Vishnusarman continued to tell the Princes the story to understand the life aspect of ‘Losing of Friends’ (which we started in Part 5 in this blog).
One day, the Lion’s brother happened to visit him. After having spent some time talking, the lion asked Sanjeevak and his brother to accompany him to the forest so that they could hunt and get a good meal. Sanjeevak asked the lion, “Friend, where is the flesh of the animals you hunted today?” The Lion replied, “Damanaka and Karataka know.” Sanjeevak urged, “Should you not ask them what has been done with the meat?” The Lion replied, “They must have eaten it or given to others or thrown it off, I do not really know”.
Sanjeevak then advised him, “A king’s treasury should be like the water gourd which stores a lot of water but lets out only small amounts, conserves the water and avoids waste. A good minister is one who increases the wealth in the treasury. Also a king must always keep a watchful eye on how his wealth is being spent. A king is valued only as long as he has wealth in his treasury, else he is deserted by even his own family.”
The Lion’s brother also agreed with Sanjeevak and said, “Brother even a rich man is reduced to being a beggar if his wealth is spent without any check and carelessly. These 2 ministers you have are good for managing the affairs of peace and war. Such an administrator cannot be appointed as controller of the treasury. From my experience and knowledge I would like to share some rules that every king must follow :
..A scholar, a soldier or a relative must not be appointed to important roles in the kingdom since – a scholar will be very miserly and will not part with wealth even when it is the right thing to do, a soldier will quickly show his authority and use the sword instead of using his judgment to understand how to best use the wealth and the relative will always use the relationship to embezzle money for his/her own purpose
..a faithful servant with long service with a king can use his/her power, due to proximity with the king, to display service but eat away at your wealth behind the scene
.. A minister with whom the king is very free and with whom he speaks and jokes freely can also become a powerful and unchecked authority. Remember familiarity breeds contempt
.. A minister who displays great patience and good manners on the surface may be a crooked character in reality
.. A minister appointed should never be wealthy as wealth can pervert minds
..Not securing a King’s wealth or advantageous position, wasting the king’s property, neglecting duties, lack of judgment, pursuit of pleasure are the qualities which can ruin a minister and so a king must watch out for this
.. The king must always keep the right to take away the wealth and property of any of his ministers, constantly check and keep an eye on their work and activities and change their portfolio from time to time
.. The king must clean out the administration of his treasury and important departments from time to time by reviewing who is doing what, interchanging responsibilities and letting go those who do not seem to be working in his prime interest
Knowing and understanding such principles, you should try to govern accordingly.’
The Lion had been listening attentively to his brother’s advice and whole heartedly agreed with him and said, “But Damanaka and Karataka do not live by my orders. They simply do things that seem appropriate to them. Till now I have not had any problems with them.”
His brother responded, “Brother, this is very inappropriate. A king must live by certain rules –
..He must make the rules and decisions and make sure that his commands are obeyed even by his own children. If a king does not command then his presence is not required, even his portrait on a wall can suffice.
.. Just as a stubborn person loses his goodwill of others very fast, unpredictable people lose friends, those without compassion lose family, those who look only for wealth lose virtue, and a miser loses peace – a king with unqualified or unsuitable characters as ministers loses his kingdom.
.. A king must be like a father to his subjects and accordingly protect them from thieves, his own unjust officials, from enemies, from his favored people who may use their proximity to the king for their own advantage, from his own greed for wealth and material gain.”
The Lion had heard his brother’s advice with attention and said, “In that case the most suitable person for the treasury would be Sanjeevak who has no need for the meat and lives solely on eating of grass. He will neither steal nor be greedy for it and run the treasury well.”
In this way Sanjeevak displaced Karataka and Damanaka as the minister.
Now Karataka and Damanaka had not much work to do and also received rationed portions of food from Sanjeevak. Being without any work and also feeling that they were not receiving as much food as they had earlier, they started scheming about how to manage this situation so that they get back their advantageous position.
