Story Week 9: Arjuna's Fears

NOTE: This story has been revised and added to my portfolio, here. Please read the most up-to-date version in my portfolio.

Arjuna is troubled. Overcoming obstacles has never been difficult for him; in fact, he's known for being exceptionally talented at slaying any problem with apparent ease. However, a seed of growing unease about the future took root in the pit of his stomach and began to flower. Arjuna's fear of this looming unconquerable challenge never seems to fully leave his subconscious, but he still cannot think of what the challenge might be or what he can do to prepare himself to face it.

Arjuna has spent his entire life confident in his abilities, so experiencing any doubt at all that he will inevitably overcome all future obstacles obviously rattles him, and he grows more and more distracted from his day-to-day activities. He also starts to worry every opportunity he encounters could lead to his insurmountable task and avoids them, thinking he can try once he knows, for sure, how to succeed. Acknowledging he needs help Arjuna asks for the advice of an older mentor who is more experienced in life and has helped him many times in the past.

The advice Arjuna received from his mentor was to take some time for self reflection to find the tools he will need to face future challenges and dispel his feelings of uncertainty.

Arjuna thinks about his mentor's advice while eating a small snack of aam papad, a mango fruit leather, and dried banana chips. He does not see how self reflection could possibly be enough to prepare him for whatever future obstacle has spooked him so deeply but decides to give it a shot. 

Kneeling comfortably in front of an earthen vase of crocus and lotus blossoms, Arjuna closes his eyes and begins to meditate. Arjuna continues his mediation for what seems to him like an eternity until he is suddenly overcome with an intense hunger. It is as if he has become someone else, but he is not in control of this body. He is an observer in someone else's mind, sharing their senses and emotions.

Looking around he sees he is wearing the traditional garb of a Kirata huntsman. Then he sees "his" family who look nearly as hungry as he feels. As he reaches for his bow a familiar fear pulls at his stomach anchoring him to the floor. He has no idea if he will be successful and bring back a meal for his family, and they look so hungry. They all need him to succeed. Maybe he should take some time to sharpen his arrows and rest his tired muscles; that will surely increase his odds. But Arjuna is not in control of this body, and the huntsman resolutely grasps his bow breaking the chain tying him to the floor and beginning the hunt.

With that, Arjuna begins to feel the fabric of his pants beneath his fingertips, and as he opens his eyes the lotus blossom comes into focus looking even more vibrant than before. As the world comes back into place around him Arjuna realizes that his mentor's advice was exactly what he needed. He now knew that the challenge he feared was not looming in the future, it had already set fully upon him, and vanquishing it takes nothing more than facing the uncertainty of the future and moving resolutely ahead.


Author's Note:

I based this story off of "Arjuna and Shiva." In this episode Yudhishthira is told that Arjuna can gain the power to overcome any foe by heading to the mountains to worship Shiva who will visit him to give him the power he needs. Arjuna goes to the mountains and performs the necessary rituals. One day a boar rushes out of the trees and just as Arjuna fires an arrow at it a hunter just as powerful does the same. Arjuna challenges the hunter who turns out to be Shiva. Shiva gives Arjuna Gandiva, the divine bow, and leaves.

I chose to tell the story of an Arjuna who seeks a different type of tool to overcome a different obstacle. The Arjuna in my story is very skilled like the mythic one, but suddenly finds himself so scared of some unknown threat that he becomes incapable of moving forward. He goes on a journey to find a way to defeat this threat that is reminiscent of the legendary Arjuna's path to receiving Gandiva. To tie my story back to the original I tried to work in parts of the epic throughout like the advice of an older figure putting him on his path, eating fallen (dried) fruit, kneeling before flowers and a clay statue before his vision, and the huntsman and his bow.

Bibliography. "Arjuna and Shiva" from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita. Source.

Image Source. Kiratarjuniya by Raja Ravi Varma [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons