Continued….

..From Part 3 – Then one day they hear a lot of noise and see a deer run hurriedly into their part of the forest.  They are startled and run to hide….

Part 4

Manthar runs to hide in the water, Hiranyaka runs into his burrow and Laghupatnak flies to the top of a tree to see what the commotion is about. On seeing nothing he flies back down and calls out to his friends.  All 3 friends then ask the deer why there was so much commotion and why he was running frantically and looking scared.

The deer replied, “Friends, I am Chitrang, I saw a hunter and fearing him I was running away and thus came this way.  Do allow me to stay here for some time.  Manthar replied, “Anyone looking for shelter is welcome here and we welcome you like a friend amongst us.”

Chitrang was delighted and rested there. Then Manthar said to him, “Friend there are never any hunters here so how come you saw a hunter and got scared?”  Chitrang replied, “Friend there are currently hunters roaming in this part of the jungle.  I heard them talking about the King of Kalinga, who is celebrating his conquests in this part of the country.  The King plans to stay at the banks of this lake with his army, and will be here in a few days. So we should all plan to safeguard ourselves as the hunters will be looking to hunt for the feast for the king and the army.”

The 3 friends were alarmed to hear this news.  Manthar became extremely frightened at the thought of the king and the army arriving at his lake.  He panicked and without thought declared that he would look to move to another pond or lake.  Chitrang however, discouraged him saying, “Friend I think you will be safer in the water than on land.  Hiranyaka agreed with him and said, “A water animal is safest in water, citizens within their stronghold fortress, preying animals in their familiar landscape and kings with their armies.  If we do not heed this wisdom, we will become like the merchant who could not safeguard his own wife.”

The other 3 asked, “How was that?”  Then, Hiranyaka related the following story:

“In the kingdom of Virpur, a king appointed his son to the role of wazir.  So the Prince decided to travel to all the towns in the kingdom to become familiar with their administration.  In one town he came across Sundari, the beautiful wife of the richest merchant.  He was struck with a great love for her and she also felt deep love for him. The Prince decided to send a woman messenger to Sundari to ask her to meet him secretly.”

“When the messenger gave her the message, Sundari replied – ‘a wife must always be faithful to her husband.  A cuckoo’s beauty is its voice, patience the beauty of the yogi and faithfulness the beauty of a wife. When a husband is delighted with the wife, the whole world is delighted with her.  Therefore, I unhesitatingly do what my husband wishes for me to do.’ The messenger noted this and asked her if she would do whatever her husband asked of her and Sundari affirmed the same.”

“Coming back to the Prince, she conveyed Sundari’s message.  The Prince was forlorn and asked how he could ensure a meeting with Sundari.  The messenger was a clever woman and said to him that Sundari if brought by her husband to him would happily spend the night with him. The Prince asked her how that was possible.  The woman messenger replied that strategy was to be applied to make this happen. What cannot be done by skill or talent must be done by strategy.  This is how the jackal was able to kill the elephant. The Prince asked how that was and so the woman messenger told him the following story” –

‘In the Brahma forest lived a elephant called Karpurtilak.  The jackals in the jungle had been watching it for a sometime and concluded that if they were able to kill Karpurtilak, they would have almost four months of food available. One old and experienced jackal among them proposed that he could kill elephant by mere use of his intelligence and so they would not be required to hunt and kill Karpurtilak as hunting such a big elephant was impossible.  The other jackals agreed.  So the next day, the old jackal respectfully approached Karpurtilak and told him that all the other animals of the jungle had sent him to talk to Karpurtilak. All the animals, he said, saw him as the most virtuous among all animals in the jungle and so wanted Karpurtilak to become the king of the jungle as there was no king who could lead them. So he had come to request Karpurtilak to agree to this proposal.  Now Karpurtilak was quite impressed and was drawn strongly to the idea of becoming a powerful king. He agreed to accompany the jackal to the appointed place at the auspicious time to be crowned king.  So the next day, Karpurtilak was led by the jackal through the jungle.  The jackal led him to wards a marshy land and the king got stuck in the marsh.  He asked the jackal for help and the clever jackal just laughed and said he could only offer his tail which could be used to pull him out.  The elephant then knew that he was stuck and would never be able to get out.  The elephant sank into the marshy land and died.’

“So in this way strategy worked better than skill.”

“Having told the story the messenger woman then advised the Prince to think of a suitable strategy to get the merchant’s wife to meet him.  So the Prince created a good relationship with the merchant and then one day told him that he had decided to honor one young woman of good family every day for the next few days as a way of honoring the mother goddess.  So he asked the merchant to get him one such woman every day.  The first few days the merchant brought women from various good families and saw the pro=ince gifting them with a variety of precious ornaments and money.  This made him feel greedy and one day asked his own wife to attend the ceremony at the Prince’s residence.  The Prince was delighted and he and the merchant’s wife spent the night together.  The merchant now felt very forlorn but could do nothing as he had only requested this of his wife.”

However, Manthar was so frightened that this story made no impact on him and he started walking on land to find another pond.  His friends followed him, not knowing what else to do.  One hunter passing that way noticed the tortoise, Manthar, and feeling very lucky, tied him to his bow and proceeded to his home.

Hiranyaka immediately said to Laghupatnak and Chitrang, “Before the hunter gets out of the forest we must somehow try to save Manthar from his clutches.” They asked, “So what can be done?”

Hiranyaka said, “Let Chitrang go and lie down near the pond which is a little ahead and where the hunter can see him.  Let him lie down as if he is dead and Laghupatnak you must show as if you are pecking on his dead body.  The hunter will surely be tempted to also carry a dead deer’s body and once he approaches Chitrang I will cut the ropes binding Manthar.  You can both then escape before the hunter is able to catch Chitrang.”

They agreed to his scheme and did as was told. In this way they managed to free Mantha, who quickly slid into the water once freed.  The hunter realizing that he had lost both the deer and the tortoise exclaimed, “Whoever quitting certainties, pursues uncertainties, his certainties are lost and uncertainty was anyway not with him.”  He goes back home empty handed and desolate.

With this story Vishnusarman concluded the first lesson on “The Acquisition of Friends”.  The Princes joyfully acknowledged the valuable lessons they had learnt from him and were in return blessed by Vishnusarman with the blessing of acquiring many friends, prosperity of their community and wisdom in their governance.

Next, stories from “The Losing of Friends”… Part 5