Author: Priyanka Sharma

Once there lived a Brahmin named Haridatta in a town. He had a farm which was near his home. He was a very hard working and simple person. Although his hard work in the farm, he could not get enough yields in his farm and even did not full fill his needs. But he continued his hard work in his farm.

One day, during the summer, while he was working in his farm, he could not able to bear the heat of the sun anymore. So he decided to rest for sometime under the shadow of a tree in his farm. Besides the tree there was a hole, in which a black cobra lived. As he reached the tree and start resting there, the black cobra coming out the hole with his hood raised. When Haridatta saw the cobra, first he got scared very much, but suddenly he thought, “Perhaps, this black cobra is the Divinity of the farm. From now, I will worship him and offering him many things. Perhaps, this cobra will impress with me and bless the farm with a high yield produce.”

Suddenly he brought a plate full of milk and offered it in front of the hole of the cobra and said, “O protector of my farm, I was not familiar with your presence here, please forgive me. Please accept my offering.” And then he left the plate there and returned to his home.

The next day when he came to the farm, he immediately reached the hole of the cobra. He shocked when he saw a gold coin on the same plate in which he offered the milk. Then he accepted the coin as a blessing from the cobra.

Days passed away in this way. Every day the Brahmin offered milk in a plate to the cobra and in returned of it he got a gold coin in the same plate next day. The Brahmin started growing a rich man.

After some time, the Brahmin needed to went to another village for some work. He thought if he went away from there then he would offer milk to cobra, and he did not want to hamper worship of him. So he instructed his son to offer milk to the cobra everyday and keep the blessing of him which he gives in return. Then the Brahmin went away.

According to his father’s instructions, the son offered milk to the cobra and then went to home.  Next day when he reached the same place, he got shocked to find the gold coin in the plate. He began to thought, “If the cobra gives gold coin every day, it means he must have a lot of gold coin inside the hole. If I kill the cobra then I can take out all the gold coin in one time.” So he planned to kill the cobra.

The next day the Brahmin’s son reached the place and instead of offering milk to him, he waited for the cobra to come out the hole. So he hit the cobra with a strong stick to kill him in one attempt. As the cobra came out the hole, he hit him badly but the cobra escaped and in anger the cobra bit the Brahmin’s son. He died at the spot and then his body cremated in the same farm by their relatives.

After few days when the Brahmin returned to his home, he heard what had happened and how his son died. His relatives advised him to kill the cobra to take revenge. Although he was very disappointed for his son’s death, but he did not favour his son’s behaviour which led him to death. He did not blame the cobra for this, and did not want to kill him to take revenge.

The next morning, the Brahmin went to offer milk to the cobra as usual. He stood near the hole of cobra and started praying. On hearing this, the cobra came out of the hole and said to him, “You are a greedy man. You have even forgotten your son’s death and have reached here to take a gold coin. You do not come here out of respect but for greed of gold coin. From now our relation has been finished.”

The cobra continued, “I bit your son in revenge to his attack. He want to kill me to take all the coin at one time. He got greedy for gold coin and was died. But he did all out of his hurriedness. How can you forget his death?”

 Then the cobra gave him a diamond this time and said, “The broken love cannot be restored with a show off of affection. Now go away and never come here again.”

The Brahmin went home with the diamond. He mourned at his son’s foolishness which led his death, and he did not return to the cobra again.

The wise indeed say:

Greed crosses all borders of reasoning and ends in disaster.

Once there lived a lion, named Kharanakhara in a jungle. He was the king of that jungle. He went out in the jungle daily in search of food. One day when he wandering around the jungle he did not find a single animal. He was very hungry but it was almost sunset so he started returning to his home.

On his way of returning he saw a big cave and thought, “There must be some animal living in this big cave, as this cave is so beautiful that it cannot be empty. As now it is sunset and whatever animal lives in this cave is bound to return. If I shall hide inside this cave and wait for that animal, I shall definitely find my dinner.” So he immediately entered into the cave and hid himself.

