Philosophical Parables - STORY

1. Quail and Elephant (Strength of mind more powerful than physical strength) [BP 16]

2. Quails and Fowler (United We Stand, Divided We Fall) [BP 18]

3. The Two Caravan-leaders (Adhere to the True Path) [BP 30]

4. Vedabbha and the Thieves (Cupidity is the Root of Ruin) [BP 36]

5. Poisoned Dice (Sooner or later, the cheater meets his match) [BP 44]

6. Gem, hatchet, drum and bowl (Perils of material benedictions; having mystic power does not mean one is wise or good) [BP 49]

7. The bitter mango (Bad association) [BP 51]

8. Antelope, Woodpecker, Tortoise and Hunter (Engage the material modes in acheiving liberation)

9. The rabbit who heard the end of the world (same as Chicken Little or Sargal Singh) [BP 55]

10. Hawk and Quail (same as Brer Rabbit and the briar patch) [BP 62]

11. Blind men and elephant (Avoid wrangling) [BP 75]

12. Mistress Vedehika (How Maya tests our self-control) [BP 79]

13. Foolish friends [BP 82, 84]

14. Monkey Gardeners (Remote control managment) [BP 85]

15. Boar and Lion (How false ego blinds us to reality) [BP 89]

16. The Beetle and the Elephant (How false ego binds us to the stooly body) [BP 90]

17. Kisa Gotami or Frail Gotami (Everyone is subject to death) [BP 92]

18. Patacara (Fallible soldiers) [BP 94]

19. Visakha's Sorrow (As many dear ones, as many sorrows) [BP 107]

20. The Questions of Payasi (Life after death) [BP 109]

a. The Condemned Criminal [BP 110]

b. The Man in the Dung-pit [BP 111]

c. The Blind Man [113]

d. The Woman with Child [BP 115]

e. We Cannot See the Soul During Life [BP 116]

f. Heat Makes Things Light

g. Villagers and Trumpet

h. The Search for Fire

i. Two Caravan Leaders

j. Dung for Fodder

k. Two Dicers

l. Giving Up Better for Worse

21. Nanda the elder (On Motivation in Spiritual Discipline) [BP 149]

22. Theft of Mangos (law of karma) [BP 206]

23. Fire in a Field (ditto) [BP 207]

24. Lamp under a Thatch (ditto) [BP 207]

25. Girl and Woman (ditto) [BP 207]

26. The Brahmin's Spell (Never trust a woman) [JT 37]

27. The Stolen Jewels (Misery loves company) [JT 61]

28. Penny-wise Monkey (On losing more to gain less) [JT 87]

29. Jackal and Crow (Society of flattery) [JT 133]

30. Wolf's Caturmasya (Whimsical renunciation) [JT 134]

31. King and the Fruit-girl (Forget not from where you came) [JT 135]

32. Woodpecker and the Lion (Know who your friends are) [JT 136]

33. Lion in Bad Company (Bad association) [JT 163]

34. Otters and the Jackal (High-priced advice) [JT 165]

SYNOPSES OF STORIES

1. A rogue elephant stamped upon the nest of a mother quail despite her pleas and killed her hatchlings. Then he passed urine on the crushed nest and trumpeted to mock the mother. The mother quail vowed revenge. She became the servant of a crow, who was pleased with her and asked her what he could do in return. She said, "When I give the word, peck out that ele- phant's eyes." The quail then gave service to a green fly, and got his promise that the fly would lay eggs in the wounded eyes of the elephant. Then the quail served a frog and got his promise to croak at a cliff's edge when the blind elephant went searching for water. So all of this was done. The blinded elephant, furious from the maggots in his wounded eyes, went madly searching for water. He heard the frog croak and thought, "Water is this way." Then he tumbled over the cliff and met his end, to the great satisfaction of the quail.

2. A bird hunter used to capture groups of quails by throwing a net over them. The leader of the flock made a plan: "If this hunter throws his net over a group of you, each of you put a wing out through the net and flap it in unison with the rest. That way you can fly away net and all. Then you descend into a thorn tree and entangle the net there and slip away." So all this was done. The hunter could not catch quail for many days, and his wife complained bitterly. The hunter told her not to worry, that the unity of the quails would not last. And so it was to be: once while feeding, one quail stepped on the head of another and they began to argue. Other quails joined in the argument, and it ended with each saying to the others, "Next time you can free yourself from the net--I won't lift a wing to help you." So when the hunter whistled like a quail and the birds gathered and had the net flung over them, they refused to act in unison just to spite the others. Thus the hunter caught them all.

3. Once a the men of a large caravan of 1000 wagons, on realizing their party was too large to be manageable, held a meeting and picked two leaders to each lead 500 wagons. Though both leaders were skillful handlers of animals, only one had real management foresight. So the intelligent one said to the other, "It is impossible for us to travel together--will you go first, or should I?" The other leader thought, "If I can go first, the roads will be smooth; if I follow him, they will be rutted. If I go first, my oxen will eat untouched grass, the water will be untouched, and I can set my goods at any price I choose to set." So he chose to go first. The intelligent leader though, "Very good. If he goes first, he will smooth the rough spots of the road for his wagons to pass; I'll be spared that work. His oxen will eat the old tough grass that has grown wild for a long time; mine will eat the fresh young grass that will grow after his oxen have moved on. He will dig wells where he cannot find water, and we'll be spared that work. And he and his men will have to haggle for a good price; whereas I will sell my goods for whatever price his party was able to establish." The foolish caravan leader entered a "demon-wilderness" (there are five kinds of wilderness: robber-wilderness, wild beast-wilderness, water- less wilderness, famine-wilderness and demon-wilderness). Before entering that wilderness, the leader filled big clay jars with emergency water provisions and had the carts loaded with extra leaves and grass for the animals. In the middle of the wilder- ness, they were met by a black person riding an ass who was soaking wet and garlanded with fresh blue and white lilies. The black man hailed the foolish leader in a friendly manner. The leader surmised that there must be plentiful water and plants up ahead. The black man heartily agreed, telling the leader that he should dump out the water and throw off the grass and leaves from the wagons to lighten the load so that the caravan could more quickly reach the oasis up ahead. The leader ordered this to be done. But there was no oasis, and the entire caravan met its end in the desert. When the intelligent leader approached the demon-wilderness, he had made the same preparations and was met by the same black man on the ass. But he told the man on the ass, "Begone with you. You appear to me to be the bearer of all inauspicity. We shall not lighten our load one bit because of your suspicous statements." And so the caravan crossed the wilderness, and found the remnants of the first caravan on the way.

