{143} Chapter Ten
The Raja said, “I have heard the story of the disagreement, treachery, cruelty, and punishment that transpire between kings and their servants and how they re-establish trust, for it is incumbent upon kings for the regulation of their realm and maintenance of their best interests to follow the dictum that says, ‘Reversion to the truth is better than adherence to falsehood.’ Now tell me a story of a person who, to preserve his life and in his own best interests, had to harm others and cause injury to animals.”
The Brahman said, “Injury to living beings is only allowed by ignorant persons who cannot distinguish between good and evil and between benefit and disadvantage and who in their foolishness are blind to consequences and cannot see the end of things, for the knowledge of the wayward falls short of comprehending their own best interests and the veil of ignorance prevents them from enjoying happiness. How could an intelligent person allow for another like himself what he does not like for himself? The Prophet said, ‘How is it that you see a splinter in your brother’s eye and do not see a tree trunk in your own?’
“It should be known that every action has consequences that will redound upon the perpetrator, and one should not be fooled by any delay in them that may happen, for what will happen will happen though it may take some time. If anyone thinks he can gild his evil deeds or disguise himself fraudulently and dishonestly as a benefactor so that people will praise him and his fame will spread far and wide, he will never rid himself of the consequences of his reprehensible deeds and eventually he will taste the fruits of his own vileness. Then he may heed advice and adopt praiseworthy characteristics. It is like the story of the lioness and the archer.”
“How was that?” asked the Raja.
It is related that a lioness and her two cubs lived in a forest. One day while she was out of the forest in search of prey an archer came, killed her two cubs, and skinned them. When the lioness returned {144} and saw her children lying on the ground in that condition her cries rose up to heaven. When a jackal who was a neighbor of hers heard her outcry he went to her and asked, “What is the cause for your distress?”
The lioness told him what had happened and showed him her children.
“Know that every beginning has an end,” he said, “and when the period of life is over and the time for death comes not a moment’s respite can be imagined. ‘When their term is expired, they shall not have respite for an hour, neither shall they be anticipated’ [Kor. 7:34]. The foundation of this ephemeral world is laid upon the assumption that on the heels of every happiness one must expect grief, and on the heels of every grief one should anticipate some happiness. In all cases one should be content with one’s fate, for in the face of vicissitudes one can but forbear. Cease your rage and be just. ‘Whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself’ [Kor. 4:79]. There is a proverb that says, ‘Your hands tied the neck of the waterskin and you blew it up.’1 Much worse has been done to others than what the archer did to you, and they went into the same useless rage and fury before finally giving in to forbearance. ‘Have the forbearance for the pain of others that they had for yours.’ Have you not heard the saying ‘As you requite so will you be requited’? He who sows a seed will doubtlessly reap it. Adopt clemency and nonviolence and do not frighten beings so that you may live safe.”
“Continue,” said the lioness, “and bring forth proofs of what you say.”
“What is your age?” he asked.
“One hundred years,” she said.
“During this period what has constituted your sustenance?”
“The flesh of animals,” she said. “Beasts and humans I have hunted.”
“Then did those animals on whose flesh you subsisted all those years not have mothers and fathers, and did their loved ones not grieve over being separated from them? If back then you had known {145} the results of your actions you would have abstained from shedding blood and never done it.”
When the lioness heard these words she realized how true they were and was certain that her loss had resulted from her own hubris. She forswore inappropriate actions and eating meat and vowed to content herself with fruit. Rightly have they said that an ignorant person does what an intelligent one does in the face of calamity but only when it is too late.
When the jackal saw that the lioness was eating the fruit on which he lived he was pained and said to her, “You neglect your own sustenance and have taken to eating the food of others, which has nothing to do with you. Plants are not enough for you. The trees, the fruit, and the persons whose sustenance they are will soon die now that their food has been usurped by a fierce foe and unassailable opponent. Signs of your tyranny used to be seen in the deaths of living things; today the results of your abstinence are apparent in nonliving things. In no case can the people of the world escape your cruelty regardless of whether you are fierce and vicious or pious and righteous.”
When the lioness heard this she stopped eating fruit and vowed to spend her days in acts of worship and thought to herself, “How long will I worry about air, earth, fire, and water? How long will I fret over winter, autumn, summer, and spring? The colors of camphor and musk of day and night have enfeebled you and dried your brains. Forget about this fool-seducing caravanserai and leave behind this man-eating station.”
This has been the story of an intrepid evildoer who subjected the people of the world to torment without thinking of the consequences until she was afflicted with the same fate and only then saw the right way, for the lioness did not cease to shed blood until she saw her two cubs skinned on the ground. When she had this experience she turned away from this deceptive world and said, “Anyone who puts his hopes in you makes a mockery of himself, for only someone as disagreeable as you would take you as his darling. I will sever my heart from you, for one of your eyes weeps while the other laughs.”
{146} Wise are they who understand what this means and make these experiences models for their minds and natures and base their works in religion and the world on them: do not do unto others what you would not like for yourself and your children so that the beginnings and ends of your actions may be remembered for good and you may be free of the censure of evildoing in this world and the next.
1. The Arabic proverb is applied to someone who is responsible for his own fate because he failed to secure the waterskin adequately and is drowning in a river crossing.