adversity bringing together all sorts of people,

my take on adversity bringing together all sorts of people,,,

There is a story in Panchatantram..
a cat and rat are acquaintances..

And are natural enemies too 

and the latter  is the natural dinner and suuper for the former..

But the story tells that when the cat is trapped in the net of a hunter, the rat saves him..
but waiting till the hunter was just about to reach so that the cat would run away instead of waiting to try to enjoy his food..

This story has many dimensions..

When a fellow living being was facing threat to his life, the arch enemy just comes to his rescue, and even saves him, but the enemy know that such gesture of kindness and altruism is not going to save his own neck.

Mahabharatham in the Ghoshayatra episode makes the eldest Pandava say the the Pandavs and Kauravas are bitter enemies but when their common clan is attacked, they are hundred and five
..
It is all sense of self preservation..

 but we have to admit that there is a small percentage of people who grow really beyond selfishness .. 

maybe the God in them just wakes up..

Gita says, whenever adharmam raises its head, and dharmam is obliterated He just manifests Himself.. 

We interpret that the God incarnates Himself when evil takes over and brings about the balancing act..

Here adharmam can a different dimension too..

 it is the disastrous tilt in the natural and happy balance of the conditions of existence.. 

Dharmam then is the order in the society.. 

When that order receives a hard blow, if we are to survive, God has to come.. 

but that God need not be some prince or cowherd or a carpenter.. 

He may be personification the collective goodness inherent in ourselves.. which comes out , does its duty, and becomes dormant once the purpose is served..

Man is a mixture of good and bad..

In physics and thermodynamics we have learnt about the Kinetic theory of gases..

Even though we find order and apparent quietness in fluid mass especially, the particles therein are moving in random directions at some velocity, and each particle collides with one another and neutralizes the speed to reach a sort of equilibrium which is dynamic.. 

The pressure, Volume and temperature. just affect the matter to bring about the equilibrium.. 

Pressure multiplied by volume and the product divided by the temperature in Kelvin scale gives a constant value, although the three Individual parameters are always varying.. 

The sum and substance of the theory is that when one of the three variables, pressure, volume and temperature undergoes a variation, the other two individually or in combination act to nullify the variation and to bring about the dynamic equilibrium..

We can perhaps understand things better if the behaviour of cetain systems which can be understood through observation, can be projected to even abstract phenomena..

Even the proximity to great wealth makes one absolutely powerful

Even the proximity to great wealth makes one absolutely powerful

Another episode from Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantram.

There was a shrine of Lord Shiva in the city of Mahliaropya. A mendicant by name Tamrachuda was residing near the temple performing the daily worship of the Lord. Every day, he would go round the town begging alms, as it was his duty as a sannyasin, and in the evening he would eat whatever was necessary for him from his alms-bowl and would place the balance of food in the bowl tying it on a peg just out of reach of rodents and pests. This food was meant for his servants. 

The rats who were residing in the temple were watching this. They thought that the balance of the food available after the mendicant's meal was rightfully theirs especially when they were languishing for food and starving almost to death. They approached their leader, Hiranyaka the wise rat, and said.. " Sir, you know we are all roaming around aimlessly in constant fear in search of some food. But the mendicant at the temple is getting a lot of food daily and after eating to his heart's content, he is tying his bowl with a lot of food left, on a tall peg out of our reach. You are our leader and a very wise person. If you can help us, we can get hold of that food and we all can eat well. " 

Hearing this, Hiranyaka with his followers rushed to the temple. Being bigger and more acrobatic, he jumped up and reached the contents of the alms-bowl, snatched all the food and divided it amongst his followers. He also ate good food that day.. Then onwards, this became the daily routine and the rats were all happy. The mendicant tried his level best to prevent the rats from stealing his food but all such attempts proved futile. 

Then he found a novel method. He procured a sturdy stick and periodically he would hit the bowl, even during his sleep, and the terrible noise would keep the rats at bay. 

The repeated beating of the bowl this became almost the second nature of the mendicant, and he never failed to do it whatever else his occupation was. The routine became something like this. The rat comes stealthily for food, approaches the bowl, and then the stick hits the bowl with a thud, and the rodent flees in fright.. 

But Hiranayaka was persistent. He would come back again and again. The enterprising Hirnyaka was managing to thwart the designs of Tamrachuda and steal his food.

