

Another thing is, Arjuna is a savyasachi, i.e., he can use both the hands in archery. Even if Arjuna gives his right thumb, still, he can use his left hand and compete with anybody.

Ekalavya does not have any powerful weapons. He knows only sastras and not Astras. In any war, he cannot compete with anyone who has a powerful weapon. Also, Drona had minimum role in the Astras secured by Arjuna. Arjuna got many of his Astras, after he finished his education at Drona.

If one is given boons which they are not qualified to receive, then they may misuse it. Whenever Vishnu kills any demon, first thing that he says to Brahma is, do not give this type of boons to anyone. In the same way, if Ekalavya is left like that, he may create more havoc. So, to stop that, Drona took his thumb.

There is no question of Arjuna feeling jealous about Ekalavya. In fact, Arjuna was never a best archer in the world at that time. Drona could not make him as the greatest archer. Apart from Krishna, Bheeshma is the one who is a better archer than Arjuna. Arjuna could defeat everyone else at some time or other, but, he could never defeat Bheeshma. During the war, Pandavas had to beg him to leave his Bow and Arrows, so that, they could win against him. Except that incident, Bheeshma never lost in any war.

After Bheeshma left this world, probably, one can claim that, Arjuna is the greatest archer in the world after Krishna.

If we include all the warriors and not just archery, then Bheema is no less warrior than Arjuna. He is the one who killed maximum people in the war. He alone killed all the 100 sons of Dhritarashtra. He got multiple chances to kill even Karna. But, he did not kill him, because he wanted Arjuna to kill him.