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| Sunday, 3 April 2005 |
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Sunday parable by Sunanda Mahendra The squirrel grove "We have found that it is extremely difficult to manage the royal fruit park with the squirrels, who come in flocks to eat the mangoes," complained the fruit gatherers, who came to see the King. "But I have come to know that squirrels are innocent creatures, aren't they?" asked the King from the fruit gatherers.
"What about the monkeys?" asked the King. "They are also naughty, but they are not so problematic like the squirrels." "This is very strange. Lord Buddha was born as a squirrel in one of his previous births. When the little son, of the mother squirrel was dropped into the sea, she and the father squirrel were trying to draw water from the sea in order, to get the child out. Having seen this futile but energetic act, the God of Gods, Sakra appeared and helped the mother and father with his power. This legend, I learned from my Guru who also taught me about the polite mannerisms of squirrels," said the King. "That may be true from the legendary point of view. You should see what they do and get what we say". "So make arrangements, for me to go to the royal fruit grove." The King's men were busy making arrangements. The King was a happy go lucky young person. He wanted to make it a leisure day out with his Queen consorts in grand merriment. The King's men, knew how 'happy' he was, when he became intoxicated and how he would sing and dance with his young consorts. Then he would sleep soundly. He also liked to see how others sang and danced before him. He spent a lot of money on merry making. "The young King is quite a different person," the common folk would say when they hear about the merriment on the part of the King. "One fine day, enemies would detect his error of judgement, due to the King's over merriment and conquer our country and bring disaster," they discussed among themselves "But," said one elder, "One fine day he will mature and give up all his merriment and realise the futility of life, through his own experience." "We doubt that," said the common folk. The day dawned when the young King and his retinue of merrymakers walked into the royal grove where a number of squirrel families lived. He walked slowly and found a shady place to rest himself. The squirrels knew that the King of the country, had arrived on an observation tour of his mango grove. One of the chief attendants, to the King brought a large ripe mango and offered it to the King. Having eaten a piece, the King said, "Oh this is delicious, I want more." The King was offered, more and more mangoes to the extent that he thought that he had eaten more than he should. Then he drank a lot of royal intoxicants, specially brewed out of fruit. The young consorts also drank the same intoxicant. The King got tipsy and began to sing and wanted his consorts to dance to the rhythm. Gradually he felt drowsy and wanted to sleep. "Do you want us to prepare a special bed to sleep?" asked the attendants. "No I prefer to sleep on that slab of stone," said the King showing a flat bed like place. The attendants wanted to stay guarded around the King. "You better keep away from me, I want to be alone." Knowing that the King was fast asleep, the guards too began drinking the remaining portion of the royal liquor. They also fell asleep and were scattered in various places. The leader of the squirrels, was watching all this from a tree top in the grove. He felt the King, was fast asleep. The smell of liquor, that emanated intermixed with the sound of snoring, attracted the attention of a poisonous snake who was creeping towards the King. Nobody but the squirrel King saw the gliding movement of the snake "In a few moments", thought the squirrel King, "this poisonous snake will definitely bite the King, and there will be disaster." The squirrel leader, did not want to disturb anybody as he was very wise. He slowly came down without any difficulty to the spot where the King was fast asleep. "All the King's men and the female retinue too were fast asleep. If I make a noise the King will get up and find fault with me. As such, I must not do that, instead, I must slowly get nearer to the King's mouth and twitch his lips with my bushy tail." As the poisonous snake, was approaching nearer and nearer, the squirrel leader got closer as fast as he could and twitched the King's lips and stood still as if trying to apologise. The King got up from his deep sleep in a frenzy to find a poisonous snake gliding off and a glamorous squirrel looking at him. As the young King who was a merrymaker was nevertheless a wise person he knew what had happened. The King stood up and said, "This squirrel is a wonderful creature". "Why do you say so, our great King?" asked the attendants, as soon as they got up, on hearing the voice of the King. "A poisonous snake was about to bite me, when this squirrel woke me up with his bushy tail touching my lips, these little creatures are wonderful they should be allowed to live on their own. They never bring any disaster to anybody." The squirrel leader, heard this declaration and summoned all his members. The King of the country was happy to see them all gathered in the royal park "From today, I want this grove to be named after these little creatures." It happened in the manner as declared by the young King. The royal mango grove became the Squirrel Grove (kalandaka nivape) from that day. This happened during the time of the Buddha. The term kalandaka means squirrel and nivape means grove. |
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"They are innocent, no doubt but they go on eating mangoes and other
fruits. It's difficult to pluck good fruits from the trees and take them to
the royal palace." 