4. A certain brahmana had mastery of a mystic art known as Vedabbha. When the moon was in conjuction with a certain constellation, he would look up at the sky and recite a mantra. When the utterance of the mantra was complete, a rain of seven kinds of jewels would fall from the heavens. This brahmana had a disciple who was very intelligent. Once when they were travell-ing through the forest they were kidnapped by a gang who called themselves the Dispatchers. That name indicated their method of extortion: upon capturing two travellers, they would dispatch the less important of the two to secure a ransom for the release of other more important traveller. So when the brahmana and his disciple were surrounded, the gang decided they would let the disciple go free. The disciple assured his master he would return very soon with the ransom and free him. As they parted the disciple begged the brahmana not to invoke the Rain of the Seven Jewels, even though on that night the moon would be in the proper conjunction. "Please endure this trial of captivity patiently and pretend to have no special powers," he told his master, "for I fear that if you use your Vedabbha art you will only worsen your plight." But that night the brahmana grew morose. "Why must I wait out this misfortune when I have the skill to set myself free?" Then he inquired from the thieves why they held him under guard. "For ransom-money," came their reply. "Then do this," he told them: "Free me from my bonds, bathe me, dress me in clean cloth, place a garland around my neck and let me stand and chant a mantra to the sky. Then you will see more wealth than you've ever dreamed of." All this was done, and a rain of seven kinds of jewels fell for some moments on the spot where the brahmana stood. The delighted thieves gathered up the jewels and prepared to leave. Suddenly the gang was sur-rounded by another gang of thieves who demanded their jewels. The first gang told the second about the brahmana's magical abilities: "You need not plunder us, you'll get all you desire 16from him." But the brahmana said, "This power I have works only once on one night a year, when the moon is in its present position in the sky. If you want riches, have patience and wait a year. Only then can I cause the Rain of Seven Jewels to fall again." Enraged, the second gang of thieves killed the brahmana on the spot. Then they turned upon the first gang and killed all of them. But while looting the dead bodies a quarrel broke out and the second gang divided into two opposing sides. One side killed the other; then that side split into two and fought until there were only two men left. These two made friends in order to carry off all the jewels, but secretly they each wished the death of the other. They camped outside a village. One guarded the swag while the other went into the village to buy food. The latter put poison in his partner's meal and brought it back to the hideout. As soon as he returned his partner killed him with a stroke of the sword, ate the poisoned meal, and died.

Moral: Cupidity is the root of all ruin.

5. Two dicers were at play. One was a cheat whose method was to play the winning streaks, but as soon as the game went against him he'd pop one of the dice in his mouth and say, "A die is lost!" and end the game. The other dicer, knowing his opponent's game, craftily smeared the dice with poison. When the game turned in his favor, his cheating opponent seized a die and popped into his mouth. The poison was so strong that he im-mediately fainted. The other dicer had the antidote handy and revived him. "Never play such a trick with me again," he warned the cheater.

6. In a forest lived three yogis. Each had aquired a mystical gift as a result of his austerity. One had a hatchet that would do his bidding: he would simply rub it and ask it to fetch wood and make a fire, and it would be done. Another had a drum that made such a fearful sound that wild beasts and men fled when he merely beat it once or twice. The third had a pot that would yield as much curd as one might desire. Now, a rascal had by chance acquired a gem that gave power of flight (he took it off of a flying boar that he managed to kill and eat). He came floating over the forest, and the yogis supposed him to be an accomplished mystic like themselves. He landed near the yogi with the magic hatchet. The yogi welcomed him as a brother. The rascal coveted the magic axe and traded the gem for it. He left the yogi's asrama with the axe, rubbed it and asked it to cut off the yogi's head and bring him the jewel. This was done, and he went to the other two yogis and plundered them in the same way.

7. A king was once presented with a mango fit for the gods. It was as big as a waterpot, perfectly round, golden in color, thin-skinned, sweet, juicy and small of seed. The king was so impressed by this mango that after eating it he had the seed planted in his garden and sprinkled daily with milk and water. After three years the tree grew up and bore succulent fruit. This tree became famous throughout the land. It was gaily decorated with garlands, smeared with ointments, and lamps were offered to it in worship. Other kings wanted to plant seeds from this tree in their gardens--but before he made a present of a fruit from this tree to another king, the Mango-king would have the seed within the fruit pierced so that it would not grow. One king in particular grew very envious of the Mango-king's tree. He sent a gardener to sabotage it. This gardener took employment as an assistant to the Mango-king's gardener. The assistant impressed everyone with his exceptional skill, so much so that the Mango-king dismissed his old gardener. Now that he had a free hand, the saboteur-gardener planted neem trees, pot-herbs and creepers above the roots of the mango tree. The roots of these plants entwined with the mango tree and made its fruits grow bitter. When the mangos ripened and the king received the first choice fruit of the season, he was horrified to discover that it tasted like bitter neem leaves. By the time he made this discovery, the saboteur-gardener had long made his escape.