This cave belong to a jackal. He arrived there after a while the lion entered into the cave. When he entering into his cave he noticed the footprints of the lion leading into the cave, but could not find any footprint coming out. He thought for a while, “If a lion indeed entered into the cave and he still there then there is no chance of mine to remain alive. But how can I be sure about this? If there is no lion inside the cave then what is the reason for me to stay away from his home. What should I do to find out if there is any lion inside or not?

Suddenly the jackal made a plan and he stand in front of the cave and began to shout, “O my dear! Hello! Can I come inside?” there was no reply from the cave. He waited for few moments and again shouted, “Hello my cave! Have you forgotten me and our understanding of many years? I enter the cave only you allowed to me and wait until your reply. Why are you not replying today? What happened to you? I shall then go away to some other cave if you do not reply to me. Please reply to me.”

After hearing this the lion began to thought that the cave must reply to the jackal when he returns to the cave after hunting. And now I am here that’s why the cave is not replying to the jackal. If the cave is not replying to the jackal he went away. So I should reply in behalf of the cave.

Within few moments the lion replied from inside the cave, “Dear Jackal, I am not forgotten you. You may enter inside. It is safe.” When the jackal heard this he got frightened and understood that the lion is waiting for him inside the cave and as he enter the cave he make a meal out of him. He suddenly ran away from there as fast as he could and saved his life.

The wise indeed say:

Use your tactics to protect yourself from destruction.

 

Once there lived an old merchant named Kamatura. He was a widower. Ever since his wife had died long before, he was a love sick person and wanted to re- marry. After some time he got succeed somehow in convincing a merchant to marry his young daughter with him. He gave him a lot of money and married his daughter.

But the another merchant’s daughter was very unhappy with the marriage and he hated her husband as he was an old man. She never talked to him and even did not look at her husband. The old merchant knew the reason for her unhappiness so he would do everything to impress her wife but he did not get success till.

One night, when they both were sleeping on the opposite sides of the bed, a thief came into their house. When the thief moving into the house suddenly he made a noise by mistake. The old merchant’s wife woke up by this sound and she realised that there was someone inside the house. She was terrified and moved towards her husband who was still sleeping. Due to fear she hugged her husband tightly. She did all this without making any sound that’s why the thief did not draw any attention towards her.

After sometime the old merchant awoke and found that her young wife hugging him tightly. He became very happy and thought, “I tried many times to seek her attention but she never respond me, but today she hugging me. There must be a reason that my wife hugging me so tightly.” As he looked around he realised that there was a thief in their house, and it was the reason his wife hugging him due to the fear of the thief.

The old man shouted at the thief, “O dear stranger, I want to thank you. I have tried everything but my wife kept avoiding me always. But today she hugged me so tightly only because of you. I am very happy now and thank you for all this. Please take anything which you want.”

The wise indeed say:

Sometimes, even your enemy can be beneficial to you.
 

Once there lived a merchant, named Sagardatta. He had a son, which is young and smart too. One day his son brought a costly book, which has only one line, “You get only that which is written in your fate, that which destiny decided for you.” When the merchant saw this book he thought that his son was such a big fool who buy such a costly book with only one line written in it. He got very angry and shouted on him, “What nonsense is it, how can you buy such a costly book with only one line written in it. You have no sense for doing business, then how can you do business as me. Get out of my house and came again here.”

The young boy felt very insulted when his father drove away from the house. He then went away from the house and started travelling with his only book. He learnt the line very well and kept revising it all his way.

After sometime he reached a village. When villagers saw him they asked his name, then he replied, “You get only that which is written in your fate, that which destiny decided for you. Then after that day all the villagers called him by this name.

Few days later there came a festival so the princess of the country all came to attend the festival. She saw a good looking prince there, who was also came to attend the festival. With the very moment she saw the prince, she fell in love with him. So she decided to send a message to the prince. Then the princess wrote a message to the princess and gave it to her servant. The servant then gave this letter to the young merchant’s son by fault. The merchant’s son did not know about the message so he though to read it.

