Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), today I will share a 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.
Also as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’. 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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The tale of ‘The Blue Jackal’
Once a jackal named Fierce Yowl lived in a cave in the outskirts of a city. One day as he was hunting around for food, his throat pricked with hunger, he entered the city. At once the street dogs fell upon him snapping at his limbs and jabbing with their sharp, pointed teeth. Terrified out of his wits by the savage barking, Fierce Yowl ran here and there, reeling and stumbling in his desperate attempts to escape. Finally, he rushed into the house of an artisan, where he tumbled into a huge vat of indigo dye. The dogs ran away in the direction they had come from.
The poor jackal whose allotted span of life had not yet run its full course, clambered out of the vat with much difficulty and ran back to the forest on the outskirts of the city, where a crowd of animals of various kinds, who were roaming around in the vicinity, took one look at him dyed a brilliant indigo and fled, their eyes widening and quivering in terror; and they ran crying out, ‘Ayo, ayo…. What weirdly coloured animal is this that has come into our midst?’ As they ran they talked among themselves, spreading the news. ‘What kind of creature is this….? It has never before been seen around here…. Where has he come from….. nobody knows what his strength his… or how he will act and behave…. We had better flee this forest…. For as the wise say:
When you do not know someone’s strength,
Or his lineage and conduct,
It is not wise to trust him –
And that is in your best interest.’
Seeing all the animals fleeing from his sight, Fierce Yowl understood that they were afraid of him: he called out to them, ‘Hey there, hey, you wild creatures; why are you fleeing in such terror? The sovereign of the gods, noticing that the wild creatures of this forest have no sovereign of their own, anointed me, Fierce Yowl, to rule over you as your lord. Come back, come and live happily in the safety of the cage of my paws, strong as thunderbolts.’
Hearing his declaration, the whole concourse of wild creatures: lions, tigers, leopards, monkeys, gazelles, hares, jackals and the rest, came forward, bowed low and paid homage to Fierce Yowl; then they addressed him: ‘Lord, prescribe to us our several duties.’
Fierce Yowl appointed the lion as his chief minister, and the tiger as chamberlain; the leopard he put in charge of the royal betel casket; made the elephant the royal doorkeeper and the monkey he designated as bearer of the royal umbrella. But, of the jackals, who were his own kith and kin, he would have none. He seized them by the throat and threw them out.
Fierce Yowl enjoyed royal glory in this manner, while the other beasts led by the lion hunted and killed and brought him food which they laid at his feet. He too following the customary manner of princes, divided the food placed before him and distributed it to the members of his court. And so the days went by pleasantly, until one day as Fierce Yowl was sitting in state in the Hall of Audience a pack of jackals nearby started howling. As soon as he heard it, Fierce Yowl’s body thrilled with delight; his eyes filled with tears of joys; and he too began howling in a shrill, high pitched tone. The lion and other members of the court hearing it gasped in surprise and exclaimed, ‘Good Heavens! This is but a jackal.’ For an instant they stood dismayed, ashamed of themselves and looking down at the ground. They then started murmuring and muttering, ‘Listen; we have been taken for a ride by this jackal; let’s kill the scurvy fellow.’
Fierce Yowl heard this and in attempting to flee was caught by a tiger and torn to bits.
The Panćatantra – Estrangement of Friends – Vişņu Śarma
Translated from the Sanskrit by Chandra Rajan
Storyteller is asking the Listener to bear this in mind:
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
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