One day another mendicant with a longer beard and clad in more colourful robes came as a guest to our poor stick-rattling Tamrachuda. Brihalspik was the name of the guest. The guest was received with due respects was and provided food and bed of grass. The host and the guest were in animated conversation about temporal and spiritual matters. Even though the guest was telling many great stories, the host was distracted and at short intervals he was going and hitting his begging bowl with a stick. 

Brihalspik, the guest, got annoyed. " You Tamrachuda, I understand everything now. You think that I am not your friend any longer. You are not talking with interest to me. I would like to leave this place immediately. One should go to the houses of hosts who are ready to receive you with pleasure. If the host is looking sideways and fidgeting and keeps down his face at the sight of a guest, it is evident that the guest is unwelcome. You are beating your alms bowl in addition. To visit such a host is even more shameful that a vagrant bull entering an unguarded field. You are rich and you have a temple in your occupation and so you are arrogant and you are treating me thus. You are not realizing the fact that by holding on to this abode you have already ensured a permanent place in hell. If one wants to get a permanent Visa to hell one can select between two professions.. Be a priest for one year or be the head of a matam or monastery for three days. Both are sure paths to hell. You miserable fool, I am leaving just now."

The host Tamrachuda was filled with remorse. He replied. " My Lord and friend, I never meant any disrespect for you. There is no better friend for me than you. But a wily rat here had made me half mad. He is stealing my food even if I keep my alms bowl pegged to any tall hooks. This wily rat could jump heights which would be a dream for a cat or even a monkey. It is in mortal fear of this rodent that I am hanging my bowl on a tall peg and beating it with a long stick all the time to scare him away . I do that even when I am asleep. It has become an obsession with me."

The guest Brihalspik was very wise. He asked. " Can you show me the hole where the rat resides?"

They found out the hole. Brihaspik said. "There must be some huge treasure lying underneath this hole. The inhabitants of the hole gets radiations from that wealth and becomes bold, and performs heroic acts" . 

The two mendicants, with the help of the servants dug up and razed the hole. The wily rat Hiranyaka fled the fortress and true to the prediction of Brihalspik, they could discover a huge treasure of gold and precious stones hidden underneath.

From that day the begging bowl and the contents were very safe for the mendicant.

The moral of the story is, “Even the proximity to great wealth makes one absolutely powerful”.

Strife has become second nature to all

अत्तुं वाञ्छति शांभवो गणपतेराखुम् क्षुदार्तो फणी
तम् च क्रौञ्चरिपोः शिखी गिरिसुतासिंहोऽपि नागाऽशनं।
इत्थं यत्र परिग्रहस्य घटना शंभोरपि स्यत्गृहे
तत्रान्यत्र कथं न भाविजगतो यस्मात्स्वरूपं हि तत्॥१८०॥
विष्णुशर्मणः पञ्चतन्त्रात्
attuṁ vāñchati śāṁbhavo gaṇapaterākhum kṣudārto phaṇī
tam ca krauñcaripoḥ śikhī girisutāsiṁho'pi nāgā'śanaṁ|
itthaṁ yatra parigrahasya ghaṭanā śaṁbhorapi syatgṛhe
tatrānyatra kathaṁ na bhāvijagato yasmātsvarūpaṁ hi tat||180||
viṣṇuśarmaṇaḥ pañcatantrāt

The situation of cold war as perceived in the house of Lord Shiva is described vividly in the Panchatantram of Visnusharma.

The snake tied around the neck of Lord Shiva is very hungry and it is eyeing for the rat the mount of Shivas first son Ganapati for a quick breakfast.  
The snake is under strong reckoning  for the planned dinner of the Peacock which is the chariot of Shivas second son Subramania.  

The lion  available in the abode of Shiva as the  mount of the First Lady Devi Gauri has already reserved in mind the flesh of the peacock for its supper.  

Thus even in the first family of the world there is supreme strife among the servants and this has inevitably led to friction among the masters.  

So what else can we expect in the ordinary households of the earth which are all designed and managed keeping the Kailash as the role model.

When each member of the household employ staff or vehicles which are not compatible to the taste of others it is absolute bedlam in a joint family.  

Usually the cold war never manifests openly but it is only a truce on the surface.  

The snake of Shiva, the rat of Ganesh the peacock of Kumarji and Maataajis lion all survive only because the masters do not want to come out openly an hit out at one another. 


The funny situation is  painfully manifest in all its vividness  in all the walks of life.  

Take the case of secretaries of various executives in a big corporation or a Government office.  
Or take the  case of the followers of political parties who join in opportunistic alliance to share power.
Strife has become second nature to all.

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