One day this scoundrel found himself with nothing to do. None of his friends were available and he could not think of any way to kill time. As he was lounging by the roadside, he saw the village pandit passing by. The scoundrel took a sharp rock from the ground and aimed it at the pandit. It struck his forehead and the wound began bleeding profusely. The scoundrel did not bother to run away since he was far stronger than the elderly pandit. Instead, he just stood nearby and laughed and laughed.
Then, to the scoundrel’s wide surprise, the pandit began calling his name most affectionately and compassionately. He approached the old man cautiously. In spite of his pain, the pandit managed to give him a smile. “I am so proud of you, so proud of you!” he said. “You have such perfect aim. I am a poor man and I have only one rupee with me, but I wish you to take it. I want you to know that I appreciate you. Who cares if I am bleeding! This bleeding will soon stop. The most important thing is that you have shown your remarkable skill. In two hours’ time, the village chief will pass by. If you can repeat your performance, I assure you that he will give you a far greater reward. I can give you only one rupee, but he is a very rich man.”
The village scoundrel was now listening very intently to the wise words of the pandit. The pandit continued, “I am sure the chief will also reward you with a job in his palace. He has countless enemies. There will be a great advantage for him in keeping you by his side. You will be able to protect him by aiming at anyone who attacks him. So you should wait here and show the village chief your capacity. I am sure he will be most impressed.”
The scoundrel was extremely pleased with the pandit’s advice. He resumed his place by the roadside and selected a stone that was to his liking. After some time, he saw the village chief approaching with some of his attendants. The scoundrel took careful aim and threw his stone straight at the chief himself. It struck the chief in the head and he fell to the ground. Luckily he was not seriously hurt. The chief’s attendants immediately grabbed the scoundrel and thrashed him to death. In this way, the pandit with his infinite wisdom was able to rid the village of this abominable scoundrel!
Nothing can surpass wisdom. Wisdom can solve any problem in our life. In our Indian villages, there is a kind of wisdom that we call village wisdom. This wisdom says that when you see a tiger, you should not try to fight it. Just climb up a tree. The tiger will roam around at the foot of the tree for some time, but how long can its patience last? Eventually it will go away, because it is beneath the tiger’s dignity to wait indefinitely.
In my own case, I used village wisdom with my pet monkey, Madhu. He used to bite me mercilessly, but he would never bite my mother and he would never bite an infant who was crawling. It seems that anyone over the age of ten became his perfect victim. Then somebody told me that monkeys will never bite someone who is dead. So that is how I used to escape. When I saw Madhu coming towards me, I would fall down, stop breathing and pretend to be dead. Then he would come and examine my body, but he would not bite me. So many times I escaped by using that method! Unfortunately, it worked only if I fell down when he was forty or fifty metres away. If he was released just ten metres away from me, then no matter what I did, he would bite me very nicely!
That is how I was able to use our village wisdom.From:Sri Chinmoy,Amusement I enjoy, enlightenment I study, part 5, Agni Press, 1998
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