Application of Panchatantra Stories: Part-2

Application of Panchatantra Stories: Part-2

Attractive, short, and full of wisdom- these can be  some of the superlatives that can be used to describe the Panchatantra stories. In the second series of this article, I am taking four stories from the first book of Panchatantra,  Mitrabheda that is, The separation of friends.

1.       The wedge pulling monkey:

Once a number of carpenters where working in a forest. A monkey who was watching them got interested in their work. When the carpenters went for lunch, the monkey approached the woods which the carpenters left and started playing with the wedge. The monkey was able to take the wedge from the woods, but his body got trapped in between the logs. And the monkey died.

Moral : Don’t poke our nose into other person’s affairs. This can be applied universally with reference to both personal life and professional life.

2.       The sparrow’s story:

It was rainy season. A monkey drenched in rain took shelter under a tree in whose branches there was the nest of a sparrow. The sparrow, on seeing the wet monkey started advising the monkey to build his own house. The monkey   asked sparrow to mind its own business. But in spite of the warning, the sparrow kept on advising the monkey. The monkey got angry and climbed the tree and broke the nest of the sparrow.

Moral: May be we missed the first story and poked our nose into other’s business. They may politely ask us not to intrude. But if we keep on offering advice without being asked, we can be assured of sparrow’s plight. Remember the quote “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes time and annoys the pig."

3. The Jackal and the war drum:

A hungry jackal was searching for food in a battle field. He heard some loud and strange noises and was frightened. But after some time, instead of running away, he made up his mind to find the source of sound. Soon, he found that it was from a war drum left by the soldiers. He inspected it and tore the drum into pieces with the hope that he could find food in it. Alas, he couldn’t find anything to eat. But he was able to get rid of his fear.

Moral: Don’t be afraid. The sound in this story can be  compared to an unforeseen circumstance that may put a question mark on our abilities. But instead of withdrawing into ourselves, we should march ahead and realize our true potential. As the quote says- Don’t be afraid of shadows. It means that there is light nearby.

4.The  king and the foolish monkey:       

Once a king had a monkey as his pet, who served the king. One day the king was sleeping. The monkey was fanning the king. He noticed a fly on the chest of the king. Even though the monkey tried to beat the fly, it kept on coming back. At last the monkey took a dagger and stabbed it on the king. The fly went away, but the king died.

Moral: Success of the organization does not depend on the leader only. The type of members who are put on board as team members plays an important factor in the achievement of goals.

Even though written in ancient times Panchatantra stories, with its beauty and simplicity showers wisdom in present times too.

Application of Panchatantra Stories In Today’s Context

Application of Panchatantra Stories In Today’s Context

Long before the advent of motivational gurus, life coaches and agony aunts, India had the tradition of summing up all the words of wisdom in the form literary gems. Be it in the form of puranans, Upanishads, Vedas, the epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata or the Bhagavat Gita or fables. It was like, the adage of you name it, and we have it. We tend to forget the wisdom available in our mother land.

My intention is to throw some light into the story of Panchatantra and the application of its morals in one’s student life, as we all are students of life.

A brief introduction about Panchatantra:

Panchatantra is a technical or scientific treatise; thus it is considered a treatise on political science and human conduct. Panchatantra are a collection of five volumes of stories written by a teacher to instruct the different aspects of kinghood for princes. Panchatantra is written in five volumes:

Mitra-bheda: The Separation of Friends

Mitra-samprapti: The Gaining of Friends

Kakolukiyam: War and Peace

Labdhaprasam: Loss of Gains

Aparikitakaraka: Ill-Considered Action / Rash deeds

Let us move on the stories.

 1. The Brahmin and his dream:

Remember the story of the Brahmin?? Who begged for a living, who dreamt that he will sell the rice, buy goats, then have herds of cows….and would become richer than ever before?

And in the sleep, he hit the pot in which he stored the rice and alas…..

Moral :

Set realistic goals.

If you want to achieve the goals, work hard for them rather than building castle in the air and living in the same. If you want to get through the exam or get noticed at work, study hard, sweat yourself out. Push yourself to your extremes. Give your best.

2 The Blue Jackal:

So there was this blue jackal, which fell into a tub of dye and made advantage of the situation and fooled every animal in the jungle. But one day, unable to control, he howled in front of all the animals and they all killed him.

Moral:

Be  yourself.

