Bird’s Eye View

In Mahabharata, the famous epic in India, Drona, the teacher (guru) asks all his students (Pandavas & Kauravas) one by one to aim at a bird and say what they see & finally shoot an arrow on his instruction. Yudhisthira, the eldest, says he sees the tree, the sky, the guru and the bird also. Someone (Bheem) says he sees the tree, the fruits & the bird also. This was almost similar with all the other students. All were instructed by Drona not to release the arrow as they failed to concentrate properly on the target. Finally, Arjuna comes & says he sees only the bird eye. Drona feels very happy & asks him to release the arrow. Arjuna gets the success through his sheer concentration. This story is generally famous to set an example and explain the importance of concentration one should make to reach the target. But we can make several other learnings by critically analyzing it.

If one concentrates on the bird’s eye like Arjuna in the forest, what will happen if a lion or tiger comes from one side? Thus, it is always better to have the Bird’s Eye view of anything i.e., having the bigger picture like Yudhisthira & then should have a focus on the goal like Arjuna. Both qualities combined will give you the success. Even in cricket also, we can correlate this concept of success. The batsman should not only concentrate on the ball, but also consider so many factors like the batting lineup, pitch condition, the target to be achieved, overs remaining apart from his own capabilities along with the runner’s & bowler’s capabilities. Similarly, you can list out the factors for the bowler, keeper & the captain and so on and so forth.  Ultimately, your mind should be like the lens of a camera, which can be zoomed to see the bird’s eye clearly & unzoomed to have the bird’s eye view. If we follow this principle, whether it is archery, cricket or photography, everyone will say “NICE SHOT”. You can think of other examples such as carroms, billiards etc to understand this concept & bring out the analogy. "Be the jack of all trades & master of ONE".