ACTION WITHOUT DUE CONSIDERATION
This is the beginning of the fifth tantra
called, "Action without due consideration". And here is the first
verse:
"No wise man should follow the
barber's example,
Pursuing what he has neither accurately
observed,
Nor properly understood:
Neither correctly heard,
Nor sufficiently considered."
This is how the story goes:
In the south of India, there was a town
called Patliputra. A merchant, by the name of Manibhadra, lived there. He was
given to performing charitable deeds, for the sake of religion, for the love of
others, and for the salvation of his soul. But fate was hostile and he lost his
entire fortune. As a result, the man's respect and reputation gradually
diminished everywhere. He grew utterly dejected.
One night, as he lay in bed, he thought to
himself, "Oh, to hell with this poverty! It's so true what they say:
'A man may be of good character,
Compassionate and pure,
Sweet tempered and born of a noble family,
But once be has lost his money,
He is no longer widely esteemed.'
And,
'The breeze in spring,
Gradually diminishes the splendour of
winter,
And the daily cares of maintaining a
family,
Diminish a wise man.'
And,
'A poor man's house
Is like the sky without stars
Or a lake without water
Impressive, but lifeless as a burial
ground.'
'Poverty stricken people
Stand out in their wretchedness
And yet no one pays them
Any more attention
Than bubbles of water
That form and disappear.'
And,
'A poor man may be wise, upright
And of genteel birth
But everyone shuns him,
Whilst a rich man, although stupid, immoral
And low born,
Is, for ulterior motives, overwhelmed with
attention.'
And also,
'The sea roars
And everyone trembles,
The rich flaunt themselves
And are respected by all.'
Thinking all this over, Manibhadra came to a
decision.
"What is the good of leading such a
useless life?" he said. "I shall fast and starve myself to
death."
Then, he dropped off to sleep. He dreamt
that a Jain monk appeared to him and said, "Merchant, don't worry' I am
Padmanidhi, accumulated by your forefathers through hard work. Tomorrow
morning, I shall come to your house in this very form. Strike me on the head
with a stick and I shall turn into gold. You will have so much gold that the
supply will never be exhausted.'
Early next morning, when the merchant got
up, his head was spinning. 'The memory of the previous night's dream haunted
him. He thought to himself, "I wonder whether this dream will come true or
not. Very likely it won't. I had this dream because my thoughts were
preoccupied with money. It's true what they say:
'The dreams of a sick man
Or a man overcome with grief or worry,
Desire or madness,
Prophesy nothing.' "
Now, the merchant's wife had called in a
barber, to anoint her sore feet and to paint them with Mendi. Just after his
arrival, a Jain monk appeared on the scene. He was the image of the one the
merchant had seen in his dream. When the merchant saw him, he was delighted and
immediately struck him on the head with a stick that happened to be handy. The
monk fell to the ground and turned into a pile of gold!
The merchant picked up the gold and quietly
hid it in a secluded room of the house. He made the barber happy by giving him
money and clothes, saying to him, "Never tell anybody what you have
seen."
When the barber got home, he thought to
himself, "Well, if all these Jain monks turn to gold when you hit them on the
head, I'll invite a few of them to my house." And he spent a very
disturbed night, thinking about it.
Next morning, he got up and went over to the
Jain Vihara. Three times he went round the idol of Jinendra. 'Then he knelt on
the ground, and holding his upper garment before his mouth, in the tradition of
the Jains, recited the following verse:
"Long live the Jain saints,
For they devote themselves solely
To the pursuit of wisdom.
Lust and desire can no more take root in
their minds,
Than green shoots can sprout in the desert.
Blessed is the tongue that praises Mahavira
And blessed are the hands that minister to
him."
When
he had finished, the barber went over to the chief monk, knelt on the ground
with his hands folded, and said, "Muni, I bow before you."
In return, the monk blessed him and passed
on to him some precepts of the Jain religion. The barber then said very humbly
to the chief' monk, "Muni, I implore you, when you go out for alms today,
please come and dine at my house and bring the other monks with you."
"My good devotee!" said the monk.
"You are obviously a very religious man, so how can you talk like that? Do
you think that we Jains are like Brahmins, that you've come to invite us to
your home to eat! Don't you know that when we go out collecting alms everyday,
we accept food from the first devotee we come across and then only eat just
enough to keep ourselves alive? So, go away and don't talk like that
again."
"But, Muni," said the barber,
"I know your religion quite well and I also know that you do accept
invitations from devotees. Now, I have collected a number of exquisite pieces
of cloth, which would be beautiful to wrap round your holy books. I have also
saved a lot of money to give to the scribes who copy them. But please, don't
let this influence you, do as you think best."
Then the barber asked for the chief monk's
blessings and went home.
When
he got there, he put a stick, made of Khadira wood, behind the door, in
readiness. Then at lunch time, he went back to the Vihara and waited outside.
When the monks came out, he begged them to
accompany him to his house to conduct prayers. Coveting the cloth and the
money, the monks agreed and went with the barber. As they say:
"Isn't it amazing!
Even a recluse
Who has given up his home,
Discarded his utensils,
And now eats and drinks with his bare
hands,
Is a prey to greed."
And,
"An old man's hair turn white,
His
teeth grow loose
And his eyes and ears cease to function
properly,
But
his desires remain eternally young."
As
soon as the monks entered the barber's house, he locked the doors firmly from
inside and began to beat them on their heads, with the stick. Some fell down
dead, some had their heads smashed in, whilst, the others began to scream for
help.
When the chief watchman of the town heard
their cries, he ordered his men to go and find out what all this noise was
about, right in the center of the town. The watchmen went to look and they saw
the monks rushing out of the barber's house with blood streaming from them.
"Whatever has happened?" they
asked the monks. And the monks told them all that the barber had done. The
watchmen arrested the barber and took him to the court of law, and the monks as
well.
At court, the judges said to the barber,
"Why did you commit this wicked crime?"
"It wasn't my fault" he said.
"I saw the merchant do it. And I thought, I too would try." And he
told them all that he had seen at Manibhadra's house.
Then the judges ordered the merchant to
appear before them and they asked him, "Have you been killing any Jain
monks?"
The merchant told them in detail all about
the monk in his dream.
Then the judges said, "Let this wicked
barber, who blindly imitated the merchant, be put to death." And the
barber was hanged.
Then the judges said,
"No wise man should follow the
barber's example,
Pursuing what he has neither accurately
observed,
Nor properly understood,
Neither correctly heard
Nor sufficiently considered.;"
And,
He who acts without due consideration,
Will afterwards repent,
As the Brahmin's wife repented
The
death of the mongoose."
"How
was that?" asked the merchant.
And the judges told
The Story Of The Brahmin's
Wife And The Mungoose