Learning from Sagas

Stories & tales are a superb means to get inspired & share knowledge. I am lucky to have my grand father, who always have new stories to share with me, ever since when I was a kid he used to share with me the sagas of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Chattrapathi Shivaji and tales of heroism and dharmic deeds, even today when I meet him he shares his wisdom & I eagerly listen, I personally believe that lessons from these sagas had immense impact on my life, these lessons have deeply rooted in my perceptions & beliefs & are very foundation pillars of my thought process.

As I grew up the depth of his stories also grew, when I was a kid stories were for fun, but today they have a deeper intellectual meaning. I would like to share with you a tale which he recently shared with me, this story is easy to understand & joyful to read but has immense hidden learning, I hope you will enjoy it.


Here is the beautiful story which depicts:

There was a cat and there was a rat. The cat was after the rat. The rat entered into the hole and the cat was waiting outside, because the rat was inside the hole.

Who will win? It all depends on who is more alert, because God has given intelligence to both the rat and the cat.

The cat got tired of waiting, and started going away. As she was going away, she got caught in the hunter’s net. She began to struggle, and the rat heard the noise. The rat came out with confidence. The cat was caught and helpless in the net and the rat was going away, when it found there was a eagle coming towards it, but it was quite some distance to go to the hole, so the bird was likely to pick up the rat.

Immediately, the rat got an idea and negotiated with the cat. “If you save me I will save you,” he said. How? “The bird is coming to get me, so I will come inside the net with you and you save me. And if you save me I will go out and cut the net.” The cat got confused with the courage of the rat & agreed. And the rat got inside the net and sat on the lap of the cat. The bird could not do anything and went away.

Then the cat realized that now if I don’t allow the rat to leave, I cannot get out and the hunter is coming soon. If I eat the rat the hunter will finish me. So she let the rat go. The rat also saw the hunter coming, but the hunter could not see the cat and rat.

The rat went round the net and slightly cut the bits of the net, and the cat got restless and said, “Hurry up, the hunter is coming.” The rat said, “Don’t worry, I will honor my words. When I will honor it, I will not tell. I said I will cut the net. When I will cut it, I will not tell you now.”

So the rat cuts a little and goes around twice, doing dance, then cuts a little more and did four rounds of dance. The cat now is in tension and yelling, “You are cheating me.” The rat says, “No, I am not.” By the time the hunter came very close there was only one strand left and immediately, the rat cut the strand, the cat came out and the rat ran to the hole and cat ran for its life. When the hunter came he could not see anything.


Dialogue with my Grand Father.

I asked, Dadaji, why was rat so slow in cutting the net?

Dadaji Answered: “because rat If had cut the net too fast, the cat would have eaten him. He had to honor his words, but the cat will not change.”


Lessons:

1. People hardly change, but at the same time you might have to support the enemy also.

2. We should keep a distance from the enemy so that we don’t get cheated by him. Look at Lord Krishna’s life. He always honored his words.

"In life we have to honor our words. Secondly help even our enemy. Thirdly, understand that people rarely change. Even if they change they change superficially".

It would be delightful if you share your views & suggestions, I hope you liked & enjoyed it. My special thanks to my Dear Grand Father, Shree Chandrasen Kashid Bhonsle for his constant support, motivation & love.

With Best Wishes
Sujay Bhonsle