Stories That Will Change Your Life

Allegorical Story From Mahabharata

I like to request, please read this story carefully. Don't miss any paragraph, because allegories lie within it. It's an excerpt from my book, The Krishna Love, chapter 15.

The sky was painted with bright blue color, and the green grass glistened as sweltering sunlight cascaded upon it. Birds were chirping. Trees were dancing as a heavy wind swept away their dry leaves.

A king rushed out of his palace. Along with him, two groups of soldiers hurtled and guarded him from both sides, making a way for their master to walk through it. It was so that no one could attack from any side.

King had made up his mind to go hunting, therefore, a mahout was nourishing a royal elephant, and one servant inside a tent was assigned to give a bucket of water to that elephant.

While doing his duty, the servant was so drunk that he didn't realize when he poured liquor into the bucket, instead of water. A little later, that bucket was brought in front of the elephant. Even mahout didn't care to check if it is water or not.

The elephant soaked up the liquor with his trunk, and drank it all at once. Unknowingly heading towards his death, King climbed on the elephant, and thus they headed into the dense forest for hunting.

As a few minutes passed, they were in the dense forest. Of course, it took some time for the elephant to go wild, and when it happened, he began to bash whatever plants, hurdles, or boulders came in his way. Poor mahout tried to control the elephant, but he was thrown on the ground.

Needless to say, King's limbs chilled with fear. He leaped off from his seat. It hurt when he fell on the ground, however, that was much bearable than getting killed by a mad elephant. But the show is not over yet!

The elephant's eyes darted at helpless King. Scared to the death, King somehow got up, and ran with all of his vim. He swept through the thorny bushes, but he was unaware of the fact that, ahead of him was a dead end. Pitifully he fell down from the cliff, and got stuck on a half uprooted branch of a tree, which didn't seem to be strong enough to carry his weight for a long time.

Just see his luck! That elephant came from behind and started pushing the branch with his trunk.

What horrified King most was not the above part, but a cobra and other venomous creatures down below the cliff, who was waiting for him to fall down. God of death is eagerly waiting for my death, King cried out.

Still series of tough luck were not yet over. From a hole inside a cliff came two rats, and climbed up on that half uprooted branch—one was white and the other was black. Worst came to worst, when they started gnawing the branch. Cherry on a cake, isn't it?

Knowing how destiny was playing a nasty game with him, King burst out, "Alas! There's no way I'm gonna live." Slowly the roots of that branch started weakening, and was drooping downwards.

Meanwhile a gust of wind waved a tree over King's head. Two drops of honey fell into his mouth from above honeycomb attached to that tree. This somewhat relieved King from his fear, he said, "Even in this most miserable condition, I'm getting to enjoy these two drops of honey. Good Lord, good Lord!" Licking his lips, he relished the fresh taste of honey.

There were some saintly people, who wished to lend a helping hand, but King rolled his eyes, saying: "I'm enjoying fresh drops of honey here—falling from the tree above me. No need to save me. Later you can come to save me. Just ... let these drops of honey stop falling in my mouth."

Moral of the story: This story describes life of a materialistic person. How is that? Here are the allegories: Elephant, branch, cobra, white and black rats, and two drops of honey.

Elephant represented desires that keeps us running from here and there.

Branch represented our lifespan. We can't say when it will fall down in the clutch of death.

Cobra and other venomous creatures represented death.

White and black rats represented day and night.

Two drops of honey represented insignificant pleasure that we derive from this world, yet we're so attracted to it.

What did you learn from this story?