 He opened the letter and read that, “The very moment I saw you, I fall in love with you. I want to meet you, please meet me in the palace. When you will come there you will find a rope hanging from one of the windows of my room, which will lead you to my room. Please come I will wait for you.” He began to thought that he will respect the princess wishes so he decided to meet her. 

Then reached the palace and climbed up through the rope and reached the princess’ room. As it was very dark in the room so the princess could not see his face, she thought he was the prince whom she saw in the festival. She received him warmly and served him food and drink. Then she said to him, “I have deeply fallen in love with you. I want to marry with you and want to live with you always. Please tell me what you think about this.”

When the merchant’s son heard this, he replied her, “You get only that which is written in your fate, that which destiny decided for you. The princess got surprised what the prince had said, so she immediately switched on the lights of her room. She got shocked when she saw the merchant’s son in place of the prince and then she ordered him to go out from his room.

The merchant’s son was very sad on treated in such a manner without any mistake. He went out from the room and reached a nearby temple. He decided to spend the night there, so he fell asleep. There were nobody remained in the temple at night, only a watchman lived there. So the watchman carried out bad activities during the night. The watchman wanted the young man to leave the temple, so he said, “This temple is very old and broken from many place. You are not safe here. You may sleep in my home, if you want.” 

The merchant’s son agreed to went to his house. When he reached the watchman’s house it was very dark, so he mistakenly got into the wrong room, where the watchman’s daughter was waiting for her lover in the absence of her father. When he reached the room, the watchman's daughter mistook him as his lover. She then immediately exchanged garlands in front of the picture of God. Therefore according to their tradition they got married. 
The merchant’s son did not understand what has happening so he said, “You get only that which is written in your fate, that which destiny decided for you. When the watchman’s daughter heard this, she realised she had made a mistake and began to thought, “It’s all happened due to mistake and such mistake is destined to happened when be doing something without thinking sufficiently about It.” She got very angry and cursed him and threw him out of the house.

The merchant’s son felt very insulted by being treated in such a manner again and again, he was very sad. When he started walking, he saw a marriage procession approaching there. They all had expensive clothes, and wore heavy jewels. He thought to follow the groom's procession, which was going to the bride's home. So he began to follow them. He reached the ceremony place with all other guest.

Suddenly a mad elephant came there and everybody start to move here and there to save his life. The bride could not understand what to do, so she remain stood there, too afraid to ran there. When the merchant’s son saw this, he immediately reached the elephant and got hold him and began to frightened him with his huge nails. The elephant got frightened and ran away. 

After some time when the bride’s friends and other relatives returned at the place, the bride said to them, “At the time when my life was in danger and I am alone, there was no one presented here to help me to help me. This unknown person helped me without thinking about his life. I will marry only this person and none other than him. This is my last decision." All the peoples present there started offending her decision and there was a heated argument took place there. Within few moments, the king arrived there to appease everybody and stop the argument. Everybody including the princess and the watchman’s daughter arrived at the place.

 The king then asked the merchant’s son, “You came the ceremony and saved the bride and all the people from the elephant, it is said by all these. I want to know whole thing from you. Tell me what has happened here.” The young man replied, “You get only that which is written in your fate, that which destiny decided for you.” 

The princess and the watchman's daughter were embarrassed to hear the words. When the king heard this from the young man and saw the princess and the watchman’s daughter smiling on hearing these words, he demanded to know the truth. 
Then the watchman’s daughter told him how he marrying him by mistake, and said, “It was my fate and I now I accept it.”
Then the princess explained to the king that how she had spent time with him by mistake, and said, “It was my fate and I do not regret it.”
On hearing all this, the bride said to the king, “O King, all happened with me due to my destiny and what destiny has given to me, none can take away from me!" 

After hearing everybody the king agreed to marry his daughter to the merchant’s son. The king arranged for a ceremony. He married the young man with his young princess, and made him his heir to his empire. He gifted the young merchant's son with a thousand villages, apart from ornaments and Golds.

The bride and the watchman's daughter were also married to him in the same ceremony. After some time the merchant’s son built his own palace for his parents and they all lived happily ever after.

The wise indeed say:

Do your best but leave it to destiny.
 