8. At a lake in the forest dwelt an antelope, woodpecker and turtle who had become good friends over the years. One day the antelope's foot got caught in a snare set by a cruel hunter. The turtle arose from the lake and the woodpecker flew down from his tree to help their friend. The turtle began chewing through the leather strap of the snare while the woodpecker flew off to the hunter's cottage. When the hunter came out with his bag and his knife to check his trap, the woodpecker attacked his head and drove him back into the cottage. He tried to go out the back door and the bird attacked again. Thinking that this was an evil sign, the hunter stayed indoors long enough for the turtle to finish his work. Just as the antelope scampered to safety, tbut before the turtle could enter the lake, the hunter arrived. "At least I'll have some turtle soup tonight," said the hunter as he threw the turtle in his back. To save his friend, the antelope dallied on the edge of the wood close by the hunter, pretending to be lamed from the snare. The hunter hung the bag from a branch of a tree and ran after the antelope with his knife ready. The antelope led the hunter deeper and deeper into the woods. Finally the hunter was completely lost. All at once the antelope ran like the wind back to the lake and ripped out the bottom of the bag with his sharp horns. The turtle fell out onto the ground. The antelope then instructed his two friends to flee their lake home. "This place has become dangerous for us. Take the hunter as an omen. We have cooperated nicely to save our lives; now let us disperse." And so they all fled away, the antelope by fleet foot, the woodpecker by wing and the turtle through the water.

9. A rabbit lived beneath a young coconut tree that grew next to a tall bilva tree. Once he sat in his warren thinking, "If the earth would collapse, what would become of me?" At that instant a bilva fruit fell upon the coconut tree with a crash. The hare scampered off shouting, "The earth is collapsing!" Other rabbits heard this, took up the same cry and scampered about until a flock of thousands were fleeing through the forest. A herd of deer, hearing the awful news of the end of the world from the rabbits, stampeded and in turn caused a herd of wild pigs to stampede that stampeded a herd of elks that stampeded a herd of buffalo that stampeded a herd of oxen that stampeded a herd of rhinoceros that stampeded a pack of tigers that stampeded a pride of lions that stampeded a herd of elephants. Finally the king of the jungle, an old lion, stood up before this madly racing army of animals and roared thrice, bringing them all to a halt. "What is this all about?" he demanded. "The earth is collapsing!" the elephants trumpeted. "Who says?" he shot back. "Your own brothers, the lions." The lions shrugged and said, "The tigers told us." The tigers said, "The rhinos told us." The rhinos said, "The oxen told us." The oxen said, "The buffalo told us." The buffalo said, "The elks told us." The elks said, "The wild pigs told us." The wild pigs said, "The rabbits told us." And the rabbits pointed to the first rabbit and said, "He told us." The lion went with the rabbit to his warren under the coconut sapling. He saw a broken coconut leaf on the ground and next to it a bilva fruit. "The earth is not collapsing," the lion announced. "A bilva fruit fell on this rabbit's home, and for that you have lost your heads." Feeling very foolish, all the animals went home.

10. A quail was caught by a hawk. The quail lamented aloud, "This is my fate, that I have left my own feeding ground, the land of my elders. Had I stayed there, this hawk could not defeat me so." The proud hawk said, "Weakling, it makes no matter on what ground you stand, you will always be defeated by me. Now go to the land of your elders and I will seize you there." The hawk turned the quail loose. He flew to a ploughed field full of turned-up clods of earth and alighted upon a clod. "Here is the land of my elders!" From above the hawk shouted, "Now watch as I seize you again, foolish one!" The hawk dove with the speed of an arrow towards the quail. The quail ducked between two big clods of earth. The hawk smashed into the clods and was killed.

11. A group of blind men were asked by a king to explain what an elephant is after they felt it with their hands. Those who felt the head said, "An elephant is like a waterpot." Those who felt the ears said, "An elephant is like the sail of a riverboat." Those who felt the tusks said, "An elephant is like a plough."

Those who felt the trunk said, "An elephant is like a python."

Thos who felt the belly said, "An elephant is like a granary."

Those who felt the legs said, "An elephant is like the trees."

Those who felt the tail said, "An elephant is like a fly-whisk." They began to argue with one another, and then fought each other with fists. The king was delighted.

12. A noble lady named Vedehika had a reputation of being gentle, meek and tranquil. Everyone used to speak highly of her good qualities. But she had a saucy servant-girl who decided to put her mild disposition to the test. One day the servant did not get up in the morning. When Vedehika inquired what the reason was for the girl's not rising that morning at the proper time, the servant replied, "Why, my lady Vedehika, there was no reason at all." Lady Vedehika frowned. Seeing this, the servant-girl gloated. "Just see," she thought, "my mistress has an inward temper. Her mildness is only the result of my performing my duties well. I shall test her temper even further." The next day the servant rose even later. When asked by Lady Vedehika why, she replied, "For no reason at all, my lady." "Worthless charwoman!" Lady Vedehika snapped. Inwardly the servant gloated even more. "Now we are seeing her true nature at last. I shall test her temper even further." The next day she rose even later. When the lady asked why, the servant again answered, "For no reason at all, my lady." Lady Vedhika then hit the servant-girl on the head with an iron pipe. She ran screaming from the house, blood flowing down over her face, shouting "Cruel, cruel are you, Lady Vedehika! Gentle you are not! Meek you are not! Tranquil you are not!" From that day on Lady Vehehika's reputation in her neighborhood changed. Everyone said, "That woman is most unkind, arrogant and angry."

