Guru Dakshina’s most rigorous example
The biggest example of Guru Dakshina is the story of Dronacharya and Eklavya, one of the most talked about the episodes in the Guru-Shishya tradition of Hinduism. In the Mahabharata period, when there was a competition to achieve superiority in archery, Eklavya, while staying away, accepted Guru Dronacharya as his guru.
Eklavya was a forest dweller and did not get the opportunity for formal education. Still he did not give up. He bowed to Dronacharya by making a statue of clay in the forest and continued to practice in front of the same statue every day. His practice and dedication was so deep that gradually he became a wonderful archer. It is said that his art started to get ahead of Arjuna and his fame spread far and wide.
When Dronacharya came to know about this, he himself went and saw Eklavya. They found that this forest dwellers have reached such a height only with practice and reverence. But the same thing could have raised a question mark on Arjuna’s superiority, because Dronacharya had promised Arjuna as his best disciple.
Then Dronacharya took the test of discipleship and sought Guru Dakshina from Eklavya. But this Dakshina was not simple. He demanded that Eklavya cut his right thumb and offer it to him. Because the thumb’s place in archery is very important and without its archery becomes incomplete.
For a moment without thinking, Eklavya bent down and cut his thumb and offered it to the gurus. This sacrifice is considered to be the biggest faith and example of reverence of any disciple.
Even today, this story is an example of the fact that the order of the Guru is paramount for a true disciple, no matter how big its price is. Eklavya may have lost his thumb, but his story became immortal. He is still remembered on the pages of history as a disciple who sacrificed his everything for Guru Dakshina.