Human Life is Precious

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  There are innumerable Stories in Mahabharata, the greatest Epic of the World. They are narrated by several Rishis who visited Pandavas during their exile in the forest. Some of them have a message. They are relevant even for the day. Prof. Narasimha Shastry, from the University of Mysore, has rewritten these shlokas in prose version, Kahashtakam, 8 stories of Mahabharatam. one such story is here. 

  This is a Story from Mahabharata. It was a remote village, with dry land and with very less opportunities for Agriculture. People suffered  from poverty and they had to get out of their town for a living. In this Village, there was a Brahmana by name Kashyapa. He went to a  Gurukulam, had formal Education, but he had no land to till, no Students to teach.  He was forced to live by begging alms as he had a large family to feed and support.  Every day he set out early in the morning for begging and returned in the noon.

  One noon, while he was on his begging rounds, slowly walking on a road, a rich man’s horse carriage was following him at a great speed. On some reason, the horse was distracted and the wheel of the chariot ran over the Brahmin’s left leg. He fell unconscious. Bleeding profusely, with pain and great difficulty, he crossed the road and sat on a rock. He was brooding over his misfortune. He could no longer beg. His children were very young. Cursing himself, he decided to commit suicide, as he felt he was useless to his family and  was a burden to them. Kashyapa crawled across and reached slowly to a lonely place to end his Life. Gods wanted to teach him a Lesson.

  Suddenly a Jackal appeared before him and spoke to him  like a human being! In great pain, he did not realize it must be an Angel. The Jackal said, “Oh the learned one, why are you into this heinous crime? You are learned, capable of advising Fools who do such things. What are you  achieving  by ending your precious human form gifted by God? You will again be born as an animal like me or even worser.  Instead, cure your pain by Patience and resume your work and look after your Family. The Jackal gave him an option.

  
  

  ‘If you can’t bear this pain, you can enter into my Form and I shall take your painful one. Kashyapa readily agreed. ‘Be it so ‘, he said and with the help of Jackal, took over the animal form and the Jackal took the painful, bleeding human form.

  In fact, Angel  Indra wanted to test the Brahmana’s  love for Life. Soon after the Brahmana had a moment’s joy, free from pain and walked freely in the forest. His happiness did not last long. A herd of Jackals arrived to greet the newcomer. Some of them licked his body with their foul smelling tongue, some sniffed him, others kissed him. Kashyapa was unable to live among Jackals. He felt the painful human form was better than this foul smelling animal form. Now he realized Gods might have put him to test.

  Kashyapa honestly prayed God to get back his earlier form, though painful and wanted to get rid of this Jackal’s body. The Gods were pleased and he was made to take over his wounded human form. In a few months, he was fit to work. He started a new Life, worked hard, cleared all his debts, and soon became a respectable Man of the Town. 

  He now  realized how precious the human form is!

  This Story has a message to all ages. 
• Make your lives happy than expecting happiness to come from somewhere. It lies within us. Explore it.  You will surely be happy.
• 29 March 2012