Long ago, there lived two friends – a deer and a crow. A jackal passing by, desired to devour the deer but knowing deer to be too swift in a chase, he decided to win first the confidence of the Deer. He approached the Deer, saluted him, and introduced himself as a lonely newcomer with friendly intentions, and proposed friendship and brotherhood with the deer.
As they approached the deer's place, the deer's old and wise friend the crow asked the Deer, 'O Deer, who is this with you? '
'A jackal, my new friend', answered the deer. To this, the crow asked: 'But, do you know him well enough? One should never extend friendship and shelter to anyone without knowing their real nature and intentions, learning the history of their ilk and giving them a test of time.'
The deer lightly shrugged this aside, saying, 'But this jackal is very friendly'.
Seeing his friend's naiveity, the Crow began relating to him a story about how a vulture was killed by unwisely trusting an impostor. He warned the deer against trusting the jackal without learning more about him.
So far the jackal had kept quiet, and it is at this juncture that he opened his argument with the famous shloka of vasudhaiva kutumbakam, demanding the deer not be narrow minded by considering the crow a friend and himself an alien.
The vasudhaiva-kutumbakam discourse successfully put to rest all doubts that had arisen in the deer's mind, and dismissing the Crow's wise council he went ahead in bringing the jackal into his home.
The cunning jackal after living sometime with the naive deer, as soon as the opportunity arose, pushed him into a deadly trap.
However before he could kill the deer, the wise crow addressed the deer, who took the advice and escaped the intentions of the wily jackal. He narrated:
"There, on the banks of a river grew a great fig-tree. In its hollow lived an old vulture with failing powers. The other birds that lived on that tree were friendly to him, and out of pity used to donate from their own food small portions to him, and this way the poor fellow was passing his days. In return, the old vulture used to guard the little offspring of the birds when the parent birds were away.
One day, when the older birds were gone, a cat came to make a meal out of the nestlings; and those tiny birds alarmed at seeing him, created noise that roused jaradgava from his slumber.
'Who comes there?' demanded the old bird.
The cat aborted his meal plans, but as escape was not possible he resolved to trust his destiny and to approach tactfully, saluting the vulture.
'Who is that?' asked the vulture.
'A cat,' answered the cat .
'Lay off, Cat, or I shall slay you,' shouted the vulture.
'I am ready to die if I deserve death,' said the Cat, 'but first let me be heard.'
'OK then, tell me first your purpose of arrival.' said the vulture.
'I live,' melodramatically began Cat, 'on the banks of the sacred river, bathing daily, performing the penance , strictly being a vegetarian. The birds that come there, speak very highly of you as the one firmly established in dharma and worthy of all respects. So with my curiosity greatly aroused about you, I decided to drop by Sir, to learn from you about niti and dharma.'
'You appear so in learning,' he continued, 'and still Sir, I am surprised that your sense of dharma tells you to be ready to slay a guest! Doesn't the niti say unambiguously about what a man's dharma is towards his guests?'
Thus the cat delivered an elaborate speech, quoting eloquently, gave an impressive lecture on peace and non-violence.
Shrugging that onslaught of quotations from the shastras aside, old vulture interrupted, 'Listen, I know only this, that you are a cat and the cats eat meat. Since here are young birds that I am given to protect, I warn you one last time – leave immediately.'
Upon this, the cat intensified his drama, and touching the ground with his two claws and then his ears, invoking all the Gods, he said, 'I have overcome all the passions by practicing spiritual discipline and following the religion that is called non-violence itself. And so he went on.
Such prolonged drama of the cat finally silenced the old Vulture, who at last allowed him to live in the hollow of the tree with himself.
With the passage of days, and having gained more confidence of the vulture, the cat slowly began picking the nestlings for his meal. After devouring them one by one, the cunning fellow would drop their bones near the hollow of old vulture , who being blind did not notice it.
One day, alarmed at their children going missing, the parent birds began investigating. The shrewd cat quickly made his escape, and the birds soon discovered the bones near the hollow of the old vulture and they blamed him. Enraged the birds swiftly killed the old vulture. Although being innocent and a true well-wisher of the birds, he paid for the folly of giving shelter to the wrong person.
Thus vasudhaiva kutumbakam was used by the cunning creatures in Hitopadesha.
The ancient Acharya of politics Narayana Pandita was not teaching the policy of universal and blind brotherhood to his pupils.
He warned against this tendency of blind application of ill-judged brotherhood in the matters of national and social policy.
[this story is adapted from a thought-provoking article featured on the external link]