Once there lived a Brahmin with his wife named Shandili, in an outer area of a city. They were very poor but they live happily together.
One day the Brahmin said to his wife, “There is a special day tomorrow, there is a festival. So it will be a good time for alms. I shall visit the city tomorrow and I am sure that I shall collect a lot of things for us which will last for many days.” He continued himself, “You must invite a Brahmin tomorrow and take him food and clothes. It is an auspicious day so it will be a good act.”
After hearing this, his wife said to him, “How can you say all this? We are already very poor, we cannot invite any Brahmin. We cannot afford good food and good clothes for giving a Brahmin.”  But the Brahmin began to explained her, “My dear wife, whatever we have we must share at least half of it with a needy person. It is a good deed.”
After much of conversation the Brahmini agreed to him. She said, “I have only some sesame seeds to offer a Brahmin. I will clean it properly and remove their husks, and cook a delicious dish for a Brahmin."  The Brahmin agreed.
The next morning the Brahmin went to the city according to the plan. When he gone away, his wife began to clean the sesame seeds and removed their husks. After that she put the seeds in the sun and began to start his household work. After sometime when she was busy with her household activities, a dog came there and contaminated the seeds. When she saw the dog she immediately ran towards the dog and the dog went away. 
She became very sad and thought, “Fate has ruined all my efforts. But I have nothing else except these sesame seeds. So I will try to play a trick with my neighbour. When I will offer these cleaned, un-husked seeds in exchange of some husked sesame seeds, she will not suspect to me and will definitely accept the offer.”
Then she went to her neighbour and offered an exchange. The lady was attracted towards the offer. She thought that it takes much time to clean these husked seeds. The offer is quite good. So she agreed to accept her exchange offer. As she take out some husked sesame seeds to give the Brahmini and began to give her, her son came out. He said to his mother, “MAA! Who would exchange cleaned sesame seeds with uncleaned ones? There must be some reason that she offers such exchange offer. There may be a trick behind all this. Please do not accept the exchange." 

When the lady heard her son’s advice, she began to thought and at last refused for the offer. Then the Shandili realized that she had failed to play the trick on her neighbour, and then she returned home.

The wise indeed say:

When someone offers you something that is too good to be true, don't be accepted it immediately – Think and analyse it first.

Once there was a village which was destroyed due to a strong earthquake. All the houses were ruined completely so the villagers decided to left the village to settle at different place. When the villagers went away from the village a number of mice had came there and made the vacant shattered houses as their home. The mice loved to live there as he found such places very comfortable, and after some time a large number of mice came to live there. They lived very comfortably there and time passed away in such a way.

There was lake in the outer area of the village where a large number of animals used to visit regularly. In these animals a group of elephants also used to came the lake regularly to drink water and to take bath. These elephants came from the ruined village to reach the lake regularly. And as the group of elephant passed through the village a large number of mice got injured heavily. This cause a serious problem to the mice. So they all went to their king and explained the problem. The king of mice then decided to talk to the elephants to request them to act accordingly.

On the next day when the group of elephant came, the king of mice reached the elephants and said to them, “My masters, we mice live in this ruined village and when you all travelled through this area everyday it get destroyed many of mice. It is a serious problem for us. Thus I request you to all please understand our problem and change our way to the lake. If you do this, I promise to you all to return the favour in your time of need. I shall help you whenever you need.”

As the elephants listened this they all began to laugh at him. The king of the elephant said, “O small mice, what you can do for us? You are so small there will be no reason to take favour from you. We are the huge elephants and we do not need to take help from you. But I respect your request, so we will change our way to lake from this moment. You need not worry about any problem caused by us anymore.” Then the king of the mice thanked the king of the elephant for their help, and then the elephants went away.

The mice lived happily thereafter, and there is no harm to them after that day. After some days, some hunters trapped the group of elephants. Most of the elephants including their king got trapped into the net set by the elephant- hunters. They tried hard to flew away from the net but all their attempts went into vain. As the net was so strong the other elephant that are not trapped into the net, could not do anything to set free their friends.

