Tiny Tales: Traditional Stories in 100 Words: India: Ramakrishna

Showing posts with label India: Ramakrishna. Show all posts

9. The Tiger Cub and the Goats

Laura Gibbs · 9. The Tiger Cub and the Goats

A she-tiger died giving birth.
Wild goats found the cub and cared for him.
The cub ate grass like the goats, bleated like the goats, and thought he really was a goat.
A tiger then attacked the goats and found the cub. "Why are you eating grass? Why are you bleating?" he asked.
"That's what goats do," replied the cub.
"But you're a tiger!" he said.
Then he took the cub to a pond. "Look: that's your face! That's you!"
Thus the big tiger became a teacher to the cub who finally learned how to be a tiger after all.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 167 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

(needpix.com)

17. The Jackal and the Bullock

Laura Gibbs · 17. The Jackal and the Bullock

A jackal once noticed the big balls that dangled from a bullock's behind, and they made his mouth water.
"What a delicious meal those would make!" the jackal thought. "And his balls are so heavy and so big. Surely they will fall down soon!"
So the jackal began following the bullock everywhere, waiting for the balls to fall down.
But they didn't fall down.
"Such big balls!" the jackal thought. "Why don't they fall down?"
Ever hopeful, he kept following the bullock.
Finally, though, he gave up.
"You can keep your balls!" he shouted. "They probably wouldn't taste good anyway."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 7 in the book; it's also a story in the Panchatantra. I borrowed the idea for the final line from the traditional Aesop's fable about the fox and the grapes.

23. The Wealthy Toad

Laura Gibbs · 23. The Wealthy Toad

A toad once happened to find a copper coin.
He grasped the coin in his mouth and carried it back to his hole.
"I am now a toad who possesses both wealth and power!" he thought to himself.
Then one day an elephant walked over the toad's hole.
The toad leaped forth, angrily shaking his foot at the departing elephant as if he were going to kick him.
"How dare you walk over my head!" he shouted. "I am a toad who possesses both wealth and power!"
Money can make you lose all sense of proportion, just like that toad.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 31 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

37. The Hawk and the Fish

Laura Gibbs · 37. The Hawk and the Fish

A hawk had caught a fish.
Holding the fish in his talons, he rose up from the water, ready to fly home and enjoy his meal.
But crows suddenly swarmed all around him, a hundred or more, each one trying to snatch the fish.
The hawk flew up and he flew down... still the crows pursued him.
Left and right... the crows kept on chasing him.
Finally, the hawk let go of the fish.
The crows all flew off, chasing after the fish and leaving the hawk alone.
He settled on a branch and sighed thankfully, "At last, I'm free."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 14 in the book. The story is told about a "kite" but since people get confused about that word sometimes in English, I switched it to a more generic "hawk." In story 166, Ramakrishna presents this as an event witnessed by a holy man (avadhuta), who regarded the kite as his guru, and spoke these words to the bird: "Thou art my Guru, for thou hast taught me that peace of mind is possible in this world, only when one has given up one's adjuncts; otherwise there is danger at every step."

45. The Frog in the Well

Laura Gibbs · 45. The Frog in the Well

A frog was born in a well and lived there all her life.
Another frog was born and lived in a lake.
The lake-frog went exploring, and when she hopped up on the edge of the well, she fell in.
She tried to tell the well-frog what the lake was like. "It's big!" she said.
"As big as this?" asked the well-frog, hopping from one side of the well to the other.
"Bigger!" said the lake-frog.
"But there's nothing bigger than the well. You've lost your mind!" shouted the well-frog. "That 'lake' is something you dreamed; it can't be real."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 203 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia. I gendered the frogs as female because there's no reason why animals in parables always have to be male (I don't know what the gender of the word for "frog" is in Bengali...). Ramakrishna tells the story about the Ocean, rather than a lake; the Ocean is a crucial metaphor for Ramakrishna in general, as in the story of The Salt Doll.

(frog in lake)

100. The Three Friends and the Tiger

Laura Gibbs · 100. The Three Friends and the Tiger

There were three friends making their way through a jungle when they were attacked by a tiger.
The first friend shouted, "We are lost!"
The second friend shouted, "God, please save us!"
The third friend shouted, "We need to climb a tree!"
Here is what you need to understand about these three men.
The first man did not know God at all.
The second man was a seeker of God.
The third man had an ecstatic and complete love of God. His goal was not to save himself from the tiger, but to spare his beloved any trouble or worry.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 80 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

101. The Elephant-Driver

Laura Gibbs · 101. The Elephant-Driver

A guru and his disciples lived in the forest.
One day, a mad elephant came rampaging through the trees.
"Get out of the way!" yelled the elephant-driver.
All the disciples fled to safety, but one disciple didn't move.
The elephant grabbed him and hurled him against a tree; the disciple barely survived.
"Why didn't you run?" the guru asked his disciple later.
"You taught us that all things are God," he said. "Why run from God?"
"Yes, the elephant is God, but the elephant-driver is God also!" explained the guru. "You should have listened to God in his elephant-driver form."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 195 in the book. You can find out more about the mahouts, or elephant-drivers, at Wikipedia.