Karataka said, “What do you think we can do now?”
Damanaka replied, “Brother this situation is the result of our own actions and mistakes. We cannot blame anyone else for what has happened. Our story is like that of the friend who bound herself and the merchant who wished to steal the jewels. Due to their own faults they experienced failure.”
Karataka, “What is this story?”
Damanaka then related the following story –
“Think before You Act”
The seaside kingdom of Singhaldweep was ruled by a powerful King by the name of Jimutwahan. Once, his Justice Minister, sentenced a barber to punishment for a serious crime. As the barber was being led to the lockup by the Justice official, a wandering mendicant and a trader started to follow them. The mendicant held on to the shirt sleeve of the official and prayed that the barber not be punished. When the official asked the reason for the mendicant to request for non execution of the barber, the mendicant replied, “I am the son of the King of Ceylon. Once I came across a sea faring merchant who told me that in the middle of the seas there is a small island on which there is a wish fulfilling tree, the Kalpavriksha. On every 14th day of the lunar month (called chaturdashi day in the Indian calendar), you will find under the kalpavriksha tree, a grand couch on which a beautiful girl, dressed in regal ornaments and clothing, is seated and she plays beautiful melodies on a flute. Being intrigued by this story I quickly arranged for a ship and took the merchant with me as a guide.
On reaching the island, I saw that the island was half under water and half above. I also beheld the same sight as was described to me by the merchant. Being attracted to this beautiful girl I entered into the waters to reach her. The island kingdom seemed to be made of gold and was full of youthful, beautiful women roaming around its grand gardens and streets. All this while the flute playing girl was watching me and soon sent her friends to welcome me and I was taken to her garden. The friends introduced her as Ratnamanjiri, the daughter of Kandarpkali, the King of fairies. They also told me that Ratnamanjiri sits by the seaside every month as she waits for the brave man who has the courage to enter the land in the midst of the seas. She has promised to marry the one who has courage enough to brave the high seas and enter into this golden land. Having proven my courage by entering the land, she happily married me and we lived a long time together in that magical land. One day, she said to me that you are free to use and enjoy everything that belonged to her except her golden fairy called Swarnarekha in her garden. This incited my curiosity and I one day decided to touch her and see what happens. The fairy kicked me hard and once I regained consciousness I found myself in the distant land of Surat, in the garb of a mendicant. Since then I am cursed to roam the streets of different cities and beg for my food.
So I say that you should always think thoroughly before acting.
Thus wandering in this manner I happened to enter your kingdom. It was already evening by the time I reached here and being tired I approached a cowherd’s house for shelter for the night. It is here that I learnt what the fruits of greed are. So let me now relate to you further the next part in my life as a poor mendicant. From the place, where I was given shelter by the cowherd’s family, I saw that the cowherd on coming home after work spied his wife talking to the barber’s wife, who was encouraging her to go meet with her lover. This angered him tremendously and he came home and tied his wife’s hands to a pole so that she may not escape during the night. The barber’s wife, however, came in the dark of the night to help her friend. She told the cowherder’s wife that she would take her place being tied to the pole till she could meet her lover and get back. A little later the cowherd woke up to check if his wife was still there or not. His anger was still there and he decided to hit the tied up woman. He threw a small knife at her and injured her nose. The poor woman had no way to save herself. Later when the cowherd’s wife came back she untied her friend and saw what had happened. Having no way out both quietly got back to their own homes. In the morning when the cowherd woke up the clever wife shouted at him saying that being a chaste woman she remained uninjured even though the knife thrown by the cowherd had hit her nose. When the cowherd checked her face he was amazed to see that she was completely uninjured. He repented his actions and asked for forgiveness. The barber’s wife also being a clever woman decided to fool her husband as she had no way to justify the injury on her face. When the barber was leaving for work early in the morning, he asked his wife to hand him his shaving kit. Instead of giving him the full kit, she kept passing him one thing at a time, making him angry. In anger he threw one of his razors at her, which did not hit her but she cried out showing the serious injury she suffered due to his bad temperament. The barber was caught by the police for injuring his wife and sentenced accordingly. But the true story of the barber is what I witnessed that night and early morning.”