Suddenly the king of elephants remembered the promise of the king of the mice. He ordered another elephant, which had not got trapped into the net to reach the king of the mice to remind him his promise and helped them.

 

 

As the elephant reached the king of the mice, he narrated the entire story to him. As soon as the king of mice listen this, he suddenly called all the mice and said to them, “Now is the time for us to help our friends and return their favour. We should reach to them immediately.”

And then all the mice reached to the place where all the elephants had been trapped. Within few moments they all started biting the strong net and cut the entire net at last. The elephants came out from the net and were become very happy. Then the king of the elephants expressed his gratitude to the king of mice for their help in time of need. After that day they became good friends forever.

 The wise indeed say:

Never underestimate anybody by their appearances.

Once there was a temple of Lord Shiva, present near a city, named Mahilaropyam. The temple was taken care by a holy sage. He looked after the temple and lived there. He used to visit the nearby city everyday for alms and returned temple in the evening then he take his meal. When he collected alms more than his needs then he kept the excess in a bowl. He then gave these alms to the poor worker, who helped him in cleaning and decoration of the temple. In this way the sage helped his poor workers.

There was a mouse also, who lived in the home of the hermit. He would creep daily and steal some of the food from the bowl. After few days the hermit realised that someone stealing his food then he found out that it was a mouse who has been stealing his food. He made many planned to stop the mouse from doing this but not succeed. He put the bowl at the high place as he could, and tried to kill harm the mouse with a stick, but he did not get success. The mouse somehow finds a way to reach the bowl and steal some of the food.

One day a medicant came to the temple to meet the sage. At the same time the hermit looked for an opportunity to harm the mouse with the stick whenever he came again. This made the medicant very angry and he shouted, “I will not visit this temple again. You have much important work to done than talking to me. So there is no need to stay here. You are giving only unclear replies to my queries, so there is no need to stay here anymore.

The hermit explained all his problems and how the mouse kept stealing his food from the bowl. He said, “This mouse reached at the high places where cat and monkeys are not able to reach too. I have tried everything. And at this time also I tried to hit the mouse with the stick, even while talking to you, to save the food I kept for my workers.”

The medicant understood the holy man’s problems and suggested him, “This mouse jumps so high beyond his limits it means this mouse is faster than all the others. There must have some reason for this. I am sure that this mouse has collected a lot of food in his hole so he has such high energy. And the mouse thought he has nothing to lose, as no one knows about his collection, so he has no fear to lose anything.”

The sage understood all the matter what the medicant want to explain him. And then they both reached a conclusion that if they can track the way of the mouse to his hole, then they will able to reach a store of the food. So they decided to follow the mouse the next morning.

 

 

 

The very next morning the sage and the medicant track the mouse and they reached the entrance of the hole where the mouse lived. Within few moments they started digging the hole and then he got a huge collection of the food stored by the mouse. They collected the food from there and stored it safely at other place of the temple.

When the mouse realised that all his work gone into vain he was very depressed and lost all his confidence. As the mouse had no food for himself so he decided to reach the bowl at night for once. At night as he tried to reach the bowl, it has realised that it had neither potential nor confidence to the bowl anymore. At the same time the sage hit the mouse with a stick. It hurt the mouse very much but he managed to escape from there and then he left the temple to never come back again here.

 

The wise indeed say:

Strike at the source of the enemy's power to destroy him.
 

