Talk:The Hindu Values of Sportsmanship:Be Determined

By Vishal Agarwal and The Hindu Society of Minnesota

Sporting events are very competitive. Do not lose hope but strive with determination to improve your skills and excel. Winning is not easy, and your competitors are not sitting idle while you rest. The following story from the śāstra Mahābhārata shows the determination of the Pāṇḍava brother to practice, practice and win.

Arjuna Learns How to Shoot in the Dark

With cosmic resolve in her eyes and divine aim in her hands

Once while Bhīma was eating, the lamp blew out and it became dark. Bhīma was of course still able to eat. So Arjuna thought — “If Bhīma can eat in the dark, should I not be able to aim and hit my target in the dark if the target makes a sound?” He immediately stopped eating and started practicing archery skills in the dark. But this was a difficult skill to master. So Arjuna cut down on his sleep time to practice even more. In the course of time, Arjuna learned to shoot in the dark by following the sound of his target!

In fact, one of Arjuna’s names was Gudākeśa, which has several meanings — one of which is “He who has mastered sleep.”

This ability to shoot in the dark saved Arjuna’s life later, during the Mahābhārata war. He was able to shoot and kill the enemy Jayadratha during a solar eclipse by hearing his voice, when everyone else would have been blinded.

Insight from this story: What this story teaches us is that we should not waste a single moment in our life. We should spend all our time wisely to learn new and useful things. You never know — one day these extra skills might save your life!