Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), today I will share yet another tale from this monumental book The Panćatantra, tradition ascribes this fabulous work to Vişņu Śarma (“Preserver of Bliss”), faced with the challenge of educating three unlettered princes, to awaken their intelligence, Vişņu Śarma (“Preserver of Bliss”) evolved a unique pedagogy – for his aim was to teach the princes how to think, not what to think.
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Before we embark on this wonder filled, journey I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from yet another monumental work which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”:
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
The tale of ‘The Officious Sparrow’
In a certain forest a pair of sparrows lived in a nest they had built on the branch of a tree. One chilly day in the month of February, a monkey who had been caught in an unseasonal hailstorm came to the foot of that tree, his body trembling like a leaf in the light breeze. As he sat crouched with teeth making music like the plucked strings of a lute, and knees and feet, arms and hands tightly locked, he looked the very picture of misery.
The hen-sparrow watching him, spoke out of compassion
‘With hands and feet provided
you have a human form, almost;
by wind and cold buffeted
why don’t you build a house, you fool?’
The monkey listened to her and thought to himself: Ah! Well: that is how the world is: full of folks who exude smugness. What a high opinion of herself does this miserable little bird have!
Thereupon he told the little hen-sparrow:
‘Oh! Needlebeak! You ill-bred tart!
You think yourself mighty smart!
Hold your tongue, you wretch…or else,
I shall make you homeless.’
Though the monkey thus expressly forbade her from doing so, the sparrow would not desist but repeatedly offered him her good advice on building a house. Finally the monkey was so exasperated that he dashed up the tree and broke the nest of the sparrows into smithereens.
The Panćatantra (Loss of Gains) – The Officious Sparrow – Vişņu Śarma
Translated from the Sanskrit by Chandra Rajan
Let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
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