Once there lived a lion, named Madotkata in a jungle. He was the king of the jungle. He had a leopard, a jackal and a crow in his service along with other animals of the jungle. They regularly went out in search in search of food together. 
One day when they were wandering about the jungle, the lion saw a camel at some distance. The camel was alone; it might be separated from its caravan and was eating green grass of the jungle. The camel seemed an extraordinary animal to the lion that he had not seen such animal like before. He said, “Let us go to this animal and asked him to where he comes from.” The crow, who flies to seen many places was aware to this animal. He replied to lion, “Sir, it is called a camel and he lived in villages. His flesh tastes very good so we should kill it and eat it.” But the lion disagreed to the crow and said, “As he does not belong to our jungle, so he is our guest. We cannot kill it. Go to him and assure him that there will be no harm here and bring him to me.”
As according to the instructions of lion, they went to the camel and assured him that they were come here to bring it to the lion. There will be no harm to you. They won its confidence and then brought the camel to the lion.” They all reached the lion, the camel bowed before the lion. He narrated how he had gotten separated from his caravan and then how he reached to the jungle.”
After hearing this from the camel, the lion said to him, “O dear, if you return to the village you should carry burden again on him. You can stay here in the jungle under my kingdom and can feast the green grass of the jungle without any fear.” The camel agreed to the offer and then they all lived happy together.
One day, due to a fight with a mad elephant the lion got severely wounded that he could not take few step without any help, even could not move him. So he was unable to go out for hunting. Within few days due to lack of food and injuries, the lion became very weak. The other animals also starving, as they depend on the lion for their food. 
Within few days when the lion unable to bear hunger anymore, he called the crow, the jackal and the leopard and said to them, “Please go and find any animal that I can prey even in my weak condition. And in this way I can provide food to all of you and also for myself.” Thus all the animals went away in jungle in search of food but they succeed and started returning to their home. 
On their way the jackal had a plan. He said to the crow, “There is no point of searching about the jungle when the food is in front of us. The camel can provide us the food for all of us for a long time.”

Then the crow replied to him, “May be what you say is correct. But the lion has promised the camel of his safety. He will not allow to kill him.”
The jackal said, “Leave it to me. I will convince the lion in such a way that he will allow us to kill the camel and feast on the camel. You all wait till I return after a discussion with the lion.”

Then the jackal went to the lion and said to him, “O king, we have looked all around the jungle but could not find any animal for you. All of us had not eaten food from so long that we can hardly walk properly. If such condition remains for few more days we all will die due to hunger. Under such condition, if you allow to kill the camel, his flesh can provide food for all of us for many days.”

The lion disagreed and shouted on him, “Shame on you! How can I kill the camel when I assured him that his life will be safe under my kingdom? I cannot even think likewise.” But the jackal continued, “Sir, it would be a sin to kill him after you assured him of his safety. But if he himself offers as your food by himself, it would not be a sin to kill him and accept 
his offer.” The jackal continued convincing the lion, “Sir, it is our duty to serve our king. If we cannot serve his master in his time of need then what good we are and for what reason we live. Please kill one of us for yourself and others to save the rest of us from dying out of hunger.” The lion did not have nothing to say and then he replied to him, “Please do what you think would be best for all of us.

After this, the jackal returned to the other animals and said to them, “Our master is sick and weak now. If something happened to him, we will protect us. We have failed to get any animal after searching throughout the jungle. Now the only way to serve our master is to offer ourselves to him to save his life. And in this way the rest of us would be saved from dying of hunger too.” 
Then they all reached the lion and according to the plan, all of them stood before the lion and bowed. They informed the lion that they did not succeed to find any animal for their food.
First the crow said to him, “Master, we could not find an appropriate animal for your food. So, I offer myself to you. Please accept me as your food to save yourself from hunger.”
Suddenly the Jackal interrupted the crow, “Dear crow, you are too small to provide meal to your master. Even if he agrees to accept your offer, it will not be enough for his survival. You have already proven your devotion to your master, there is no need to serve himself.
Then he turned towards the lion and said, “Master, please accept me as your meal. He continued, “Master, please eat me to save yourself from hunger. If you accept my offer, I will be honoured and find a place in heaven.

On hearing this, the lion refused his proposal. In this way, the other animals started offering themselves, but the lion refused all the proposals.
 
The camel was observing all this and he thought, "All of them speak so beautifully about offering themselves, but the master refuses to kill any of them. I shall try to impress the 
master in a similar way."

Thinking in such a way, the camel said to the other animals, "You have offered yourself, but the master cannot eat you because all of you belong to the same category as the lion himself. I want to offer myself for my master". 

Within few moments the camel came forward toward the lion and bowed before the lion. He said, “Master, you need not kill any of these animals. Please eat me instead. I offer myself in return to your debts. I shall find my way to the heaven, if you may please accept my offer."

