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 Potter who played the hero’
In a certain settlement there once lived a potter named Yudhişţhira. One day as he was entering his courtyard at a very fast pace, drunk, he carelessly stumbled on a half broken pot with sharp edges and fell down head-on. The jagged rim of the pot made a deep gash on his forehead cutting it open. With blood flowing profusely and drenching his whole body, he somehow managed to get on his own feet. As the wound was treated without any skill, it festered and healed badly leaving a terrible scar on the potter’s forehead.
Sometime later, a cruel famine struck that region and the potter pinched by terrible hunger left his place and in the company of some palace-guards he went to another land where he took up service as a palace-guard. The king of the land noticed the thickened, ragged and horrid-looking scar left by the potsherd and thinking, ‘O, what a great hero this man must be for he has taken a wound in front, on his brow,’ looked upon our fake hero, the potter, with even greater favour, giving him greater honour and finer gifts than to all the others. Even the princes became intensely envious seeing the exceptional favour shown to the potter, but said nothing in the palace about it for fear of the king.
Now one day a great review was being held in honour of veteran heroes; elephants were arrayed, horses caparisoned and warriors stood in line for the royal inspection. The king turned to the potter at his side during the introductory ceremony and asked, ‘O, prince, what is your name? And your clan? And in which battle did you receive the blow that left honour indelibly printed on your brow?’
To this the potter replied, ‘My lord, I am a potter by birth, and my name is Yudhişţhira. And this scar that you see is not a sword-wound. One day as I was hurrying through the courtyard littered with broken pots, being drunk and unsteady, I stumbled over a broken pot and fell flat on my face. The jagged potsherd made a deep gash which festered and left this hideous scar.’
The king was flabbergasted, ‘O, you gods; how badly deceived have I been by this potter whom I took to be a brave prince. He deserves a good cuffing,’ and straight away gave orders for that to be done. What a good cuffing had been administered, the potter observed, ‘My lord, it is not right that you should treat me in this manner, you should first observe the dexterity of my actions in battle.’
‘No, no, my fine fellow,’ replied the king, ‘you may be a veritable treasury of excellent qualities; but you had better leave; remember the well-known saying;
You are brave; your looks too are fine,
dear boy; you have acquired knowledge;
but you come of a lineage
where no elephant is slain.’
The Panćatantra (Loss of Gains) – The Potter who played the hero – 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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