13. Two similar stories: 1) A carpenter and his foolish son were planting a tree. A fly bothered the father as he worked to put the roots in the ground, so he asked his son to shoo it away. The son, wishing to strike the fly when it landed on his father's head, hit the father in the head with the shovel, killing him. 2) A lady had a servant-girl named Rohini. Once while the lady was pounding rice, a fly landed on her head. The lady asked Rohini to drive it off. Rohini hit the lady in the head with a pestle and killed her.

14. The king of Benares declared a state holiday. The royal gardener desired to take advantage of it, but worried for the upkeep of the trees and shrubs in the royal garden. Now, this garden was inhabited by a big pack of monkeys. So the gardener requested the chief monkey to organize the watering of the trees and shrubs while he took his holiday. The chief monkey gladly agreed and accepted from the gardener enough watering-cans to equip his pack for the task. After the gardener left, the monkey-chief assembled his subjects and announced their new duty. But he added, "Water is precious. So before you sprinkle any water on any plant, dig up its foundation and see how big the roots are. Plants with big roots shall get lots of water, but plants with small roots shall get only a little. Thus we shall use water more efficiently." A passer-by happened to see the monkeys hard at work digging up the roots of all the trees and shrubs in the royal garden. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "We are following our leader's directions," came the reply. The passer-by remarked, "If that's the sort of wisdom that makes a leader among you, then you must all be very stupid indeed. You are destroying this garden!" The monkey-chief then said, "But sir, how else will we know which plant requires more or less water? Why do you blame us for trying to use the king's water wisely?" The passer-by answered, "I don't blame you at all. I blame the fool gardener who gave you this duty."

15. A herd of boars lived near a lake, and in the cave of a hill not far from the lake lived a lion. One day the lion came to the lake to drink his fill after having killed and eaten his fill of the flesh of a buffalo. As he turned to leave after drinking, a boar came out of the woods. The lion thought, "If he sees me now he may be so frightened that he'll not come to this lake again for a long time. Next week, after I've digested this meal, that boar will make a good feast. So let me not confront him." The lion then turned to dash off in another direction. The boar saw the lion's attempt not to be seen as a sign of fear. That boar, being fat and proud, called to the lion, "Halt! Face me now and fight!" The lion, his belly full and not wishing to kill the boar needlessly, replied, "Master Boar, today there will be no battle between you and me, but in seven day's time we shall fight at this very spot." The boar assented: "If you need seven days to steel your nerves to face my wrath, so be it." The boar swaggered back to his kinsfolk and proudly related what had taken place. They were frightened. "You were very impetuous to challenge that lion. Have you no common sense? He'll kill you in a flash and then come here and finish off the rest of us." The boar grew apprehensive. "Well, what should I do?" "Some human ascetics live neaby. They pass stool in a field; you go there and wallow in that stool for seven days. Before facing the lion, sprinkle yourself with water so that the stool is freshened and make sure when the lion comes you are standing downwind from him. He'll not touch a hair on your head." The boar did as he was told; when the lion came, he smelled the stench of stool and stopped. "Master boar!" he called from a distance. "I concede this fight to you. Were you not in this unclean state I would surely kill and eat you, but as you are, I cannot even come near you." The boar swaggered to his kinfolk, boasting "I defeated the lion." But they hushed him: "If that lion knows you are saying such things, he'll come back here and kill us all."

16. A dung-beetle approached some fresh heaps of horse stool left on a forest path where some travellers had been riding and drinking wine. As he came near the stool he became intoxicated by the drops of wine that had sprinkled on the ground. Thinking one particularly large heap of stool was a great mountain, he climbed to the top of it. "From here I see the whole world," he crowed. Being moist, the dung gave way slightly beneath his feet; the dung bettle then announced, "The earth cannot support my weight!" At that moment an elephant came down the path, but smelling the horse stool it got off the path and walked around it to avoid the filth. The dung beetle jumped up and down excitedly and shouted, "Fat and foolish one! I see how you flee me. Come back and fight, coward!" The elephant instantly became angry. "You miniscule nuisance, since your arrogance seems to grow due to contact with stool, I shall destroy you with stool." The elphant backed up next to the dungheap on which the beetle stood and dropped a heavy load of stool on the insect, crushing it instantly to death.

17. Kisa Gotami (Frail Gotami) was greatly sorrowful because of the death of her little son. She went from house to house holding her dead son piteously and begging someone to give him medicine that would bring him back to life. A wise man advised her to go to the Buddha, who was nearby lecturing. She stood at the edge of the crowd, her dead son on her hip, and cried, "Oh Exalted One, give me medicine that will bring my son back to life." The Buddha replied, "Very well, but you must fetch me mustard seeds from a house in which no-one has died." She went forthwith to all the homes in town, but at each door she was told, "We would gladly give you seeds, but since you say you may take them only from a house in which no-one has died, then we must disappoint you. So many person have died in this house." Finally she returned to the Buddha. "So, did you bring mustard seeds?" he asked. "I am finished with mustard seeds," answered she. "Please give me shelter."