Within few moments as the camel offer himself, the other animals began to cheer up. As the lion already influenced by the jackal, he jumped on the camel and killed him. Then the camel’s flesh eaten by all the animals together and he lost his life.

The wise indeed say: 

Always be on guard when you are in the company of wicked people. Do not be taken in by their sweet words.

Once there lived a pair of Tittibha birds on a sea shore. The female Tittibha bird was expecting to lay eggs. They both were very happy and began to planned about their family after their children.

When the time reached to lay eggs the female Tittibha said to her husband to seek a safe place to lay her eggs. She said, “My dear, please seek some good place for me to lay the eggs as it is almost time came to lay them.” The male Tittibha replied, “Dear, this seashore is the best place to lay the eggs. Where in the world could be a better place than this. Please lay your eggs here.”

But the female Tittibha disagreed to him and said, “On full moon nights the waves of sea are very high and they can even drag an elephant into it. No, please find a safe place away from here.”

The male Tittibha laughed on her and insisted her, “My dear, the sea would not even dare to harm my children. You don’t worry unnecessarily and lays eggs here.”

When the male and female Tittibha discussed all this, the sea had been hearing all the time and then he thought, “From a small bird as he, such rudeness is not expecting. Now I will definitely take away his eggs to see what he does after that and teach him a lesson.”

After few days the female Tittibha laid her eggs in the seashore. Then, both the birds went away in search of food. At the same time the sea started making waves. The waves became so higher after some time that it swallowed the eggs into it. When the birds returned they found the nest empty. Seeing this the female Tittibha started weeping loudly and said to her husband, “See, the waves of the seashore has swallowed our eggs. I asked you to seek a safe place to lay eggs but you never listen. You are such a big fool. Now we lost our children.”

But the male Tittibha continued his stupidity and said, “My dear, you don’t worry. I will dry the sea and force it to return our eggs. Then you feel proud on me how brilliant I am.” The female Tittibha shocked and asked him, “How can you dry this huge sea?”

The male Tittibha explained to her, “Even small birds as me can overcome the strongest opposer if they are eager to do. And so I plan to dry the whole sea by sucking its water with my beak.” The female Tittibha asked him, “How can you dry up the sea with your beak? The rivers like the Ganges and Indus, and hundreds of other rivers flow into it. There is no meaning of all this.”

 

 

 

 

He continued to argue her, “I will work hard day and night to suck all the water of this enormous sea with my beak. A man can succeed only after putting efforts.” The female Tittibha understood that she will not be able to convince him. So she said to him, “Dear, there is no point in arguing with you. But if you want to empty the sea, you should call your friends to help you in this task.” The husband agreed and said, “All right my dear, I will do this with the help of my friends.”

Within few moments the male Tittibha bird called all his friends to gathered at one place. And when they all gathered, he explained his problem to them about the sea, how it had swallowed all his eggs and how he planned to dry the sea to take revenge.

When all the birds, the swan, crane, peacock and others heard all they said to him, “The task is impossible. There is no advantage of this talking. It is impossible for us to suck the sea to dry it up completely. We should visit our king, Garuda, the Lord Vishnu’s vehicle to seek his advice. When he comes to know that what the sea has done with your children, he will be angry and seek revenge.”

Thus they all went to their king, Garuda and narrated the entire story to him. They said to him, “O king, the sea swallowed the eggs of the good Tittibha birds even after the fact that you are our caretaker, our protector. If this all happened again and again, our entire race will finish.” The Garuda realised that the birds were in trouble so he agreed to help them, to go and dry the entire sea. At the time when they were leaving, a messenger from Lord Vishnu who needed his help arrived there.

Garuda explained to the messenger that he was unable to serve his king at this time and said to him, “I am a very common servant of the Lord Vishnu for him to need me. The sea, which is the resting place of the Lord, has swallowed all the eggs of the Tittibha birds. I refuse to serve my Master if he will not order the sea to return the eggs of the Tittibha. This is my strong determination. Please let him know of it.”