102. The Pilgrim and the Snake

Laura Gibbs · 102. The Pilgrim and the Snake

A pilgrim converted a cobra to the holy life.
"Do no harm," he told the cobra, "and don't bite!"
The snake nodded, and the pilgrim departed.
The village boys, however, grew bold and pelted the snake with rocks.
Its bones broken, the snake could barely slither in and out of its hole.
When the pilgrim returned, he was shocked by the snake's condition.
"The boys attack me," it said. "But I keep my vow!"
"I told you no biting, but I didn't forbid hissing!" the pilgrim exclaimed. "Do no harm, but you must hiss if someone threatens to harm you."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 187 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia. This is one of the longer stories in this book, going into more detail about the snake's life and how the boys tormented it.

(Metropolitan Museum)

103. The Two Men and the Mangos

Laura Gibbs · 103. The Two Men and the Mangos

Two men went into a mango orchard.
One man immediately began to count the number of trees and the number of mangos on the trees, and even the number of leaves, estimating how much might be harvested, what the mangos would weigh, and so on.
The other man went to the orchard's owner and befriended him. Then, at the invitation of his host, he began to eat the mangos. They were delicious!
Be like that man: befriend the Creator and enjoy the gifts of creation. What is the good of numbers and calculations when you could be eating mangos instead?

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 172 in the book. The word mango in English is adopted from the Tamil language of southern India; more about mangoes.

104. The Two Friends in Town

Laura Gibbs · 104. The Two Friends in Town

Two friends went to town together.
"Let's go listen to a reading of Holy Scripture!" said one.
"I think I'll go to a whorehouse!" said the other.
The man who went to the reading was bored; he wished he had gone to the whorehouse.
The man who went to the whorehouse felt ashamed; he wished he had gone to the reading.
The Angel of Death came for them both at that moment, taking the man in the whorehouse to heaven, and taking the other man down to hell.
God looks at your deeds, and he also looks at your heart.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 25 in the book. The version by Ramakrishna mentions specifically a reading of the Bhagavata Purana.

105. The Priceless Diamond

Laura Gibbs · 105. The Priceless Diamond

A wealthy man possessed a priceless diamond.
"Take this to the market," he said to his servant, "and see what people are willing to pay for it."
The eggplant-vendor offered twenty pounds of eggplants.
"Not more?" asked the servant.
"That is a lot for this small bauble!" the vendor replied.
The clothes-dealer offered a thousand rupees.
"Not more?" asked the servant.
"That is too much already!" he said.
And so on, until the servant finally approached a jeweler who said, "I'll give you everything I have!"
So it is with God: each comprehends within the limits of their own experience.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 134 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

106. The Fish and the Flowers

Laura Gibbs · 106. The Fish and the Flowers

A fishmonger ran into her cousin, a flower-seller, in the marketplace.
"You've sold all your fish, and I've sold all my flowers," said the flower-seller. "Come have dinner with me! You can stay the night."
The fishmonger gladly accepted.
She left her fishbasket at the door of her cousin's house.
They ate dinner, and then they went to bed.
During the night, the fishmonger tossed and turned. The smell of flowers was suffocating!
She finally went and got her fishbasket, putting it in the bed beside her. Smelling the familiar smell of fish, she was able to sleep at last.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 17 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

107. The Pilgrim Couple

Laura Gibbs · 107. The Pilgrim Couple

A husband and wife decided they would renounce the world and spend their remaining years on a holy pilgrimage.
One day the husband, walking ahead of his wife, saw a diamond lying in the dust of the road. He scratched at the ground, trying to bury the diamond so his wife wouldn't see it and lapse back into worldly desires.
His wife then noticed what he was doing and rebuked him. "Why did you do that? Do you still see a difference between diamonds and the dust of the road? You must look beyond," she said. "There is no difference."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 109 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

108. The Holy Man and the Dog

Laura Gibbs · 108. The Holy Man and the Dog

There was a holy man who lived on food given to him in charity.
One day when he received some food, he sat down next to a dog, and they ate together. The man took a morsel of food and placed it in the dog's mouth, then he put a morsel in his own mouth, back and forth, taking turns.
The villagers saw this and started laughing, thinking he was a lunatic.
The holy man also laughed and he said, "God sits with God; God feeds God! You, God, are laughing, and I, God, am laughing! Whatever is... is God."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 153 in the book. In Ramakrishna's version, he uses Vishnu as the name for God in this story. You can find out more about Vishnu at Wikipedia.