18. A young Vaisya woman named Patacara became secretly intimate with a Sudra man before her father arranged her marriage. When the date of her marriage to some Vaisya was set, she told her Sudra lover, "It's now or never. Either we run away together or we will never be able to see each other again." He took her away to a small village where they lived as husband and wife. In time she became pregnant and desired to bear the child at her father's house, as is the custom among Hindus. But her husband was naturally reluctant to see her father. Patacara resolved to go alone; she knew that her parents' sentiments would win over their anger at her choice of a husband. So she left on foot when her husband was out. When he returned and found out from the neighbors what she had done, he followed her. That was for-tunate, for as it turned out she gave birth right on the road. After that they returned with a son. When she became heavy with child a second time, the same desire came over her, and everyth-ing came to pass as before, except that she took to the road with her first son, a toddler. When the husband caught up with her, she was in labor with the second child. And thereafter un-seasonable clouds arose in the sky. The husband gathered sticks from the forest to make a shelter from the rain for his family. When they entered it with rain pouring down, he noticed that the roof required more grass, as it was leaking. So he went to a place where tall grass grew and began cutting it, but was bit by a snake and died. Patacara waited the whole night in the shelter for him to return. In the morning she followed his footprints in the mud and found his body. "Because of me, my poor husband is dead," she lamented. She tried to go home but found the way blocked by a floodstream. She told her older boy to wait on the bank while she crossed the steam with the baby on her head. Leaving the baby in her headcoil on the far side, she waded into the rivulet to fetch the toddler. But a hawk dove at the baby. She waved her arms in the air to drive it off. The child on the other side thought her mother was waving for him to cross. He stepped into the floodstream and was washed away by the strong current. And while Patacara was trying to save him, the hawk carried off the newborn child.

19. Once the Buddha stayed in a wealthy family's home at a place called Savatthi. The matron of the house was named Visakha. Once she came before the Buddha in the dress of mourning; the Buddha asked why, and she told him that her grand-daughter had died. She was very attached to the girl, and so was most grief-stricken. The Buddha then asked Visakha if she would like to have as many children and grandchildren as there are human beings in Savatthi. She readily agreed. Then the Buddha asked her if she knew how many people die each day in Savatthi. She supposed about ten each day. The Buddha said, "Then, if you had as many children and grandchildren as the population of Savatthi, would you ever be out of mourning?" She admitted, "No, indeed, Exalted One." The Buddha said, "They that hold a hundred dear, have one hundred sorrows. And they that hold ninety dear have ninety sorrows...80...70...60...50...40...30...20...10...3...2...1, and they that hold nothing dear have no sorrows."

20. From the discussion between Warrior Payasi and Kumara Kasyapa, a monk, come the following examples.

a. Payasi had asked his sinful friends as they were dying to return and tell him about the sufferings of hell (but as they did not return, he doubted whether there was a hell). Kumara Kasyapa replied that this was as likely to happen as a prisoner under sentence of death, whose head is on the chopping block, request-ing and receiving permission from the executioner to go visit his relatives for a while, on the promise that he will return to have his head severed.

b. Payasi had asked his pious friends as they were dying to return and tell him about the enjoyments of heaven (but as they did not return, he doubted whether there was a heaven). Kumara Kasyapa replied that this was as likely to happen as a man who, after being rescued from a dung-pit and bathed and dressed in clean cloth and given all facility for sense enjoyment, would voluntarily return to that dung-pit.

c. Payasi said there's no proof that God exists because He cannot be seen (actually, he spoke of the demigods, but this Buddhist argument can be used to support the existence of God!). Kumara Kasyapa replied that just because a blind man says that black, white, blue, yellow, red, pink, even, uneven, stars, moon and sun do not exist and that no one can see these simply because he cannot see them, that does not mean that he speaks rightly.

d. Payasi asked that if the virtuous attain a higher existence after death, and if this present existence is con-sidered so unworthy by the virtuous, why then don't the virtuous just commit suicide? Kumara Kasyapa replied by giving an example of two wives of a brahmana, one with a son of ten years old, and the other who was pregnant with her first child. The brahmana died, leaving the will that all his property should go to his son(s). The boy went to the pregnant woman and said to her, "All my father's property now belongs to me." She replied, "Just wait til I give birth; if the baby is a boy, he will take half; if a girl, she will also belong to you." But again and again the boy came, declaring that all property was his. Finally she could not bear the suspense of knowing whether the child was a boy or a girl, so with a knife she cut open her own belly and died, along with the baby. The point here is that virtue must ripen of its own accord into a higher status of existence. Suicide is itself sinful and will destroy the ripening virtue, not hasten it.

e. Payasi said that he had never seen the soul of condemned criminals leaving their bodies when they were executed, even though he'd experiemented in so many ways to see the soul. Kumara Kasyapa replied that when he dreamed during a nap in the daytime, while being attended by servants, his soul certainly left his body, but still his servants could not see the soul. So if even in life the soul cannot be seen, then why should it be seen at death?

f. Payasi thought that the difference between a living body and a dead body could be explained materially because the dead body was heavier than the living body (therefore something material must have departed from it, not the soul). Kumara Kasyapa replied that if a hot iron ball is weighed, and then cooled down and weighed, a difference of weight will be discerned because heat makes things lighter. So the difference he noticed between living and dead bodies was once simply of heat, which is the result of the presence of life energy within the body activating metabolism, but which is not the same as the life itself.

g. Payasi said that after a man had been executed he had often tried to discover the soul by flinging the body about, bending and shaking it etc in the hope that the soul would appear (he thinks that the soul or life arises from physical movement). Kumara Kasyapa replied that if villagers, upon marvelling at the sweet sound of a trumpet, took that trumpet from the trumpeteer and flung it, bent, shook it etc, in order to produce a sweet sound they would produce no sweet sound. The trumpet must be connected to the trumpeteer, and the body must be connected to life, for the music of life to be played.

h. Payasi said he had experimented by cutting a man to pieces bit by bit to see from which part the soul would come out. but he'd seen no soul come out. Kumara Kasyapa replied with a story of a fire worshiper who, leaving on a short trip, turned over the maintenance of the sacred fire to his adopted son. He told the boy to not let the fire die, but if it did, to use the axe, wood and fire-drill to make a new fire. The boy let the fire die, and being ignorant of the method to make a new fire, used the axe to chop up the wood and fire-drill to tiny bits, expecting the fire to spring out of one bit or another.

i. Payasi said all these explanations had not convinced him; he was very determined in his view that there is no soul and no life beyond the body. Kumara Kasyapa told the story of the two caravan drivers, related earlier.

j. Payasi remained attached to the bodily conception.

