Talk:The Hindu Values of Sportsmanship:Be Regular in Your Practice
By Vishal Agarwal and The Hindu Society of Minnesota
In the Mahābhārata, the five Pāṇḍava princes learned archery from their teacher Droṇa. Once, all the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas complained that their Guru favored Arjuna too much. Droṇa decided to teach all of them a lesson so that they learn why Arjuna was his favorite student. He sent Arjuna for an errand. As soon as he had left, Droṇa started teaching the other princes how to take aim at the exact leaf and shoot it successfully with an arrow. Then, all of them left that site even before Arjuna returned.
When Arjuna returned to that spot, he found a lot of split leaves and immediately realized that he must have missed that important lesson. So in his free time, he started practicing using the leaves as his target. In this way, Arjuna soon made up for the missed lesson. When the princes learned how Arjuna worked hard to make up for the missed lesson, they understood why their teacher regarded Arjuna as his favorite student.
Insight from this story: In school or college, some students ‘bunk’ or miss their study classes or sports practice. This harms them more than anyone else. But diligent students like Arjuna try to make up even for lessons that they might have missed due to sickness or other genuine reasons.