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A Jain's Parable
by K.V. Mardia
विषाद
aka manafaatanany
Jainism is a full of illustrative parables to depict its ideas. The story of the six blind men and the elephant as used for Anekantvada, is well-known. (For a discussion with picture, see Mardia, 1990, The Scientific Foundations of Jainism, Motilal Banarsidass, pg. 81). We give here another example which succinctly describes the delusive state of man.
Once upon a time there was a man who was traveling with a party from place to place when they happened to pass through a thick forest full of wild beasts and robbers. In the middle of the forest, they were attacked by a band of these robbers. The party fled for their lives in all directions; the man became separated from the group and lost his way. When he looked back to see where he was, he saw a made elephant running furiously towards him. He realized that if he did not find shelter, he would be killed instantly by the elephant. Noticing a well, he thought: "this elephant is sure to kill me, but I may perhaps save myself by jumping into this well." Se he jumped into the well, grasping hold of one of the branches of a banian tree
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which overhung the well.
At the bottom of the well, the man saw a huge cobra ready to swallow him should he fall; at the bottom, on the four sides of the well, he could see four more snakes hissing at him. Two rats, one white and one black, were eating away at the branch of the banian tree which supported him. At the tope of this branch there was a honey-comb with a swarm of bees. The elephant stood on the brink of the well, and as it tried to catch the man with its mighty truck, it moved the branch to and fro causing some drops of honey to fall on the man's lips. At that moment, a monk happened to arrive onthe opposite side of the well to the elephant and offered to help rescue the man from the well. However, the fellow seemed to be quite satisfied with his lot whilst he had the sweet taste of honey on his lips. He did not realize that the branch of the tree would be eaten away by the rats and then he would have no support at all or the whole tree would be uprooted by the elephant and he would fall down to be swallowed by the cobra.
This whole drama is symbolic of the moral state of man. The man in the well in the forest is the ordinary worldly man. The made elephant that ran after him is death; the well is this earthly life; the cobra is the symbol of the lowest state of existence (Hell). The four snakes are the symbols of Anger, Pride, Deceit and Greed (the four main Passions). The branch of the banian tree represents the short duration of our earthly life. The two rats, white and black, represent time, day and night which exhaust our earthly span. The bees in the honey-comb are organs of the sense and the honey-drops represent sensuous pleasures. The monk represents the True religion. So the whole drama comes down to this: the common man of the world, ignoring that his life may be cut off at any time by death, satisfies himself by enjoying sensuous pleasures and does not care about realiz
ing the truths offered by true philosophy; he is being influenced by Anger, Pride Deceit, and Greed as represented by the four snakes.
The pictures illustrating this parable are common, but reproduced here is a picture of a painting of Virchand R. Gandhi who presented it to M.D. Conway in London and which has appeared in Conway's book "To the Wise Men of the East," A. Constable & Co.London, 1906. The picture has a stanza by Hemchandra (I could not find the source).
"Sukham vishaya sevaya matya alpam sarshapadapi,
Dukham tu dehinah prajyam madhu bindhadi pumsvath." It translates loosely as follows:
"Like a man hanging by a branch of a tree who is happy with the sensuous pleasure of a small drop of honey while ignoring all the negatives surrounding him."
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7TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION JULY 1993
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