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Sunday Parable by Sunanda Mahendra

A certain farmer owned a five- acre land, which he wanted to cultivate utilising his horse. But the horse was so lazy and abstinate that the farmer was disgusted. The farmer used kind words and requested the horse to help him, but the horse was so lazy that he did not pay any heed' to the farmer.

He fed the horse well and looked after it as one of his children. But the fact that the horse was so stubborn was a factor that he could not understand. At last thinking that kindness is not paying him any good results, he thought of a plan to make use of force on the horse.

He thought of harnessing the horse to a plough, and set it off to a field, which had been long neglected. Still the horse did not draw the plough. The farmer was so angry that he flogged the horse.

Time to train

The horse too was angry that he pushed his hind leg so fast that the hoofs struck the farmer, and the farmer was instantly dropped down to the ground, with severe injuries. The farmer did not live long to till the land and he died out of pain.

"Get away from this place you wretched beast. We don't want you anymore. We curse you." said the wife of the farmer who came to know what had really happened.

The horse was compelled to leave the place as the wife was angry and did not treat him in the manner she used to do in the past. Throughout summer, things went well with the horse, but as winter drew the horse was hungry. As the snow fell, there was hardly a place for the horse to stay. So he roamed about finding a proper place.

Escape

The horse went farther and farther to find food and shelter and he was at the mercy of the other animals. The horse ran away to escape from the wolves that wanted to make a prey out of him. The horse went in search of food, but the food had been eaten by wild horses and nothing was left for him and he was so hungry and tired.

He grew thinner and thinner day-by-day. Whereever he went he found himself miserable. When he went to a meadow to eat grass the grassland disappeared and when he went to a pool to drink some water the water suddenly disappeared.

"Somebody is teasing me and tiring me.", the horse thought.

Everything looked like a great mirage and then in the end he went to a great farm- house quite different from the farm-house where he used to stay. In fact, it looked like a jewel studded, well-lit palace with people going to and fro.

The horse thought that he should at least serve these people and get some food.

"No matter how hard the task maybe, I should serve them in the best possible manner," thought the horse.

He stayed there thinking that some one will usher him in and get him a job. But he went on waiting in vain for nobody cared for him.

It looked as if all these men and women in the house were preparing for some forthcoming event. Some of them were praying and some of them were talking to each other. The horse felt a bitter chill with the winter wind that blew towards the big farmhouse. The horse neighed in a suffering tone.

The question

As darkness gathered a certain sage-like person came slowly out of the house. The horse knew that he cannot be a simple person. He asked the horse a question: "Are you not the horse that killed a good man who looked after you and fed you?" The horse felt sad. The sage went on asking one more question.

"What business have you got to do here?" then he said.

"I will admit you to my stable only on the day when those who cursed you in turn be blessed by themselves. So you get that blessing and return." In response the horse neighed.

Pleading

"Go on," said the sage.

"I did not kill him sir, for he got killed as he flogged me, and I had to get rid of my pains by striking him and I had no way out of it," said the horse in a sad tone, "the farmer told me all about it and got the pardon from me," said the sage.

"I am so hungry, please give me some food, and I am so thirsty, please give me some water to drink."

"I told you what you should do now. Get yourself pardoned and be blessed by those who cursed you. Go back" The horse ran and ran as fast as possible to his known place, the five-acre farm-house. But the widow and the children, who saw the horse brought some clubs to hit him and drive him away.

"You stupid, ungrateful horse get away!" They cried loudly. The widow said, "You killed my man, and now you want to come like a saint and live with us. Get away from our sight."

Recollection

The widow recollected all what had happened in the past. The horse ran back to the forest, where the wolves were growling about. They would not eat him saying "You are too thin for us and there is hardly any flesh in your body."

Then the horse thought: "Death is better than living in this wretched condition". Thinking thus the horse suddenly realised the words of the sage, who came out of the great farmhouse.

"Those who curse you in turn should bless you, and then come to me for you may enter my stable then."

With the greatest difficulty the horse walked towards his original place of work where he stood idling.

The animals in the forest got to know what the horse wanted, and they helped the horse to pull the plough, which was lying in the field. "When the time comes we will come and unharness you," said the animals leaving him to till the land .

One morning, the widow came out of the farmhouse to do some work. She was surprised at the sight of their unruly horse drawing the plough. "Look!" She said to the children in the house. "That unruly horse whom we cursed is now toiling hard in the field. Look how very thin he is! We should now pardon him and give him some food.

"After all, he has understood his folly and unruly behaviour. So we must not harm him."

The horse was seen toiling quite hard to help the children of the farmhouse.

The members of the farmhouse treated him well and the horse understood what love and kindness means.

He suffered and helped them. The seasons passed away with strenuous work, and one morning the widow came out and talked to the horse in a soft tone.

"Do you remember you did us a grievous wrong? But by your means, the lord has blessed us with good harvests, and as I have got an able husband now and have bought some more fields, I fully and freely forgive you and bless you!"

And behold! that same night while they were celebrating the Christmas feast, the horse was taken to the divine stable that led him to the fields of Paradise.

I am indebted to Professor Tadeuz Margul of the Krakow University, Poland, for the folk tale he handed over to me during my short stay as a recipient of the Unesco- Polish Government Copernicus award for social sciences.

The story is adapted from the Polish folktale titled "O Narowistym Koniu" or "the unruly horse" first included in the four volumed novel titled "Hopic" or "peasants" written by the Nobel Prize winner Ladislaw Stanilaw Reymont (1925-1967)

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