Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.7.44

sarahasyo dhanur-vedah

savisargopasamyamah

astra-grāmaś ca bhavatā

śikshito yad-anugrahāt

SYNONYMS

sa-rahasyah — confidential; dhanuh-vedah — knowledge in the art of manipulating bows and arrows; sa-visarga — releasing; upasamyamah — controlling; astra — weapons; grāmah — all kinds of; ca — and; bhavatā — by yourself; śikshitah — learned; yat — by whose; anugrahāt — mercy of.

TRANSLATION

It was by Dronācārya's mercy that you learned the military art of throwing arrows and the confidential art of controlling weapons.

PURPORT

Dhanur-veda, or military science, was taught by Dronācārya with all its confidential secrets of throwing and controlling by Vedic hymns. Gross military science is dependent on material weapons, but finer than that is the art of throwing the arrows saturated with Vedic hymns, which act more effectively than gross material weapons like machine guns or atomic bombs. The control is by Vedic mantras, or the transcendental science of sound. It is said in the Rāmāyana that Mahārāja Daśaratha, the father of Lord Śrī Rāma, used to control arrows by sound only. He could pierce his target with his arrow by only hearing the sound, without seeing the object. So this is a finer military science than that of the gross material military weapons used nowadays. Arjuna was taught all this, and therefore Draupadī wished that Arjuna feel obliged to Ācārya Drona for all these benefits. And in the absence of Dronācārya, his son was his representative. That was the opinion of the good lady Draupadī. It may be argued why Dronācārya, a rigid brāhmana, should be a teacher in military science. But the reply is that a brāhmana should become a teacher, regardless of what his department of knowledge is. A learned brāhmana should become a teacher, a priest and a recipient of charity. A bona fide brāhmana is authorized to accept such professions.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness