Back in the day, my reading escapades were confined to my English and language texts, the humble school libraries and the monthly children's magazine named Chandamama (Meaning the Moon). It was perhaps the only magazine of its kind that catered to young readers. Chandamama was like my own bespoke version of Platform 9 3/4 that catapulted me to a world of magic. It wasn't a comic kind of illustration but had just the right amount of pictures to supplement the prose. It transformed me to the wonderful world of stories and expression. I remember spending many leisure summers just gazing at those illustrations and absorbing their details - much like a modern day child would gaze at a screen :)And then it was the Amar Chitra kadha comics. Between these two publications, my childhood became as eventful and layered as it could get. I specially liked the stories form our epics. They had such a surreal feel to them and introduced me to the joys of imagination and interpretation.
Most of what I read of the stories in the Hindu mythology had one character that stood out like a landmark. It is Arjuna from the epic Mahabharata. This dude somehow seemed to flip things in his favor like he had a magic wand riveted to his hand. There were one hundred and four brothers and cousins as his peers - that's not counting the friends and rivals, But Arjuna somehow always and I mean always had people eating out of his hand and things and circumstances working in his favor. Even curses that were to be very unfortunate ended up being the veritable 'blessings in disguise' for him. Talk about luck and talk about a consistent and steady supply of it. The child in me somehow felt bad for all and sundry around Arjuna. It was like no one else stood a chance if he was in the picture. Unfair no? Quiet Unfair!
So for starters, Arjuna ends up being the favorite student of Guru Dronacharya. His teacher promises him that he would be the world's best archer. Once the guru spots the prowess of a nomad student Ekalavya, that claims to have learned archery from Drona as a spiritual teacher, Drona wastes no time in claiming the Guru Dakshina from this said 'long distance' student that tuned into the Guru's instructions through his own intuition. Guru Dakshina is a fee in cash (or usually kind) that the teacher claims from the student in exchange of his guidance. You might wonder what the fee was! It was Ekalavya's right thumb that the guru asks for. And being the righteous kid that he was, Ekalavya wastes no time in chopping off his thumb with an arrow and placing it at Drona's feet. Drona asks him for this particular Dakshina as he senses that Ekalavya is a finer archer than Arjuna and that voids his promise to Arjuna to make him the best of the best.
The Epic Mahabharat is filled with such sly, conniving plots galore if you are going 'Tch tch'. So brace yourself if a plan to read the epic in all its detailed glory is in your offing.
Then, His spiritual father Indra, the Ruler of the Devas goes to ask for Karna's kavacha and Kundalas that the latter is born with. These two adornments were embedded into Karna's being at birth, And this Karna is none other that Kunti's first child out of wedlock when she invokes the Sun God to grant her a child with the splendor of the Sun. No prizes for guessing that Kunti abandons the baby which would later be rescued and adopted by a kind couple - and much later Karna becomes Durryodhan's right hand. We'll save Karna's story for another day, but just so Karna doesn't stand an edge over Arjuna, Indra takes it upon himself to snatch these divine armors from the nemesis Karna. Convenient Huh!?
And Draupadi, the heroine of Mahabharat that is the wife of all the five brothers (which is a story for another day as well) pines for and favors Arjuna over the rest. We should cut her some slack because it is Arjuna that passes the test of swayamvara and wins her hand - but people - All the brothers are epitomes of virtue, wisdom and strength but somehow, this 'stuck in the middle' Arjuna gets the favors. Again, and again. And again.
Now to quickly sum up without making a laundry list of all those things that swung in our hero's favor,which are way too many by the way, I need to jump to the cherry on top - the Grand finale - Krishna's discourse the 'Holy Gita' and his viswaroopa manifestation that he particularly puts up as a show to his beloved cousin Arjuna - that people, is the crux of the entire Hindu scriptures right there. And on whom is this favor conferred? But ofcourse, Arjuna.
So, Arjuna is the poster child of the "favorite" that is favored by every one, every thing, every time. Full stop.
Or may be not.
It took me a little bit of 'growing up' and observing the world to decode Arjuna's good fortune.
So when Guru Drona conducts a test and calls all the 105 princes of kuru clan to come and shoot an arrow at a literal bird's eye perched in the tree, somewhere in the outdoors, they all would be dismissed even before they get a shot at the eye. Because all the princes, and each one of them say they see the tree, the forest, the sky and even their peers when the guru asks what they see. Only this blue eyed boy Arjuna says this "I see the eye of the bird and nothing else"
"Shoot" the guru beams. And the next thing you know is the bird is rendered blind in one eye. Luck seems to favor the focused I thought.
On a different occasion, when Guru Drona's own son starts sulking about how the guru favors Arjuna and not his own child, Guru Drona creates a situation that involves a lake and him bathing in it, with an alligator in tow, that comes and attacks him. He makes sure all the kuru kids are in full attendance including his own child. Guess who braves the alligator and fist fights it to save the Guru??
Is it safe to conclude that luck favors the courageous and the helpful?
So when Arjuna brings home his bride Draupadi, his mom, unbeknownst that it is a lady that he brought home, orders that all the brothers share the prize. Suddenly we have a reverse and unheard of 'polygamy' situation. And guess what? Our hero bows his head to his mother's orders and his bride is suddenly the queen of all the five brothers.
Luck, The mother and the lady - all three would favor such a graceful, obedient, willing man. Wouldn't they?
When Durryodhan and Arjuna go to Krishna to seek his assistance in the Kurukshetra war, they find Krishna taking a nap. Arjuna sits by krishna's feet and awaits his waking, while our proud and powerful Durryodhan waits by his head, considering it below himself to sit by the feet of a cowherd. When Krishna wakes up he spots Arjuna first and says he'll give Arjun the first chance to pick between his entire army or just himself as a charioteer and Arjuna picks Krisha to the relief of Durryodhana that gets all anxious about losing the help of Krishna's army.
Arjuna knows better. He knows that Krishna is the Omnipresent that controls the entire universe and having him on their side is the ticket to victory.
Luck does favor the wise, the humble and the non greedy.
And finally, after all the manipulations, the politics, the insults, the injuries, the atrocities Kauravas commit on Pandavas and both face each other in Kurukshetra to battle over their right on the kingdom, planet Earth's sweetheart Arjuna suddenly puts his arms down and goes - "These are my cousins. Doesn't matter what they did to me, my brothers, my wife or the people - I cannot stoop to such low and kill them just to win a lousy materialistic battle"
Altruistic much huh? That's the whole ammunition that triggers the holy discourse Gita and the divine manifestation.
Not just luck, even God favors the empathetic, peace loving and the righteous - the one that puts the greater good before his own.
Do I hear a resonating yes??
And for a good chunk of my childhood, I thought luck was random and the world picks favorites based on shallow credentials.
May be it does seem to be like it sometimes. But upon observation, we might notice the streak and the qualification behind such consistent randomness, that transcends beginner luck or any once in a while fortune.
And all things cannot be elucidated to us. These finer qualities like staying focused, standing up for others, being graceful, being thoughtful, being rightful - these things are not taught like a formula. We need to keep our eyes peeled and our hearts open to learn these untaught lessons. And our own observing faculties help- and magically, we have our own 9 3/4 manifesting before us.
God bless subtlety. May God bless all to notice and benefit from it.
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