Then the mendicant said, “Till now I have only told you my story, now listen to the story of this trader who is my fellow companion. This trader set out of his house 12 years back to trade in goods. Having wandered far and wide he came to this city a few days back. In the night he took residence in the house of a harlot. He noticed that at the entry door of the harlot’s house there was a puppet hanging. This puppet had a very expensive looking gem placed in its forehead. This trader was quickly able to gauge that the gem was of great value and so he got up in the dead of night to pull the gem out of the puppet’s forehead and then leave, taking the jewel with him. As he touched the puppet, it caught hold of him and he screamed in pain and fear of this unexpected turn. The harlot woke up on hearing him scream and said to the merchant, that it was the job of the puppet to capture thieves and wealthy men and take away all their precious possessions. And so she asked him to part with everything he had. Having lost everything he ran from the house and joined our group of mendicants and now is begging with us.
So I say that being greedy always results in a bad outcome.”
Now Damanaka having told the stories, became reflective and said, “I am like the Prince turned mendicant. Just the way the Prince who was living a happy life created his own problems by touching Swarnarekha, I have also spoiled out happy lives by introducing Sanjeevak to our King.
I did not think enough before acting and in. my greed to become a close confidante of the King has resulted in my becoming a poor beggar like the merchant. But having created such problems I must also work towards solving them. Karnataka, you are suffering without any fault of your, so just like the mendicant saved the innocent barber from punishment, I must also work to save you from the suffering I have brought upon us.
So just like I worked towards creating friendship between Sanjeevak and the King, I will now have to work towards making them enemies of each other.”
Karataka thought for a moment and then said to Damanaka, “They have now become very good friends, it is almost impossible to make them enemies of each other.”
Damanaka replied, “Brother, do not worry about such things. Work that cannot be done by mere action must be done by strategy and only those who can display calm and fortitude in the face of difficulties become successful.” Damanaka, smiles and says, “This reminds me of the skills of the cowherdess who had many lovers besides her husband.”
Karataka asks for the story of the cowherdess and Damanak tells him as follows….”In a village close by, lived a cowherd with his wife. While the cowherd went away on work during the day, his wife was habitual of calling her lovers who were always young, rich or influential men of the village. One day she was happily engaged with the son of the village magistrate, when she perceived someone coming towards the house and quickly spied the village magistrate coming to her house. She quickly asked the son to hide in the storeroom. When the magistrate reached the house she happily but calmly welcomed him and started engaging passionately with him. However, after some time she spied her husband returning from work. She quickly advised the magistrate to take his things and storm out of the house as if in anger. The magistrate being guilty did as he was told. The Cowherd was surprised to see the magistrate angrily leave his house. Upon reaching home he enquired about the magistrate. The wife calmly replied that it seems the magistrate and his son had an altercation and to escape his father the son ran out of the house and entered their home. To save the poor boy from his angry father she hid him into the storeroom. The Magistrate came looking for the son but she sent him away saying that she was not aware of his son’s whereabouts and so he was walking away angrily. In the meantime, she brought the magistrate’s son out of the storeroom and asked him to leave. The cowherd saw all this and was very impressed with how his wife had managed the difficult situation between father and son.
This is why I say that we should be clear headed and calm to think of a solution even in this emergency that has arisen for us.”
Karataka again insisted that it would be difficult to break the bond of love and trust between the King and Sanjeevak.
So Damanaka replied, “We should try to build a strategy like the crow couple who successfully killed the cobra which always ate their chicks.” Karataka asked to explain further.
