Epic

[Pictures are from yesterday evening's visit to Rathayatra fair, just outside IIT Kharagpur campus.]

We cannot be faulted if we take ourselves too seriously! After all, this is the only life we have!! One suggestion would be to follow Dadi of Kapil Sharma's popular comedy show on TV. When told, "Dadi, think second time," she shot back,"When life is one, why think twice?" For the believers of more than one life, one may say that we had chance before, we shall get chance again - why worry? If nothing works, we have the liberty to become more philosophical than usual - Many like us had come and gone, many like us will come and go, let us not get stressed!!!

Star Plus is now beaming the epic Mahabharata with new castings. "Dharme cha arthe cha kaame cha mokshe cha bharatarshabha. Yadhihasti tadanyatra yannehasti na tadkvachit" i.e. "O scion of the Bharat race, whatever dharma, artha, kaam and moksha exists in the world, exists in the text, whatever is not in the text does not exist elsewhere." We can watch all episodes here (Link) and take life easy. Of course, we should avoid 'what-if's and draw conclusion out of it. For example, if the battle of Kurukshetra could be avoided if Dhritarashrta dealt Duryodhana differently at various stages - Dhritarashrta could become neither a true king nor a true father. Probably if one is true in one, he automatically becomes true in other.

The other epic Ramayana of Ramanand Sagar production, probably holds world record as the most viewed mythological TV serial. Our young days had "Sitaram charit ati pavan / Madhur saras aur ati mann bhavan / Puni puni kitane ho sune sunae / Phir bhi pyaas bujat na bujae" filling the air on Sunday mornings.  All episodes of it can be seen here (Link). This too offers lessons that places eternity over transients. Often it is laced with humour that we can appreciate if we know that life is more than stand-up comedy, but comedy it is!! Here goes one such story from Ramayana that is taken from this place (Link). 

One day in the forest, Lord Rama was standing with his bow rested on the ground and talking to his brother Lord Lakshmana. After some time Lakshmana noticed that Rama’s bow was rested on a frog and it was struggling to survive. Rama took the frog and asked, “Why didn’t you speak up when you were in pain?”. Frog, a self-realized soul, replied “when others hurt me, I call your name “Rama, Rama” – but here it is you giving me the pain – who else can I call? So I accepted this pain as a blessing.”

Endnote: "We play our parts here — good or bad. When the dream is finished and we have left the stage, we will have a hearty laugh at all this — of this only I am sure." - Vivekananda in his letter to Sister Nibedita on 28th August, 1900 (Link)

 

Parables

We usually study parables when young - in our teens or pre-teen days. The lessons often are not fully understood as we do not get exposed to different facets of life at that age. That which are supposed to be etched in our memory, often ends up in stories that we can afford to forget. I was told that a management school (not of IIT Kharagpur but one of the IIMs) used parables from Ramakrishna Kathamrita (Gospel of Ramakrishna Link) to educate their management cadre who go for administrative jobs. Here are few parables that I studied in young days. It is always worth revisiting the parables of different families even if we consider ourselves grown-ups now and educate ourselves once more. ... refresher's course?!! :-)

From parables of Sri Ramakrishna (Link), on what we consider as reliable information:

A man said to his friend, "I have just seen a house fall down with a terrific crash." Now, the friend to whom he told this had received an English education. He said: "Just a minute. Let me look it up in the newspaper." He read the paper but could not find the news of a house falling down with a crash. Thereupon he said to his friend: "Well, I don't believe you. It isn't in the paper; so it is all false."

Panchatantra is treasure-house of such wisdom. It used animal characters to drive home the message, perhaps to avoid offending high ego of human species! There are several cartoon films on it which are quite popular. The following story is available as narrative in this youtube video (Link). This shows how a foolish friend can harm more than an enemy.

There lived a king who had a monkey as his pet. He loved him very much. The king gave him all freedom and treated him as his good friend. The monkey used to be with the King wherever he was. One day, the king was taking a walk in the royal garden. As usual the monkey was walking with him. Suddenly the monkey started to jump here and there. 

King: What? What happened? Today his action doesn't look normal. Hey what's the matter?King: What happened to you today? Why are you doing this? There should be a reason for this weird kind of an act. hmm...
The King looked around and was shocked.
King: AH... sh.sh. snake.
The monkey leaped across and killed the snake.
King: I am alive because of you. Thank you so much.

Next day the king narrated the whole story in the court.King: Since he has saved my life he is been appointed as my chief guard.
Minister: Oh king! A monkey is a monkey. He cannot think and act. You may kindly think it over and decide.
King: He has saved me once and I believe that he will save me in the future too. 
Since no one could question the king everyone of them remained silent.

One day...King (to monkey): Hey my dear. I am going to teach you. Say A for apple, B for boy, C for cat, D for dog.... good boy. Ok I am going for some rest. Make sure no one disturbs me. If some one or something disturbs me just say shooo.shooo and get rid of them. Got it.
King: Wow intelligent.
The king was asleep. A little while later a fly came near by. At once the monkey said shoo.. shoo. The fly flew away. After some time the fly sat on the king's hand. Again the monkey said shoo shoo and got rid of the fly. The fly came back and this time it sat on the king's neck. Looking at this the monkey got wild and drew the sword to kill the fly. 
Poor king. The fly escaped from the blow but the king.... 

Aesop's fables find its way to become a must-read for all kids. This fable says why one should be careful about flatterers (Link).

A Crow, having stolen a bit of meat, sat in a tree and held it in her beak. A hungry Fox, seeing this, envied the crow and wished to have the meat for himself. So he came up with a cunning plan.

“How gracious you are,” he exclaimed, “how beautifully your feathers shine! Oh, if only your voice were equal to your beauty, you would deserve to be called the Queen of Birds!”

The Crow was really flattered by these words, so, anxious to be called the Queen of Birds, she gave a loud caw and dropped the meat. The Fox quickly picked it up, and thus addressed the Crow: “My dear Crow, you have a nice voice, indeed, but I’m afraid you have no wits.”

I shall end this post with a parable of Jesus. This is the famous story of good Samaritan. It tells who actually is one's neighbour, the one who cares (Link).

 A lawyer stood up to put him (Jesus) to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 

Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."