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| Sunday, 9 October 2005 |
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Self discipline:
Stubborn prince and his lesson Sunday parable by Sunanda Mahendra 'Have you ever heard of a pupil, who wanted to punish a teacher?' asked the sage from his disciples. "No, we haven't heard such a story, master," said the disciples.
Skills to learn Any young prince who is groomed to be the future king had to master certain arts in all fields such as language and ethics. Lessons were not so easy and many princes stayed as residential students for a certain period of time memorising stanzas and practising skills a future king required. The young prince had also to gain an inner discipline acquired through meditation to be the future king. Sometimes it so happens that when the pupils show a lack of discipline the teacher would punish them with the hope of making them better pupils." The sage's disciples gave a keen ear to their master as they too happened to be descendants of noble families. For a moment the teacher kept silent. "So please tell us what happened?" asked one of the disciples. "The King of the country came to see the great teacher Disapamok with his son, the young prince had told the teacher that the son is somewhat stubborn and should be punished if he so desires to make him suitable to become a king". "I would like you to pay special attention to my son, because you know, he is somewhat stubborn," said the King entrusting his son to the teacher. Then he turned towards his son and said " Listen my son, you have to master all the royal arts to be my successor. So see that you obey your guru, who is also my great guru Disapamok. In this manner the king handed over the young prince together with the royal fee of gold coins in a casket. "What happened next is interesting as the teacher in keeping with the words of the King, paid more attention to the young prince. Disapamok used to take his daily bath during midday from a pond at the edge of a forest. He used to walk this distance in a pensive mood with his pupil, the young prince. Along the roadway to the pond, there lived a poor old woman, who used to lay a big mat in the bright sun in order to get her sesame seeds (tala ata) dried. Stubbornness When the sesame seeds are moderately dried she would mix them with honey and make tala bola or sesame balls. By selling them, she would get her meagre income from the nearby market place. She had to look after the sesame seeds to protect them from the birds, who would swoop down and eat the seeds. But to her surprise she saw the young prince while passing her compound behind the teacher, gulping down fistfuls of sesame seeds. In the first few instances she allowed thinking that the prince is hungry but the event reached a climax when he began to eat more and more. She called the prince to a side and told him: "Please don't eat my sesame seeds - I am a poor woman living on this". "But the prince did not pay any heed to what she said and went on eating the seeds more and more in a stubborn manner. One day she came to see the teacher Disapamok and reported the matter". "I am sorry to complain about this matter but please ask your prince pupil to be more self disciplined. At the end, I am going to be the loser and he will not help me to get rid of my poverty." The teacher summoned the pupil and made enquiries as to why he is up to this mischief and advised him to refrain from the bad habit. The stubborn prince who listened listlessly continued to do the same the following day. "I am a royal prince and one day I am going to be the king of the country. Then I am going to punish all of you, "said the prince to the old woman in the absence of his teacher. This was reported by the old woman to the teacher Disapamok who had a shock of his life. "I have been asked by his father, the King of the country to punish him if necessary, so I am going to punish him for the first time," thought the teacher taking a cane into his hand. "Stretch your palm properly," said the teacher caning him twice severely. "This is just to make you remember that you deserve a minor punishment," said the teacher leaving his pupil to attend to some other work. But the pupil was stubborn and disregarded the words of the teacher. The pupil was frustrated and did not eat or work in the usual manner expected from a residential student. "I am leaving this place and I don't want to master any skills needed for a king," he had told some of his colleagues who in turn had reported it to the teacher. "Leave him alone, if he wants to, let him go home, and if he wants to stay and continue his studies, let him do so", said the teacher disregarding the behaviour of the prince. Then one day the prince left the seat of learning without informing anybody. The throne The King of the country who was his father was dismayed and worried and was ailing for sometime. "My son who is going to be my successor is not a scholar. What am I to do now?" The king heaved a sigh of agony and died. The stubborn young prince ascended the throne and became the King of the country in keeping with the age old tradition of kingship. "Ask that teacher called Disapamok to see me immediately," ordered the new young king recollecting how he was punished by him. The king's men went to see the teacher. But the teacher said, "He may be the new king of the country, but he is not a scholar suited to become the real king. If he wants to see me ask him to come and see me here, I have never cultivated the habit of seeing a king in the palace and I am his father's teacher as well". When they brought over the message of the teacher, the new king was angry and he wanted to see the ageing teacher to punish him as a retribution and tit for tat. When the new king saw the teacher the former stood still holding a rod in his hand. "What brought you here?" asked the teacher Disapamok solemnly". I have come to punish you". "For what fault, may I know?" "For punishing me sometime ago and putting me to shame before others". The teacher cast a smile and said as the others watched what was going to happen. "What sort of a king is this? Look at this man who calls himself a king". Then the teacher looked at the new king and said "you fool of a king, you had better ask yourself just one question before punishing your father's teacher. Will I ever be suitable to be a king, had I not been punished for an offence?" The new king realised the truth. He dropped down the rod he held in his hand saying. "Please forgive me and teach me from where I stopped last". |
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"Well, it happened a long time ago in ancient India and the pupil
happened to be a very young prince, the only son of the king. The king
wanted to see his own son being taught under the teacher his own teacher, a
great scholar. So this king wanted his son to learn all the required lessons
from the great teacher to become the future king of the country. 