Kasyapa Kumara compared his attachment to the attachment of a swineherd who found some human stool which he desired to feed to his pigs. So he loaded the stool into a wicker-basket and carried that upon his head. It started to rain, and the stool dripped down all over him. Still he went happily on his way home. When some people sheltering under a tree saw him coming, they cried out, "How horrible! You are covered with stool!" But the swineherd replied indignantly, "This is not stool, this is pig fodder!"

k. Payasi still would not give up. Kumara Kasyapa said this was because he was a cheater, and told him the story of the two dicers related before.

l. Kumara Kasyapa compared him to the man who, with his friend, collected some hemp-grass from a village devastated by civil uproar. Travelling on, to another riotous village, they found an opportunity to drop the hemp and pick up hempen cloth. But the man refused, being attached to the hemp, though his friend took the cloth, saying, "We would have made cloth from the hemp anyway." Then they moved on to another village where there was an opportunity to drop the hemp for flax. But the man would not take it, being attached to his load of hemp, although his friend traded and received flax. They moved on and successivly that man's friend dropped flax for linen thread, linen thread for linen cloth, linen cloth for cotton, cotton for cotton thread, cotton thread for cotton cloth, cotton cloth for iron, iron for copper, copper for tin, tin for lead, lead for silver and silver for gold. But the man continued to carry his load of hemp. Though his friend was celebrated by family and friends when he returned to his home, everybody thought the man with the hemp was a fool.

21. Nanda the Elder was a monk who had renounced his princedom and beautiful wife at the behest of Lord Buddha. But when he was leaving for the monastery, his former wife wantonly wished him to make a speedy return to her. He could not forget her invitation, and he burned with lust even while wearing the robes of a monk. Compassionately, Lord Buddha took Nanda to heaven and showed him 500 apsaras. Nanda was fascinated with their unparalleled feminine charms. The Buddha asked him which pleased him more, his former wife or these heavenly damsels. Nanda answered that said that in comparison to the apsaras his wife looked like a half-blind female monkey with her ears and nose cut off. Buddha said, "If you practice the life of a monk and yet do not attain Nirvana but must take birth again, then you will take birth here in heaven and enjoy these very 500 apsaras." After that Nanda became a very serious monk. But the Buddha instructed his other disciples in the monastery to mock Nanda for practicing aus-terities and meditation only to attain the women of heaven instead of Nirvana. Thus he took his mind off the apsaras and applied it to liberation.

22. An example to use with (for instance) SB 1.3.32 to show the subtle continuity of self behind the changes of the external material form: a man who stole mangos from a grove was captured by the grower and brought before the king, accusing him of theft. The thief defended himself by arguing that the mangos were not the property of the grower because he put mango seeds into the ground. But later these seeds grew trees, and the trees bore mangos. So the mango fruits are different entities from the mango seeds. But obviously such an argument will not be ac-cepted.

23. Another example to show continuity of karma is that of a man arrested for setting fire to a farmer's field. His defense is, "I made a small campfire in his field, and then I left and went on my way. The fire I made is one thing; the fire that spread and burnt up the field is quite another." Obviously, the second fire was directly caused by the first, so this defense is useless.

24. Very similar analogy is of a man who put an oil lamp too close to the thatch of a cottage while he ate. After he left the cottage it burns and ignites the whole village. In his defense he argues, the lamp-flame was one thing, the fire that destroyed the village quite another. Another futile argument.

25. An analogy to defeat those who say that the personality changes with the body ("I feel myself to be a different person than I was a year ago" etc) is that of a man who arranges to marry a young girl, agreeing with the parents that he will collect her only when she becomes a woman. When she reaches her age of womanhood, another man comes to take her away. The first man arrives and sees him packing her off. The first man says, "Now see here, that's my wife!" The second man replies, "You 666arranged to marry a young girl. But this is a full-grown woman. This is a different person altogether."

