364
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 7]
ling;  astra —weapons;  grāmaḥ —all kinds of;  ca —and;  bhavatā —by yourself;  śikṣitaḥ —learned;  yat —by whose;  anugrahāt —mercy of.
TRANSLATION
It was by Droṇācārya'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 Droṇācārya 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  Rāmāyaṇa  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 hearing the sound only, 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 Droṇa for all these benefits. And in the absence of Droṇācārya, his son was the representative. That was the opinion of the good lady Draupadī. It may be argued why Droṇācārya, a rigid  brāhmaṇa , should be a teacher in military science. But the reply is that a  brāhmaṇa  should become a teacher, regardless of what his department of knowledge is. A learned  brāhmaṇa  should become a teacher, a priest and a recipient of charity. A bona fide  brāhmaṇa  is authorized to accept such professions.
TEXT 45
स एव भगवान् द्रोणः प्रजारूपेण वर्तते । तस्यात्मनोऽर्धं पत्न्यास्ते नान्वगाद्वीरस्रः कृपी॥४५॥
sa eṣa bhagavān droṇaḥ prajā-rūpeṇa vartate tasyātmano 'rdhaṁ patny āste nānvagād vīrasūḥ kṛpī