The messenger reached the Lord Vishnu and came to knew him all the matter. Then the Lord Vishnu thought, “I can understand the behaviour of the Garuda and need to help him. He is the king and protector of all the birds. I must meet him at once.”

Within few moments the Lord Vishnu reached the Garuda, he bowed in respect of Lord Vishnu and explained, “O Lord, the sea, which is your resting place has insulted me by swallowing the eggs of my humble servant, the good Tittibha birds. It is my respect that I have for you that I have not taken any step for revenge.”

Lord Vishnu said to him, “Garuda, come with me. You are right. The sea should not have done such type of thing. Let us go to the sea to return the eggs of Tittibha birds. After that we will leave, as I need your support.”

 

 

 

Then they all reached the sea and then the Lord Vishnu scolded the sea. Taking a thunderbolt in his hand, he warned the sea, “O sea, return the eggs of the Tittibha birds at once or dare to face my anger.”

When the sea heard the warning from the Lord Vishnu himself, he was terrified. It apologised for his mistake, and returned the eggs to the Tittibha birds.

 

The wise indeed say:

Do not underestimate the power of the timid.

There lived a jackal named Chandarava, in a jungle near a village. One day he was very hungry and moving here and there for food, but he could not find any food. So he went into the nearby village in search of food.

As he entered into the village, dogs in the village saw him and a group of dogs surrounded him. They barked at him and began to attack ay him with their sharp teeth. As the dogs attacked the jackal, he started running from there to save his life. But the dogs began to chase him, so in an attempt to save his life from the dogs jackal ran into a house.

A washerman lived in this house. There was a big vessel full of blue dye inside the house. As the jackal entered into the house he unknowingly jumped into the vessel and his entire body was dyed with blue colour. He now no longer looked like a jackal. After some time he came out the house, where dogs were waiting for him. As the dogs saw him they were unable to recognise him anymore. They got feared from the jackal as he looked an unknown animal. Dogs became terrified and ran away from there. The disappointed jackal returned to the jungle without any food. The colour of the dye was still on him.

Jackal now became blue coloured jackal and when the other animals of the jungle saw him, they terrified and ran away. This happened for many days and one day all other animals of the jungle gather at one place. They discussed, “This is an unknown animal, and we don’t know the strength of this animal. We cannot do anything. So it’s better to run away from here.”

After few days the jackal realised that why all the animals running away. He called back to the frightened animals and said to them, “Hey dear, why are you running away from here. Don’t afraid from me. The Lord Brahma, who made all the creatures also made me with his own hands and said to me, “Son, there is not a proper king in this jungle to protect the animals. Go to the jungle and help the animals.” He continued, “That is the reason I have come here. There is no need to worry. Come and live in my kingdom peacefully. I have been the king of all the three worlds i.e. Heaven, Earth and Hell.

As the other animals heard this they were convinced and surrounded the jackal and said to him, “O King, you are our king now onwards. We all waiting for your commands. Please let us know whatever you want. We follow your instructions.” Then the jackal assigned a specific responsibility to a particular animal. But he did not assign any task to other jackals due to the fear of being recognised by them and he did not want to come near to other jackals also. So the jackals of the jungle run away.

The smaller animals would serve the blue jackal with his other needs, the lions and the tigers went out to hunt the prey and place them before the jackal every day. Then the jackal would distribute the food among the other animals and himself. In this way, he discharged his royal duties for the other animals under his kingdom. Days passed away in this way and there was peace between animals.

 

 

One day, the blue jackal heard the howling of the other jackals at a distance. Unable to overcome from his natural habit, he was so tempted that he was filled with joy. He immediately began to howl like other jackal.

 

When the other animals and the lions heard this howling, they realised that he was a jackal and how he made them fool at all the time. At the very moment they got anger and said to each other, “This jackal has fooled us. We should not let him live anymore. We should punish him.” When the jackal realised, he tried to run away from them. But the animals got hold of him and they torn him into pieces. He died at the spot.

The wise indeed say:

One, who treats his own people with disrespect, shall surely suffer a bitter end.