Struggling Father desirous to see his Son - 47

My Dearest Beta Shanu,

How are you Shanu beta? Happy Mahaveer Jayanti, today Lord Mahaveer was liberated from the cycle of birth and death. Dearest Beta, every religion has teachings which when embedded in the social structure improves the beings and increases the bliss and improves the nature. Lord Mahaveer gave birth to Jainism and showed a unique way of living via ahimsa. It preaches a lifestyle with no place for violence in action and in thought. Simple living which involves simplicity like taking care of plants, eating vegetarian food (how can killing an innocent living creature help a being to satisfy the hunger), practice of non-violence as a way of living and so on. In fact the celebration of Lord’s Jayanti or how Jain’s celebrate their festivals, it involves no pomp and show, it’s a very quite and simple ceremony where silence and practice of calmness erodes all the pollutants from the thoughts. Serving the beings, giving water to plants and animals, starting day by serving food to the hungry, ending the day by thanking God for giving us one more day of opportunity to improve nature are some of the practices which we can learn from the teachings of Lord Mahaveer.

Beta, Today I’m narrating another story and will try to quote some lessons and teachings in the form of stories based on old Vedic fables and translated from ancient manuscripts. Today’s story also has been taken from Brahmavarchas and translated by Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. So lets start now and go straight to the story so that you can have some fun.

Enjoy and learn and spread the learning from the story.

Here is the story:

“
There was a village besides a hill. In the hill and in the forest on the other side of the village, there lived many animals. The majority of the smaller animals like birds, rats, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, jackals, cats, monkeys and mongoose lived on the hill near the village. The larger animals like tigers, elephants, bears, and deers preferred to live in the dense forest.

The animals of the forest had chosen tiger as their king. The tiger was the strongest animal amongst the bigger animals of the forest. He guarded the forest very well throughout the night and did not allow the tigers of the other areas to enter the forest. For his meals, the tiger frequently killed the smaller animals living on the hill.

The smaller animals living on the hill lived in the constant fear of the tiger. They desired to have a king who could protect them from the tiger. They wanted to make the largest and the strongest animals as their king. In a small cave, at the bottom of the hill, there lived a cunning jackal. He wanted to be a king of the little animals living on the hill. However he knew that they would not easily accept him as the king, because he was very weak and small, like his other neighbors. Besides other animals of the hill did not trust him because he frequently lied.

Nevertheless, the jackal was too eager to become king by hook or crook.

There were large trees and thick bushes on the plain at the base of the hill. The villagers use to throw away the leftovers of their food around the hill. Everyday during the night, the jackal went to the bushes in search of the food and returned back to his house in the morning at sunrise.

One morning, while coming back, he saw a very large dark animal, standing near the bushes in front of the rock besides his house.

At first glance, the jackal was terrified. He had never seen such a large animal on the hill. The animal looked like a large jackal. “Who could it be?” he wondered.
He cautiously and slowly moved forward towards his den at the foot of the hill. As he came closer to the hill, he found that the large animal gradually became smaller in size.

On reaching the door of his house he realized, that the large animal was only his shadow. The early sun rising at his back had cast its shadow on the thick bushes in front of his den. The shadow was very large when he saw it from a distance and it became smaller on approaching the hill.

An idea flashed across the jackals’s mind. He thought that if his shadow could deceive him by appearing like a large animal, it could also convince the small animals of a possibility of a large animal existence at the foot of the hill.

The jackal thought of a plan to become a king by proving himself powerful with the help of his shadow. He waited for an opportunity to work out his plan.

One day the animals of the hill called a meeting of the residents of the hill to choose their king. However none amongst them was considered sufficiently strong and powerful for becoming their king.

Finally came the turn of the jackal. The jackal said, “ None amongst us has strength and power to be a king. We are all small and weak. However, we may choose the one animal, which is the largest amongst ourselves, as our king.”

I have employed a big, power animal to guard my den at night, when I go out in search of food. My friend is bigger and stronger than all of us. Untill I return to my den in the morning he stands guard at the door of my den.

My guard is so ferocious that even tigers don’t dare to enter my den. If you accept this animal as king he will be able to protect all of us.”

The animals were not aware of any such large animal living on the hill. Since the jackal was a habitual liar, they did not believe him.

The monkey expressed his doubt. He said, “ I have never seen the animal you are talking about. We shall believe you only after seeing this animal with our own eyes. Let us see how he looks like?”

The cunning jackal said that my friend is very shy, he does not comes out of the house. He would not talk or meet with anyone except me. He never comes out of the house. Only when I return back to my den he comes out and greets me. Tomorrow all of you may gather in front of my house at sunrise and I will show you what my friend looks like.

Next morning all the animals gathered beneath a banyan tree on the plain at the foot of the hill to see the large animal. The animals of the hill had never gone down the hill, thus have not seen large shadows falling on bushes. Also the banyan tree was so big that their own shadows were not visible.

While the animals waited beneath the tree, returning back to his house in the morning, the jackal carefully chose a path, from where his shadow on the bushes could be seen clearly.

The sun rose, and the animals saw a huge shadow of the jackal on the thick bushes in front of his den. As the jackal came to the door of the den, the shadow disappeared.

Standing at the door of the den, the jackal said, “ My friend the guard has gone in to sleep. Did you notice how big and fearsome he is? If you agree, I may ask him to be our king. I assure you with my guard guarding the hill, tiger will not be able to enter the hill. “

All animals were greatly impressed. However the jackal agreed to speak to the guard on one condition.

He said, “ Everyday you will have to bring the food for the guard at my doorsteps.”

The animals unanimously, agreed to declare guard animal as their king and agreed to bring the food daily at jackal’s den.”

Jackal enjoyed the food by tricking the innocent animals daily. In this way a few days passed. However you cannot fool all the people for all by telling lies.

A monkey became suspicious by observing that the jackal is becoming fatter and fatter day by day. He also knew that the jackal was a habitual liar. He decided to investigate. Everyday climbing on the top of the banyan tree he started observing jackal. One morning when jackal was returning to his den a patch of cloud covered the sun and the shadow disappeared. After sometime when the sun came out, the shadow again appeared.

The monkey jumped down from the tree and stood facing the hill, with his back towards the rising sun. A large shadow of his body formed on the bushes in front of the hill. He moved towards the hill and the shadow became smaller. He had solved the mystery of the big guard.

He called all the animals and explained them everything. The animals became very upset with the jackal and stopped providing him food and he had to leave the hill.



So dearest beta below are the moral of the story:

If someone has a bad habit of telling lies, he develops a bad reputation. When people come to know that person, they never believe the person.”

“

As always your image stays with me and motivates me towards truth and justice and service. I’m and will always pray for your health and values. May Lord bless you and be always with you. May Goddess Gayatri shower values and virtues on you, May lord Vishnu be with you and provide bliss to you, May Lord Shiva protect you. May Lord protect you from the heat of summer and envelope you with his Surkha Kavach. Sun god will provide you energy and Moon god will provide envelope you with coolness for sleep. I pray, my dearest and lovely son.

Om!

Your Father
Ravi