So Damanka related the following story –
“In a tree in the garden nearby lived a crow couple. Several times they lost their young chicks to a cobra which also dwelled in the tree. Once when the she-crow was to lay her eggs she told the Crow that they should abandon the tree as this time also their offspring would be devoured by the cobra. She cautioned him saying that living in the same home as a wicked spouse or a false friend or a mischievous and unreliable servant or a snake is always fraught with danger and misery and death are sure to follow. The Crow told her that while they had both been very patient and suffered all this while he would not let the circumstances remain as they were. He explained that intelligence must be used as one’s strength against an enemy which cannot be physically fought, just like the hare did to defeat the lion. The She-crow was curious to know further and so the Crow told her the following story –
Intelligence and Strategy vs Physical Strength……
‘On the Mandar Mountain lived a Lion who was young, full of strength and pride. It gave him immense pleasure to savagely kill prey even when he did not need food. His killing spree had created panic and distress among all the animals living on Mandar mountain. So all the animals came together to approach the Lion for mercy and find a solution to his merciless killing of large numbers of animals. They approached him and humbly told him that if he agreed to stop this mindless slaughter of the animals, they would appoint one animal per day and send him as his meal. In this way the Lion would not need to do the hard work of hunting the animals and would be able to get his supply of food also. The Lion agreed and every day one animal was sent to his den which he devoured happily. One day an old and wise hare was selected as the meal of the day for the Lion. The hare thought – ‘We the animals of this mountain are paying homage to a lion out of our own fears and in hope of a better existence of other fellow animals, so what is the advantage of being very courteous to my killer and reaching on the appointed time? Anyway he will only kill me when I reach, so I will go late to meet him.’
So the hare went to the lion’s den slowly and reached way past the appointed time. The lion was by now very hungry, angry and impatient. Due to his huge pride, he roared at the hare and wanted to know why the hare had arrived so late. The wise hare humbly and politely told him that it was not his fault as he had been forcibly detained by another lion while he was on his way. The lion’s pride was pricked at the thought of another lion in his territory. The combination of his anger, hunger and hurt pride made him reactive and hasty and he asked to be shown the other lion who had dared to enter his territory. The lion was determined to display that he was the king of the mountain forest. The hare quickly took him to a nearby well and asked him to look inside the well. The well was full with water and when the lion looked inside he saw his clear and close reflection in the water. Having never been to a well the lion thought another lion was peeping at him through a hole. He roared and heard a roar back as the well echoed with his roar. This angered him even more. He saw the reflected lion looking angrily and ferociously at him. The proud and brash lion could not tolerate the challenge to his strength and superiority. So as per his instinct, he jumped forward to attack the reflection and fell into the water and quickly sank.
So use of intelligence and wit gives one a far bigger advantage especially when physical strength cannot be matched.”
The She-crow heard the full story and asked the crow what he planned to do. The crow laid out his plan to her as follows:
“Have you noticed that a Prince comes to the lake nearby to bathe every week. I have been watching him and notice that he takes off all his jewellery before he gets into the water and keeps it on a rock nearby. While he has guards for his protection, they normally stand at a short distance from where he is bathing. I suggest that when he gets into the water you should fly to the rock where he leaves his gold ornaments and pick up his shiny gold chain and fly away with it. When the Prince alerts his guards to catch you and get his gold chain back, they will start to follow you. At this time you should drop the gold chain into the hollow of the tree in which the snake lives and fly away. The guards will try to reach into the hollow of the tree to retrieve the chain and find a snake inside. They will immediately kill the snake to successfully retrieve the gold chain.”
The She-crow was impressed with the idea and did exactly that the next time the Prince came to bathe in the lake. In this way the crow couple successfully eliminated their enemy and led a peaceful life after this.”
Damanaka then said to Karataka, “This is the only way for us now”. Karataka agreed and wished him luck and success on whatever strategy he planned to use.
So what was the strategy Damanaka planned to use?…Continued in Part 8….
