The young Ekalavya, due to his birth in a lower-caste tribe, cannot fulfill his desire of mastering weaponry under the expert teacher Drona. Yet his determination inspires him to build a statue of Drona and practice by it constantly.

One day, a dog wanders into his practice area and begins barking loudly. To quiet it, Ekalavya fires seven arrows into its mouth — the dog, unharmed, wanders around and ends up near Drona’s students. Seeing this incredible feat of archery, all the students are astonished, and eventually find Ekalavya, the archer whose skill they now so admire.

But Drona, realizing that this tribal archer could overcome his own star pupil, Arjuna, asks Ekalavya for his guru-dakshina, a gift that teachers receive from their pupils. But cruelly, he asks for Ekalavya’s thumb, which Ekalavya then willingly gives in devotion to his teacher, thereby sacrificing his skill with the bow that he had so carefully cultivated.

(You can also read the story in the translation of the original – search hiranyadhanus to find the right place on the page.)

What a sad story — honest skill stifled by discrimination and selfishness! I remember as a child wanting to go and give Ekalavya his thumb back. Whatever defensible societal hierarchy there might have been, my notions of meritocratic opportunity always got in the way of appreciating the societal message of this story. To me, the thing to learn was Ekalavya’s drive.

What is it that motivates Ekalavya to set up a statue of his chosen preceptor, and practice by it with such determination? How we can apply this to our lives as students?

Given sufficient motivation, we can accomplish great things, so the study and understanding of motivation is important. While we can continue to live life as we always do, approaching each day in the same way as the day before, it is helpful to stop and think about how to approach the next day differently. In this case, the question is — how can we approach tomorrow with more motivation?

To answer this question, let’s think about our situation. As college students, a large part of our motivation comes from external deadlines. A paper is due after the weekend, a problem set in the morning, a thesis in the weekend — deadlines keep us going. Deadlines serve as a source of tremendous motivation for us.

That is why I find the story of Ekalavya so appealing — free of external deadlines, Ekalavya taps into that tremendous motivation within himself, setting up a statue of his preceptor to inspire him every morning. Ekalavya chooses to be motivated.

I find that this puts college into careful perspective — why am I paying for college? Of course there’s the degree, but why is it that I can’t just drop out and teach myself most of this stuff? Am I paying for education, or just an environment of deadlines to keep me motivated? How can I find a source of motivation within myself? The answers to these questions are deeply personal.

Understand what motivates you. That is what I have learned from the story of Ekalavya.

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