You can fool others about your appearance, your qualifications, your knowledge, and your possessions. But it is not possible to do that in the long run. So it is always better to be the best you rather than a better some one else.

3 The Brahmin and the goat:

The Brahmin was cheated by three cunning fellows who made him believe that he was carrying a donkey, dead calf and dog instead of a goat. But did that transform the goat? Nope, but the Brahmin deserted the goat and ran away where as the three fellows relished their meal.

Moral:                   

Believe in yourself.

Let other Tom, Dick and Harry say anything they want to say. You should have firm belief in your ideas and values. You should know the value of your dream and have conviction about the fact that others say doesn’t affect the achievement of your goals. Don’t succumb to peer pressure.

4 The Monkey and the crocodile:

In this story, the crocodile revealed his intentions to the monkey after reaching the midst of the river.

But monkey managed to save his life!! He doesn’t know how to swim, his friend broke his trust, and he had no other option. Still the crocodile was left ashamed and the monkey reached the tree. How?? He didn’t panic.

Moral:                                   

Don’t panic.

 It doesn’t matter how worse the situation is. What matters most is the way you approach the situation and how you find the most feasible solution to it.

5 The Fox and the grapes:

The story says that the hungry fox branded the grapes as sour and went on his way.

Moral:                   

Don’t blame others.

If you are not able to achieve your goals, it is not others’ fault or the fault of circumstances or fate. Stop blaming others. Try to analyze where you went wrong and rectify the mistakes, grapes won’t be sour anymore.

6 The rabbit and the lion :

Remember how the small rabbit managed to drown the lion into the well. How the rabbit accomplished the task?? Application of intelligence.

Moral:                                   

Apply your intelligence. The size of the enemy doesn’t matter much.

7 The swans and the turtle:

The story revolves around a talkative turtle and two swans who tried to carry the turtle friend with them by holding it in to a stick. But in spite of the advice given by his friends, the turtle opened his mouth to speak!!! He fell to the ground and that was his end.

Moral:                                   

Always listen to good advices; it is beneficial in the long run.

I have chosen only seven stories due to the constraint of time. Stories like these should not be branded as Amarchitra Katha stories meant for kids only. We can learn a lot from them!!!!!

Salutes to VishnuSarma, the creator of this wisdom.

                                       

A random correlation??

We all love to read stories or hear stories, sometimes like to cook up stories! Neil Gaiman once said that “Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.”My random thought was to rekindle the memory of some of the stories that we all have read/heard in the past and to find a link between them and our world. Life shouldn’t been taken too seriously. So let’s take a break for a few minutes from the exam fever and start.

Rumpelstilskin:

This was the story of a miller’s daughter who was blackmailed by the imp that if she is not able to find his name, he will take her kid away. The Queen was able to find the name after some chances and he ran away angrily to the forest. But what does it got with our field?

We all sweat when we are to answer about something that we are supposed to know in our field, but we don’t know. In the end, we will try to bluff or mumble, giving the other party a chance to know how stupid we are! The Queen didn’t have to sweat it out by lying that she knows how to convert straw to gold. How many times it happens in exam halls, interview panels etc where we come across a question that we don’t know, but don’t have the courage to say “am afraid I don’t know the answer”, but comes up with some entirely different answer that results in our rejection?

The Beauty and the beast:

Beauty was supposed to return to the Beast within 3 days. When she was late, it ended up in the beast losing his life.

Read with our profession: Remember the time limits for various filings under the various Acts? If it is not followed properly, we too can expect the tension that Beauty suffered when she saw the sight of dead Beast.

Puss in Boots:

This is the story of a boy who inherited nothing but a puss from his father. But he later on wins the hand of the princess with the help of the puss. It teaches the skill of making the best use of one’s resources and persistence to achieve the goal through efforts.

Alice in Wonderland:

Although not a fairy tale, this story still captures the imagination of children and adults alike. What does this can offer?

Alice nodded off gracefully when she was not interested in her sister’s history lessons. Her mind was into something else and there the story begins.

When Alice asks the Cheshire cat which road to take, it offers the timeless wisdom-

 "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered.

"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

So where do we want to go? Why are you into this field? Out of passion or pressure? Where do you want to go after becoming a professional? Whose dreams are we following, ours our others?

As CS Lewis put it in his words- “It is my opinion that a story worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.” 

Even though some of the stories were imbibed in our mind in our childhood, it can still find place everywhere including our day to day life and profession