Pranam Old blind vulture killed by wily fox out of misleading trust: Vishnu Sharma continued further narration that Laghupatanaka the crow who first witnessed the treachery of the hunter and how the pigeons were saved by the mouse, then requested Hiranyaka to make friends with him. Even having slipped into his hole abode and was about to retreat, Hirankyaka laughed aloud stating ‘ don’t I know that we are proverbial enemies’! I am your ‘bhojya’ or the food of yours and you are my ‘bhokta’ or my eatable! How on earth could we be friends ever! Our friendship shall be disastrous for me! I am reminded of the story of a fox and crow who were close friends; the fox spotted a deer and cast its evil eye on it as the deer was full of juicy meat and endearingly approached the deer and introduced herself as Subudhi the Good Natured one. The fox said that all his relatives abandoned me due to my qualities of being pious, thus was lonely without companionship and on seeing a being of virtue like you felt elated spontaneously. The deer finally conceded to be friends with the fox and having roamed along together till the evening reached up to the residing point of the deer under a tree and the fox left for the day. A watchful crow on the tree above enquired of the deer about the new acquaintance of the so called Subuddhi and warned the deer of possible wrong consequences to follow in agreeing to the new acquaintance. Then the friendly crow narrated the deer incident as to how a wild cat made friends with a Vulture named Jaradgava was lured by the cat and got mercilessly killed! The story was that on the banks of Ganges there was a huge tree and an old and blind kite lived inside a big enough hole on the tree trunk. Meanwhile one mid-night, there was the wild cat named ‘Deerghakarna’ which quietly approached the baby birds when the parent birds were away in search of food for the babies. There was an alarming flutter of the baby birds and Jaradgava the vulture heard the noise and shouted: ‘who is there!’On seeing the big kite, the cat got nervous but still pulling up its courage replied with affected veneration : ‘Greetings to you sir, I am a cat named Deerghakarna’. The vulture shouted saying : get lost as soon as I face my pouncing attack. ‘ Sir! First do kindly allow me to say something and then decide whether I am punishable or not. One should first explain and then take appropriate action. I am a puritan daily performing Ganges bath and worship to the Almighty; I have given up meat eating for many years now and in fact observe ‘Chandrayana vrata’ or eating just one fistful vegetarian food as per the moon rise and moon fall of days and nights. Such are my restricted food in takes awaiting a final call from heavens. Meanwhile, I have heard from a few friendly bird friends that there lived a Mahatma-like huge kite and therefore arrived seeking your ‘darshan’ to let my offerings of veneration to you! After all, is this just that when a puritan would approach you, you threaten me of dire consequences! The established tenets of ‘Dharma’ proclaim the principle: ‘Atithi Devo bhava!’or provide veneration to any honourable guest as to a God. Even if a host does not possess riches like food and valuables, do provide solace with soothing words at least, instead of being shouted down harshly even without ascertaining the antecedents of a respect worthy guest instead being shouted down! Such a kind of behaviour would be representative of sinfulness.’ As Deerghakarna gave a convincing sermon to the vulture the latter murmured that after all, by nature, cats were fond of bird meat and therefore that was his natural reaction after all! The instant reaction of Deerghakarna was that his life’s unique motto was ‘Ahimsa paramodharma’ or Non violence would be the Supreme Virtue indeed. One could indeed certainly fill one's stomach with fruits and vegetables!’ As the highly cunning cat softened the vulture’s attitude convincingly, the latter then allowed -in fact welcomed- the cat and provided free access to the tree and one by one, the latter quietly ate the baby birds one each time the parent birds visited reached home, the baby birds were missing and their feathers and bones were noticed in the nest itself. The parent birds werc convinced that the blind kite was responsible for the gradual killings and being helpless that the so-called protector as was trusted for long had finally resorted to the killings and left the abode on the tree and wrongly cursed Jaradgava for no reason! 2 Fox misleading deer and gets killed as retribution: While the moral of the story that newcomers should not be always trusted, the fox retorted that after all, every newcomer would have been so at the first meeting as for instance the crow and the deer would also have met at a first meeting and thus a generalisation should not be concluded. Such moralities as the crow tried to teach were frivolous and petty mindedness could prevail where persons of half baked knowledge seek to thrive just as even a negligible castor- plant too would show off big where far bigger trees would not appear! Indeed one ought not be estimated evil minded simply because some would always vision circumstances from evil eyes! Of what avail would be of such chaff without grains as we all are well aware that one day Yamaraja would decide to take all away from life! That is why let's all be friends as of now with less of arguments and more of ‘bomhomie’ or the spirit of coexistence! After the passage of some time, the fox Subuddhi accosted Hiranyaka the deer and showed a well-ripped and blooming rice crop field. The deer was excited at the sight of the green crop and straightaway jumped into it for a joyful grazing festivity. One day, the Kshetra Swami or the master of the standing crop noticed the damage to the crops and arranged a trap made of ligaments of a dead skeleton in the midst of the crop. Unfortunately, the deer got entrapped and fell helpless. Luckily for the deer, she noticed Subudhi 9 the fox passing by and heaved a grand sigh of relief; Jambuka requested Subuddhi to bite off the ligaments and get it free. Subuddhi stated that that particular day being Sunday, it would not be able to bite but surely the following early morning, it would surely help as the deer was after all its dear friend! As after the fox left the place while suppressing its happiness at the huge opportunity of a feast that night, Subuddhi cum Durbuddhi the fox jumped with mirth. Meanwhile, Laghupatanaka the crow got worried as to why the deer had not yet reached and thus left for the rice field and located the friend and stated that this fateful situation had to be faced by the deer alas! ‘ I did caution you to be wary of strangers. There are some beings who talk sweetly but those are like sharp razors with honey edges or milk pots with poisoned milk inside; Indeed one’s vision and thoughts tend to get ignored as one’s death would approach a Being just as the smell of vicks of vanishing flames could not be felt nor Arundhati Star could be visioned on the Sky, or the sincere advice of well wishers could be heeded and the resultant chain of fateful events had to follow’, assuaged the feelings of the entrapped deer. Even as the crow was engaged in smooth talking likewise, the Kshetra Swami was approaching like Yama Raja! Then the thoughtful crow, being a true well wisher of the deer, quickly advised the latter to lie down and pretend to be dead with stiffly streched legs and hanging head and the crow would pretend to meddle with the body convincingly. Then the Master of the green field would get convinced that the deer was dead and would slowly untie the trap and in that process the deer would jump up and flee. The plan worked out admirably well. The master’s quick reaction was as expected and threw the metallic trap and hit the fox waiting for the night fall nearby and the fox was trapped instead even as the deer ran for life! Thus the Moral of the Story would be: Never try to perform an evil act as that would surely recoil at once, if not later! ‘Any how, your great good luck saved the tragedy’. KR IRS 5822
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