A leader had four sons and a
daughter. He had toiled hard with a lot of his fellowmen to bring freedom
to his country from marauding foreign forces. When his sons had grown up,
he thought that it would be best if they could go out in the world and look around to learn how best they can
look after the nation that he would leave for them and also take care of his lovely daughter who represented the core essence of the
nation’s Dharmic legacy- endowed as she was with a composite of compassion,
altruism, self-sacrifice, benevolence, maître (friendship) and moral
integrity
So he sent his four sons far away
to a great forest to learn according to their innate talent. In the forest
there stood a little cottage, in which there lived an old man. He called
them in and asked them to serve him for a good number of years and in
return he would teach them according to their ability. They stayed with him
for more than sixty-seven years. He taught the eldest son carpentry, so
that he became a decent carpenter in the land. He taught him how to make lovely
furniture out of the forest wood that was in abundance. The disciple was
good at learning carpentry. He needed wood and therefore decided to seek
the help of the poor people in the forest to cut trees and provide wood for
him. In turn he said he would pay them the wages needed for their daily
living. But even though he knew that good carpentry was God’s will, his
execution was far from perfect. Every time he rolled up his sleeves and
picked up the axe to cut and shape the wood, he failed to execute it to
perfection. Even though he gave wages to the poor people for the wood they
provided, many did not receive it in time, many others failed to receive it
and those who got it felt that that was barely adequate to keep them off
hunger. So his efforts, though well intentioned did not satisfy the vast majority
of poor people in his land. He was roundly criticized by the other three brothers
for learning the tricks of a trade that was of very little value. He also
failed miserably when he tried to thrust and
parry with his critics and fault
finders.
The second son took to rifle
shooting and became such a skilled rifleman that no one could compare with
him in shooting. He used his rifle not only to protect his family but to
destroy all those whom he thought were inimical to him. Rifle skill gave
him such enormous power that he almost came to believe that he was a born
leader of his people. He moved and roared like a lion and riled at all his three
brothers for what he thought was their incompetence, falsity and Machiavellian expediency.
He was a harsh critic and used the most offensive barbs against all
his brothers and their supporters. He strode like a colossus and talked in
an undulating voice that resonated well with gullible audience. He had
anointed himself even before his father had taken a decision on who should
be the leader.
The third became a soothsayer, so
that he could say whatever had happened and whatever was happening in
faraway places. He did not learn crystal gazing to see into the future, but
he made a perfect art of looking at the past and seeing only crookedness
and corruption everywhere–especially in all his brothers and their men and
women. He warned everyone to beware of such evil people. He accused his three
brothers for their misdeeds of corruption and cheating people with bad
carpentry, for claiming self anointed leadership and for rank bad
opportunism-the last mentioned dart was aimed at the fourth brother for his
clever manipulation to trick the other three and buy all their supporters. This
last son had no specific learning to redeem himself but he had learnt to play both ends against the middle
that is, to set the three opposing brothers and their clans against each
other to his personal advantage. He was adept in stealing supporters from all the three
brothers to outwit them. The only problem for him was he had to contend
with a lot of competition within his own clan.
Thus they approached their father
and each one of them believed that he had mastered the required art and
skill to serve his land. They told him of all that they had learned but the
father did not believe what they said, until they had been tested. So he
asked them to go into the woods and fell trees. When they had felled a
large tree, the father said, "How are we going to get it home
now?" But the eldest son knew how, for as soon as he had struck the
tree with his axe, he could shape a nice wagon in which all the people in
the forest can move, transport their goods and products, market them in the
city and return to their forest habitat to live a good life. This was too
utopian an ideal that could never be approximated to real life. But when
the father asked whether the people had sufficient goods and products to
transport for sale and whether they needed a wagon at all, the son could
not answer. He questioned him further: “What is the use in giving them a
wagon that would result in the atrophy of their limbs? Your skill in
carpentry cannot provide better living for the poor, but only stifle their
aspirations by making them content with meager earnings through tree
cutting for the rest of their lives.”
Then the father
turned to the soothsayer: "Can you tell me how many eggs there are in
that crow's nest up in yonder tree?" "One!" he answered, which
the father knew was wrong as he had seen four when he had looked earlier. The son told
him that three were rotten eggs and therefore he could find only one in the
nest. Then he turned to the fourth son: "If you can take all the eggs out
of the nest without the bird's noticing it, then I will consider you to be
the foremost leader!" With that the son crept up, and took away the
eggs so deftly that the bird did not notice it. He said that all the four
belonged to him as he had taken away the share of all the others as well. And
at that moment when he held the eggs between two fingers, the rifleman shot
it from his hand, so that the eggs fell and broke to pieces. The father was
convinced that all four had learnt their trade skills though he could not
think of trusting any of them with the nation and his daughter with her
spiritual legacy.
