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This is a story from the Indian epic Mahabharat telling the story of the Great War between Pandavas and Kauravas. Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers, is the hero of Mahabharat. Lord Krishna delivered the message of Gita to Arjuna just before the Great War when seeing his own cousin brothers (Kauravas), guru, elders, and other relatives, he said that killing all these was not worth fighting and winning.

Arjuna was the favorite disciple of his guru Dronacharya. Dronacharya had promised Arjuna that out of all of his disciples none will excel Arjuna.

One day, Eklavya, son of the chieftain of the forest clan came to Dronacharya to learn the art of archery. Dronacharya refused to teach him on the ground that Eklavya was not fit to be trained with the princes. Eklavya returned to the forest. He made an idol of Dronacharya out of the mud and considering it his teacher began to practice archery. In time he became a fine archer.

One day, Dronacharya and his disciples went to the same forest. Their dog went ahead and reached where Eklavya was practicing. His barking disturbed Eklavya and he adroitly shot seven arrows in the mouth of the dog so that he could not bark further but not hurt as well. The dog ran back to its masters. Seeing the condition of the dog they immediately understood that it was the doing of a master archer. Arjuna asked his guru that how come there was a better archer in the world when Dronacharya was the best guru.

They went to the place where Eklavya was practicing. They could not recognize him. But he recognized them and bowed to Dronacharya addressing him as guru. He then told them what he had done and that Dronacharya was his guru. Arjuna whispered to his guru how come one of his disciple had excelled him when Dronacharya had promised him that out of his disciples none would excel Arjuna.

Let us pause for a moment here and find out how Eklavya became the best archer in the world of his time.

Hard work and persistence. He loved archery and wanted to do nothing else than learn and master the art and science of archery. It was his sole aim. He worked hard at it for many years and persisted with his efforts. He had the initial setback that he could not have a guru. Still he persisted. It is rightly said that genius is 10% of inspiration (meaning born talent) and 90% of perspiration. Nothing beats hard work and persistence. This is one of the greatest secrets of success.

In Indian mythology and epics there are numerous stories where the heroes go to the forest and pray to God for years to acquire some goal and at the end of the hard penance, God grants them the boon of their desire. I interpret all these stories as hard work and persistence.

The Eklavya story has a sad end. In those days, on completion of the study, usually students used to ask, or guru demanded, for any thing or service which they could offer the guru. Most of the time it was symbolic also. But in this story, keeping his promise to Arjuna in view (perhaps there were other political reasons as well as Dronacharya was the guru of princes), he asked for his gift form Eklavya. Eklavya told him to ask him anything which he would give him as a disciple gladly. Dronacharya asked him his right hand thumb which he gave gladly but was later not able to practice archery as deftly as before.

It is hard for me to say that Eklavya should not have given his thumb as the morals of that time of like that. However, to adapt this to modern time, I would like to say that after achieving our goal we should also be careful that we don't lose our hard earned position. There are numerous instances in history where great men and women made silly mistakes and lost all there position name and fame, and, even life.

BE SUCCESSFUL!

The writer has written an ebook Be Happy! The Guide comes with an Action Plan. The Guide, divided into three parts of Body, Mind and Heart, and Soul, deals with various sources of happiness and how to be happy. The Action Plan gives To-Do lists, Happiness Quotations, Affirmations and Meditations, etc. He has also written an ebook Be Successful! His website is dedicated to happiness, success, and health. Please visit it now: http://www.thelifebeautiful.com

The Ancient Fishing Secrets Are Still Here Today

Fishing has been a part of our survival for as long as recorded history and probably much longer. Ancient cave paintings from 10,000 years ago depict fishing along with fish bone remains and animal bone hooks. Even ancient stone anchors are currently being displayed in museums.

Everywhere on this planet, what ever culture, each has its own history in fishing and techniques, most of which are still used today. In fact, almost all ancient cultures have used boats, hooks, nets and spears of some kind.

The ancient Romans used rods and lines, nets and spears. The ancient Greeks used rods and woven baskets and woven cages that stay under water where caught fish are kept alive until they are needed.

Some cultures have been more creative than others and have very interesting techniques such as the night fishing in Japan. It is called cormorant fishing. It requires 7 to 8 cormorant birds that have handlers to train them. Once trained, they go out at night on a long narrow boat that has a long rod in front of it with a hanging basket that is in flames, the birds are each on a leash and are trained to dive down and catch fish, which they are experts in. This technique is still being practiced today and if you are for any reason going to Japan, you may want to sign up to see this phenomenon.

In the Columbian basin, ancient tribal salmon fishers have past down a fishing technique that is still being practiced today. Tribal families for many generations have built wooden scaffolding that is very strong and stable that spans the river. This enables them to drop the nets that capture many salmon at one time. In the smaller rivers of the basin, dip nets are used because you can control them better. These nets historically have been made with hemp twine, sinew and tree pitch. These nets have a long pole attached to them and one stands in the water and scoops up the fish.

In medieval Europe, V shaped structures were built to herd fish into waiting nets.

Some cultures have used poisonous plants to stun fish so that it is easy to catch them. This is a dangerous practice and has been made illegal to fish this way due to the obvious safety issues. One does not want to risk eating a fish that has been poisoned.

Fishing today is not only for survival but is a huge sport all over the world. But when you really look at it, not much has really changed in how we fish. The major difference really is in the advancements made in hooks and nets.

How ever you fish, may the ones you catch be as big as the ones that got away.

About the Author

Willie Jones is a freelance writer, researcher, floral designer, and artist, for Art Inspires, Inc. Make sure you enroll in the free motivational poster drawing at http://www.artinspires.com

What do you think of my YuGiOh Deck?

I think it is Tournament legal. Could you tell me what you think of it?

Sorry man, you were close, but change of heart, pot of greed, and raigeki are all banned. Switch the first one for creature swap, you've got jar of greed already, and change the raigeki for raigeki break.

The first guy was right, this deck is old school. I've only seen a few toon decks, but they're still awesome. But in my opinion, get blue eyes toon dragon, and toon summoned skull. It just suits your deck better. Add in a terraforming, to get your toon world out easier, get rid of torrential tribute and trap hole, get some bottomless trap holes instead, maybe even a scrap iron scarecrow. And get giant trunade (it doesn't technically destroy toon world, so your toons are safe). And another thing, in order to summon out the lv. 5 and higher toons, there's the spell scapegoat, which you can sacrifice the sheep tokens.

And because toons are more agressive, maybe get the trap card royal decree, in case your opponent uses mirror force, sakuretsu armour, or widespread ruin, which can be incredibly annoying. Wait until you have powerful toons out on the field, and you are sure to attack before playing your megamorph though.

Hope that helped out. Good luck with your toons!

-Jesse

The icy Colbert report
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Stephen Colbert was in the middle of recounting the story of his water fight with Richard Branson when - suddenly - he leaped from his seat to look out the window of the 20th-floor hotel room. "Ohhhhh, I love this," Colbert

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