Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 103

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
drama represented in the picture," said my father.
my father. At once he said, "My son, will you be able to understand the meaning even if I explain to you?"I think you will", he said, "Once upon a time several men were traveling in company through a great forest filled with wild beasts. When they were in the midst of the forest they were attacked by a band of robbers, they all fled for their lives, running in different directions. This man whom you see suspended in the well was one of the parties. He was lost in the forest and could not find his way out. At this juncture, he suddenly saw a huge elephant chasing him. He knew that unless he found immediate shelter, he would be instantly killed. As he ran, he saw at a short distance, ahead of him, an open space in the forest and in this was a great well (some of our wells in India are 30 to 40 feet or more across). Judging his situation he knew that the only possible escape from instant death by the elephant was to take refuge in the well so he leaped in, but as he did so, he caught on to the branch of the tree which overhung the well, here he hung to the branch, with the honey dropping into his mouth. When the monk came by and offered to assist him to escape certain death that threatened him from all sides, he refused the assistance of the monk saying I am quite content now. The elephant cannot reach me, I shall not fall, I have a firm hold on this branch, and do you not see the honey dropping into my mouth? It is very sweet and I am quite happy. Leave me to enjoy this sweet honey in my own way. The monk showed the man the folly of holding on to a limb that two rats were gnawing apart, and the risk of the huge serpent at the bottom ready to swallow him, but the man persisted in remaining where he was, Safe from the great elephant. Saying it would take a long time for two small rats to gnaw off a trunk of a tree, that he was not alarmed at such small things; besides, he wished to enjoy the delicious honey. And this is the whole
I found this very interesting, but I was not satisfied, and I said to my father-"Surely there must be a meaning to this drama. Will you not tell me the meaning?" And he did when he saw my earnest desire to know. He said "The picture is symbolical. The great forest is the world. The man in the well is the ordinary worldly man. The well with its dangers is the life of that man, over which all men are suspended, who cares for nothing beyond the present life. The elephant after him is death. The great serpent at the bottom of the well is the lowest existence to which those go, who will not make an effort to escape and who waste their forces in a useless or evil life with no effort or desire to rise to a higher life-who live for the present life only. The four snakes in the walls of the well are the symbols of Anger, Vanity, Deceit and Greediness. The trunk of the tree represents the short duration of our earthly life. The two rats, black and white, represent time (our month is divided into the light half and the dark half) which exhausts our earthly duration. The bees in the honey-comb are the organs of senses--the honey drops represent the sensuous pleasures, and the monk represents the Truth-Religion
जानामि क्षणभंगुरं जगदिदं जानामि तुच्छ मुवं, जानामीद्रियवर्गमेनमखितं स्वार्थकनिष्ठं सदा । जानामि स्फुरिताचिरयुतिचल विस्फूर्जितं संपदां, नो जानामि तथापि कः पुनरसौ मोहस्य हेतुर्मम ॥
सूक्तमुक्तावलि पृ० २०३, श्लो० १७
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