He thought of a plan
to discover who among the four can be the leader to guide and govern all
the different sects of people who were growing restless and dispirited in
the absence of good governance. He was aware that the vast nation had a
huge population of diverse beliefs and culture. There were people with
different capabilities, speaking different languages, following different
traditions and culture and having different outlook and behaviour. Since
there was internecine quarrel among all these people in order to get the
largest chunk of the nation’s resources, he had to choose a capable,
non-partisan, compassionate, wise and incorruptible person from among the
four sons who could lead the nation and preserve the spiritual legacy that
rested with the daughter.
He hit upon a plan
that he kept to himself. One fine day he announced that his dharmic daughter
had disappeared. No one knew where she was, and the whole nation sorrowed
over this. The old man promised to make him the leader who could bring her
back again.
The four brothers
went out to find the daughter, the quintessence of Dharma. The soothsayer
became aware of her being far away where an evil and corrupt dragon held
her prisoner in a magnificent castle, which was guarded by ferocious
beasts. He claimed that he was the only incorruptible person who could
bring her back as all the others had in some way compromised with the corrupt
dragon. Nevertheless all four kept up their search for many days. They came
at last to a castle in the midst of a lake. But there was neither ship nor
boat to be had, and they didn't know what to do. The carpenter asked the
people to fetch him wood and as soon as he had it he shaped it into the
finest bridge anyone could wish to see. The soothsayer then gave the master
stealer the advice about how to steal the princess from the evil dragon's
power, and accordingly the last son set out alone over the bridge, while
his brothers remained behind.
After a time he came
to the castle gate. Before it there stood four ferocious lions, but since
he knew the art of making people fight, he threw a lamb between the lions.
They all rushed forward to seize it, and since they all wanted it, they
fell into a brawl over it and killed each other. Next he went into the
courtyard, but before the castle door there stood four huge bears. Once
again he threw the lamb between them, and since all four wanted it, they
fell into a brawl, and killed each other, and he entered the castle.
He went through many
beautiful rooms, but before the door of the room where the daughter was imprisoned,
stood four dragon whelps. He took out a violin and played a song, and the
more he played, the sleepier the dragon-whelps became, so that at last they
fell asleep. When he strode into her room, she was sitting and untangling
the hair of the old dragon with a golden comb. He had laid his head in her
lap, and had fallen asleep because of the music. The master thief quickly
took her by the hand and led her out, so that at last they reached his
three brothers, who were standing out there. They hurried away, and after a
while were far away from the troll's castle.
But as they were
traveling along, they quarreled with each other as to who should be given
credit for the retrieval of the daughter. The carpenter son said that
without the bridge he had erected, the others could not have gone into the
castle. The rifleman contemptuously dismissed his claims saying it was his
rifle that was pointed at the dragon which helped them to escape. The
soothsayer said he was the first one to identify the corrupt dragon and hence
he had the superior claim over the other three brothers. The fourth one
said he had the best claim as he had gone in, tricked the lions, the whelps
and the dragon and got the girl out. As they were quarrelling, they failed
to notice the Dragon flying after them.
They realized that
squabbling with each other cannot save them. The carpenter sawed the bridge
and it collapsed. The soothsayer realized the inanity of calling all his
talented brothers corrupt and priding himself on incorruptibility; he knew not
how to ward off the dragon. All of them decided to join hands, throw a protective
ring round the daughter from falling into the dragon’s hands. The rifleman shot
the dragon dead.
They returned with
the girl who even in captivity had held firm to the legacy bestowed on her.
The old father looked at all five of them and said that none of them singly
could have saved the girl from the dragon but working in unison, they were
able to restore her. “It is a five finger exercise” he said and concluded
that “the middle finger –the epitome of freedom has to be fended by the exercise
of all the other four fingers. Each of the fingers has a special ability
and harnessing all of them is essential to safeguard our nation’s legacy. Days
prior to our getting independence, we failed to exercise our fingers in
unison. If the nation has to survive and its spiritual heritage to be preserved
and honoured, there has to be freedom for the four fingers to act singly
and together. I bestow the legacy of the nation and its dharma on all four
of you. The greatness of freedom lies in the freedom given to everyone of
you to realize his/her capability potential and in the freedom to work
together in unison for preserving the glory that is our nation. Otherwise
we will end up once again as a slave nation
very much like the story of Everybody,
Anybody, Somebody and Nobody .He narrated
the story:
This is a little story about four people named Everybody,
Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure
that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody
realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did
what Anybody could have done.
Is this a utopian
ideal for India today or is this the principle of democracy that cannot be
realized by our squabbling countrymen and women? Time will tell.
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