109. The Lizard on the Tree

Laura Gibbs · 109. The Lizard on the Tree

There was a tree in the center of a village.
One man told another about the green lizard he saw on the tree.
"It's not green!" said another man. "I saw that lizard, and it's red."
Another man chimed in. "No, the lizard is brown."
Or black or orange or yellow.
The people were all arguing about the color of the lizard.
Finally, they went to the tree and found a man sitting there, a stranger to the village. He explained to them about the chameleon's many colors, and then he added, "In the same way, people argue about God."

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 128 in the book. Compare the Buddhist jataka of the flowering Tree seen at different times of the year: Kiṃsukopama-Jātaka. You can read more about chameleons at Wikipedia: "Different chameleon species are able to vary their colouration and pattern through combinations of pink, blue, red, orange, green, black, brown, light blue, yellow, turquoise, and purple."

Indian Chameleon

110. The Woodcutter's Dream

Laura Gibbs · 110. The Woodcutter's Dream

A woodcutter was napping when his friend shook him and said, "Hey, wake up!"
"Why did you wake me up?" complained the woodcutter. "I dreamed I was a king, the ruler of a great kingdom and father to many children. I sat happily on my throne and administered justice to all my subjects. Why did you destroy my happy state?"
"But it was just a dream!" protested his friend. "What does it matter?"
"You fool!" said the woodcutter. "You understand nothing. Being a king is just as real, and not real, as my being a woodcutter."
So teaches the Vedanta.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 156 in the book. You can read more about Vedanta philosophy at Wikipedia.

111. The Farmer's Dream

Laura Gibbs · 111. The Farmer's Dream

A farmer and his wife doted on their young son, but one day he fell ill and died.
The mother was stricken with grief; the farmer, however, did not cry.
When she asked him why he was not grieving for their son, he said, "Last night, I dreamed I was a king, and I had eight fine sons. Then, in the morning, I woke up. Who should I weep for? The eight sons in the dream who vanished? Our son who died? It is all Maya; it is all illusion."
The farmer then took his plow and went to work.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 36 in the book. Compare a similar story about Vishnu and Narada: Narada Experiences Maya.

112. The Hill of Sugar

Laura Gibbs · 112. The Hill of Sugar

You cannot know all of God.
You are an ant who found a hill of sugar.
You rejoice! You eat a whole lump of sugar, and it fills your stomach completely. You barely manage to carry back a lump of sugar to your home, something to share with your fellow ants.
"Next time," you think to yourself, "I will bring back the whole sugar hill."
But you can't. You are just an ant.
Even the biggest ant, the most wise among the ant seekers, might be able to bring back two or three lumps of sugar, no more than that.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 125 in the book. You can find out more about Ramakrishna at Wikipedia.

113. The Doll of Salt

Laura Gibbs · 113. The Doll of Salt

There was a doll made of salt who wanted to measure the ocean's depth.
"Take me to the ocean!" the doll said to its owner. "Put me in the ocean, and I will measure how deep it is. Then I will be able to tell others about the depth of the ocean."
The ocean was far off, many hundreds of miles away. But the owner did as the doll asked: she took the doll to the ocean.
Then, when she put the doll into the ocean's water, the doll began to dissolve.
The doll disappeared.
The doll was the ocean.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 118 in the book. The doll of salt was also a metaphor used by Ramana Marharshi, and here is a version from Germaine Hornsby (as told to her by Sandeep Chatterjee, who heard it at Gangotri in the Himalayas): A salt doll journeyed for thousand of miles and stopped at the edge of the sea. It was fascinated by this moving liquid mass, so unlike anything it had seen before. "What are you?" asked the salt doll. "Come in and see," replied the sea with a smile. So the salt doll waded in. The further it went, the more it dissolved till there was only a pinch of it left. Before the last bit dissolved the doll exclaimed in wonder, "Now I know what I am."

114. The Seeker and his Family

Laura Gibbs · 114. The Seeker and his Family

A man desired to follow his guru, but love of family held him back.
"Go home and take this pill," said the guru. "You will seem to be dead while hearing everything."
The man did so, and his family began to mourn.
The guru arrived and proclaimed, "I have medicine that will save him! He will drink it and live, but one of you will also have to drink, and you will die."
Mother, father, sisters, brothers... they all refused. "What's done is done," they said.
Having heard everything, the man awoke, and he left them to follow his guru.

Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 105 in the book. Compare the Greek legend of Alcestis, the faithful wife who did agree to take the place of her husband Admetus in death.