26. A king used to often play dice for sport with his family priest, rolling golden dice upon a silver board. As he would let the dice roll he would recite a poem for good luck: "By nature's law rivers wind, trees grow of wood by law of kind, and when there's opportunity, all women work iniquity." Reciting thus, he would always win. The brahmin sorely desired to beat the king at dice, and resolved that he must find a woman who would disprove the statement of the rhyme. He was expert in reading bodily signs, so when he saw a poor woman heavy with child, he could tell she would give birth to a girl. He paid her well to have her child in his home and to turn over the girl baby to him. He arranged that the girl was raised only by womenfolk; indeed, she was prevented from seeing any man except the priest. When she reached a marriagable age, the priest took her as his wife. She was completely devoted to him as she had never once looked upon any other man. So when the priest sat to play dice with the king, and the king recited his poem before rolling the dice, the priest said aloud, "Excepting my wife" after the king said, "All women work iniquity." The king lost, and lost again, and lost every time he played dice with the brahmin. The king understood that the brahmin must have married a very chaste woman, but he was sure that no matter how chaste she was, she could be seduced. He hired a rascally playboy to cause her fall. The playboy, using the king's money, opened a flower and perfume shop close to the brahmin's house. The house was seven stories tall and had seven gates with a female guard posted at each one. The girl stayed always within the house, attended by one old lady. Anything--even the garbage--that entered or left the house was carefully searched. The priest was the only man allowed to enter the premises. The playboy, by careful observation, noticed that the attendent lady would leave the house daily to make purchases. When she came near his shop he fell at her feet, crying, "Mother, mother!" He then tearfully introduced himself as her long-lost son. His friends who worked in the shop gathered around and confirmed that this lady looked exactly like the playboy's mother, from whom he was separated when he was very young. The old lady's heart became very soft at the young man's entreaties. She decided that even though it could not be true, how could she break his heart by denying that she was his mother? So she accepted him as her son. He asked her where she was going and she said shopping; when asked what items she wish to buy, she answered flowers and perfumes for the beautiful lady whom she waited upon in the house of the priest. Her "son" gave all these for free to her, and said, "Mother, you come here daily to visit me, and I will give you whatever flowers and perfumes you need free." And so daily she would come and talk with her "son". He asked her all about her activities, and naturally she spoke at length about the brahmin's beautiful wife. After a few days when she came she was told her "son" was sick in bed. She went to see him and asked why he was ill, and he answered, "For love of the beautiful and chaste wife of the brahmin. Your descriptions of her beauty and charater have afflicted my heart." The old lady said not to worry, she would help. So when she returned to the brahmin's wife she told her about her new-found son and his love-sickness. The brahmin's wife's heart also became soft. She 16said, "Well, if you can smuggle him in here, I will cure his sickness." So the old lady, when bringing out the dust and garbage from her housekeeping in a large basket, would dump it over the heads of the female guards when they asked to search through it. Thinking she must be going senile, the guards stopped searching her altogether. And so she could bring her "son" into the house by smuggling him past the guards in a large flower-basket. He seduced the girl and stayed with her for a day. When it was time for her husband to come home, she bade him to leave, but he said, "First I must hit him on his head." So together they contrived a plan, and the playboy hid himself in her room. When the brahmin came home, the wife said, "My dear, if you play the flute, I will dance." He said, "Of course," and began playing a bamboo flute. But she said, "I am too shy to dance in front of you. May I bind your eyes with a cloth?" He said, "Oh, my good little girl, yes you may do that." After his eyes were bound and she danced for a while, she asked him, "My dear, I have such an urge to hit you on the head. May I do that as I dance?" "Whatever pleases you, pleases me." The playboy came out of his hiding place and stuck the brahmin in the head with his fist. This raised a bump on his head, and the brahmin took his wife's hand and said, "Your hand is so soft, but it hits so hard!" Laughing gaily, his wife took off the blindfold after the playboy had hid himself again, and she massaged the bump with oil. Then the brahmin went out to lay down for a while, and the old lady smuggled her "son" out of the house in the flower basket. And so the next time the brahmin played dice with the king and said "Except for my wife," he lost the game. Furious, he went home and accused his wife of unfaithfulness. She denied everything and began to cry, vowing that she would prove her faithfulness by placing her hand in fire and swearing before the assembled public that no other man's hand had ever touched her." The brahmin thought this a good proposal and arranged for the demonstration to take place in the public street. A great crowd gathered to witness it, and among the crowd stood the playboy. A fire was lit and the young girl approached it, her hand out-stretched, saying loudly, "I declare that no man's hand has touched me, and if it be so, let this fire not burn my hand." But as it had already been plotted, just then the playboy leapt from the crowd and seized the girl's hand, preventing her from placing it in the fire. "Enough of this!" he shouted to the crowd. "Let us have no more of this cruelty to an innocent woman. Brahmin--" he turned to her husband--"how ungallant a man you are, to subject your wife to such public humiliation!" She shook her hand free of the playboy's grip and said to her husband, "What I have sworn is now undone, and I may not brave the ordeal of fire." "Why not?" he asked. "Because my vow was that no man has touched my hand--but just now that stranger from the crowd has touched me. So what can I do?" The brahmin had no further argument against his wife, and was forced to accept her plea of innocence.

27. A king decided to sport in the royal pool with his queen and the ladies of his harem. The women came to the poolside and removed their jewels, turning them over to the care of female slaves. From above in the trees of the royal garden a female monkey observed this and desired to possess the queen's pearl neckless. When she saw that the female slave guarding the queen's jewelry was a little inattentive, she leapt down, seized the necklace and returned to the treetops. When the slave girl at last noticed the necklace was missing she cried out, "Oh! Some thief has stolen the queen's necklace!" "Catch the thief!" the king shouted to his guards, and they went rushing out of the palace grounds into the city street. A simple fellow who happened to be loitering nearby saw the royal guards running in his direction, and thinking they meant him harm, he turned and fled. "That's him, the thief!" shouted the captain of the guards. "Catch him!" The man was surrounded by the guards and decided he'd better confess immediately or they would kill him on the spot. "Yes, yes, I did it!" he cried, not even knowing what the crime was. He was searched and then hauled before the king. "Did you take the queen's necklace?" the king demanded. "Yes," the man stammered. "Then where is it, scoundrel?" Thinking fast, he said, "I gave it to the goldsmith." The goldsmith was arrested and was handled so roughly by the guards that in great fear he immediately confessed. When asked where the necklace was he implicated the royal priest. The priest in turn implicated the chief musician, and the musician said he gave the necklace to a courtesan. But she denied having ever been given a pearl necklace. It was late, so the king ordered the investigation halted until the next day. All the suspects were put into prison. In the evening the king thought, "The necklace was lost in the palace grounds, but that fool the guards brought in first was from the street. He could not possibly have entered my garden and leave again without being challenged by the guards. Out of fright he must have confessed and implicated the golds-mith. The goldsmith must have implicated the priest because he thought that the priest would deny everything and be believed, and thus clearing the goldsmith too. But the priest implicated the musician simply because he thought jail was unavoidable, so why not have music while in prison. And the musician implicated the courtesan so that she would spend time with him in prison. These five have nothing to do with that necklace. But the garden swarms with monkeys. I believe that is the answer!" The next day the king ordered that some monkeys be caught and decorated with fake pearl neclaces. They were released to the trees and observed by the king and his men. The monkeys wearing the fake pearls were very proud and showed the others, "See our pearls." Out of envy, the female monkey brought the queen's necklace out of hiding and showed them it, saying, "This belonged to the queen herself. See, these are real pearls, and yours are not." The king's men captured the female monkey and returned the necklace to the king.

