"Guru Dron, pranipaat!" the Pandavas bow down to seek their blessings from their teacher, their guru. Today they would complete their last lessons for their Astra shiksha.
The Old man looked down and blessed them with a proud smile.
"Ayushman bhava!"
Kaurav brothers meanwhile watch the Pandavas' affluence in Ved and Shashtra Shiksha with a hint of jealousy. The five brothers were equally ardent in astras and shastras. Duryodhana always fumes at them as the Pandavas could be more precise in their astra mantras.
One afternoon when Arjun was out, practicing archer Dushasan started laughing at him.
"Archery, this is the best archery guru Drone talks of?" Dushasan arrogantly huffed. Ignoring his nonsense, Arjun turns his head looking straight and flings the strings, shooting the arrow, knocking off the mangoes skillfully.
"Seriously, I am amazed, at how Guru Drona praises your skill all day. He claims you are the best in Hastinapur!" Dushasan continues.
"Are you jealous?" Arjun smirks.
Dushasan chuckles, darkly.
"Of course, vratashree, I am jealous of your quality of throwing down only a few mangoes. The only quality that seems to be common in most of the other boys." He laughs some more.
Arjun retorted with a smile, "It's easier said than done, dushasan. Prove that you can beat my accuracy! Then I will agree that my quality is indeed puny."
Dushashan's smile fades and as he reads at the serious look of Arjun. He then takes his bow and arrow out. He aims at the mango tree when suddenly Vikarna appears out of thin air.
"Brother, what are you doing?" Vikarna looks shockingly at Dushashan.
"don't interfere vikarana, I have been challenged. I will show this Arjun what I am capable of!" he rants. Arjun laughs silently as Bheem joins him. Vikarna whispers something in Dushasan's ears, making the latter smile mischievously. He nods before pointing his bow and arrow at the tree. He closes his eyes, and invokes a powerful mantra, pulling the strings out and shooting the arrow. Suddenly all the mangoes of the tree start raining down, magically.
Bheem looked horridly at the raining mangoes.
"Dushasan, you should not use these mantras on nature, it will affect them in a bad way." Bheem looked outrageous. While Vikarna laughed.
"Oh excuses, brother! Show us what you can do rather than giving us reasons to escape this challenge!"
Bheem's eyes drift at Arjun who is evident to use the same trick and do something bigger to show what he is capable of.
"oh Arjun, don't use mantras like this!" Bheem looked at Arjun. Arjun looks at the laughing brothers and gets infuriated.
"Arjun, stop it!" Bheem warns.
"No Bhrata Bheem! I need to show them!" he closes his eyes, chanting his mantras and aiming the arrows to the skies. Bheem's eyes look up to the heavens. The clouds start to form around them, as if some storm suddenly emerges out of nowhere around them, rather than around Arjun. The lightning and the thunder start to echo around them. Bheem looked around worried, but Arjun didn't care as he was willing to hit the skies and make it rain. He pulls the string with force, kneels and shoots the sharp spellbound arrow to the sky. Concurrently lightning strikes from the sky, making Bheem roar in fear, scared that his younger brother might get hit by lightning.
"Arjun!" he screams, making Arjun lose his focus, and halting his mantra. Suddenly the lightning struck near Arjun, breaking the earth around him. He looked baffled. Though he is a tough archer, he could feel he has done something wrong. There is no rain. Instead, the winds carried by the horrendous storm are becoming intense. Bheem and Arjun's mukut has fallen off due to the storm.
"Arjuun!" Bheem screams. Dushasan and Vikarna looked appalled too. Arjun tries to back away from the cracks that are forming the ground. It's like the domino effect. As if the earth is splitting into two just to engulf him. Arjun looked at his older brother Bheem. Bheem looked horrified and couldn't stay motionless any longer.
Bheem runs to help him, but the ground shakes causing him to lose his balance and fall.
Before he could comprehend anything, the skies roared and a massive lightning struck Arjun. Bheem screams and tries to run to help his brother, fearing the worst for Arjun. To his dismay, as he looked out to see, his dear brother was nowhere to be seen. His eyes widen, his heart thumping through his chest.
"Arjun!" He screams at the top of his lungs. But the ground where he was a second ago is empty. Bheem somehow jumps through massive cracks in the ground and starts looking around for him. The thunder and the windy storms are slowly subsiding. He kept reminding himself not to panic.
Dushasan and Vikarna watched with horror at just what happened as they hid behind the mango tree. After a while, they both decide to go after Bheem.
"Bheem!" Dushasan called running to him, "Where is Arjun?"
Bheem's nose flared in anger as he turned his head at his Kaurav cousin. "How am I supposed to know? I did not invoke any mantra like you and Arjun did!" he barks.
Dushasan is taken aback at Bheem's thunderous look.
Vikarna looked thoughtful, "Should we inform Guru Drona?"
Bheem rubs his temples after comprehending the situation that has risen because of their stupidity. Sighing he nods, "We need to inform everyone!"
"Why would you allow your brother to invoke mantras in Shastra shiksha!?" Guru Drona looked as if he got an attack.
Bheem and Dushasan had their heads down.
"What could happen to Arjun, Guru Drona?" Yudhishthir asked.
"I need to summon Indradev to know!" Guru Drona shook his head.