28. A monkey greedily filled his mouth and both hands with peas cooked at some public function and then scampered up a tree to eat. But as he jumped he saw one pea drop from his hand. He came back down the tree to find the one pea, and dropped all the other peas from his hands and mouth in the process. Frightened by the approach of some men, he leapt back into the tree with nothing at all.

29. A ghost lived within a rose-apple tree. Once a crow sat in the tree to eat the fruit. A greedy jackal came by, and also desiring fruit to eat, flattered the crow: "Oh gentle bird of sweet song, would you bless me with some fruits?" The crow replied, "Ah, you are a noble beast who recognizes the true qualities of others. Yes, oh brave tiger-like one, please take these fruits." And the crow shook the branch upon which it perched, causing fruit to fall. The ghost, suddenly assuming a fearful form to drive these animals off, roared, "You lowborn carrion-eating beasts! Harsh-voiced crow! Cowardly jackal! Begone with your false mutual flattery!"

30. A wolf lived on a rock next to the Ganges. During monsoon the water rose all around the rock, cutting the wolf's lair off from land--thus he could get no food. The wolf thought, "Al-right, let me stay here and fast for Caturmasya, and thus earn much piety." But just then he saw a goat wading in the water nearby. The wolf thought, "Ah! Here's food on the hoof! So I will observe Caturmasya some other time!" He leapt after the goat but the animal escaped him and ran nimbly up the steep embankment of the river. The wolf climbed up upon his rock again and thought, "Well, back to my Caturmasya observances."

31. A king fell in love with a beautiful girl who was a seller of jujubes. He took her to wife and despite her lowly background she became his foremost queen. One day years later while he was enjoying a bowl of jujube fruit, this very wife came to him and asked a little distainfully, "My dear king, what is this fruit you are eating today? I wonder if it something that a king should enjoy, or if it fit only for commoners." The king grew wroth and said, "What? This fruit was once the mainstay of your family. Have you forgotten how you used to stand in the market-place, head uncovered and poorly dressed, selling this fruit to any passerby? Now you pretend you've never seen this fruit before, and indeed you reproach me for stooping beneath my station to eat of it, once your only source of wealth. Here, take a handful of these jujubes again, foolish woman, and enter the marketplace and make your living from them, for you are no longer my wife!"

32. A lion once got a bone lodged in his throat and was so sick he could not hunt. He requested a woodpecker to remove it, promising it no harm. The woodpecker, to make sure, propped open the lion's mouth with a stick, entered his throat and pulled out the bone. As the bird flew away, he knocked the stick out of the beast's mouth. The lion recovered fully and hunted once more. When it killed a buffalo, the woodpecker perched in a tree above and asked, "As I was once kind to you, I pray that you be kind to me and give me a small portion of flesh." The lion replied, "You entered my mouth and lived to tell the tale. I think that token enough of my good will."

33. There was a young lion named Manoja who used to hunt for his old father and mother and his sister and wife, who all lived in a cave. Once he met a jackal named Giriya, who was so weak from hunger he could not even walk. Giriya declared himself Manoja's servant, and Manoja gave him food. But when his father heard his son had made friendship with a jackal, he reproved him, saying, "Jackals are sinful beasts and their advice is unsound. Don't bring this one near you." But Manoja did not heed his father and continued his association with Giriya. Once Giriya said to Manoja, "My lord, we have feasted on every sort of flesh except horseflesh." "Well, friend Giriya, where will we find horses?" "On the Ganges bank at Benares." And so Manoja stalked a horse of the king's army that was being bathed with the other royal steeds in the Benares Ganges. Killing it, he dragged it back to his family's lair. His father warned him, "If you again hunt horses you will be hunted by the king. Leave horses aside and hunt the food of the wild." But Giriya desired more horseflesh, and urged Manoja to stalk the king's horses again and again. Manoja was an expert hunter and was strong and fleet of foot; the king's men could prevent neither his attack nor his escape with a killed horse in his mouth. Finally the king hired a skillful archer to guard the horses from a tower. As Manoja tried to drag a killed horse to safety, the archer shot him in the hind-quarters. Giriya immediatly fled for his own life, calling back to Manoja, "There is no friendship with the dead." Manoja, ever valiant and dutiful, still managed to drag the horse to the lair of his family before dropping dead of blood loss. And they sadly reflected upon the perils of bad association.

34. Two otters caught a big fish by mutual effort. Laying it out on the riverbank, they tried to divide it but could not agree how. A clever jackal came by, and the otters, thinking him wise, requested him to be the arbiter of their dispute. The jackal offered to divide the fish himself, and they agreed. In a flash he bit off the fish's head and flung it to one otter, and then bit off the tail and flung that to the other. Seizing the middle portion in his jaws, the jackal sped away with it, leaving the otters downcast.