38. I AM NO CRANE :

ONCE the sage Markandeya came to see
the Pandavas. Yudhishthira happened to
talk of the virtues of the fair sex and said:
"What greater wonder is there in this
world than the patience and the chastity of
woman? She gives birth to a child after
cherishing it in her womb as dearer than
life itself. She brings it into the world
inpain and anxiety and thence forward her
one thought is for its health and
happiness. Large hearted and forgiving, a
woman forgives and continues to love
even a wicked husband who neglects and
hates and subjects her to all sorts of
miseries. How strange!"
Hearing this Markandeya told him a
sacred story.



There was once a brahmana, named
Kausika who observed his vow of
brahmacharya. with great steadfastness
and devotion.



One  day, he sat under a tree reciting the
Vedas. A crane, perched on the top of the
tree, defiled his head with its droppings.
He looked up at it, and his angry look
killed the bird and it fell down dead.
The brahmana was pained when he saw
the dead bird lying on the ground.



How frightful it would be if wishes
fulfilled themselves, if each hasty or angry
wish took effect at once! How much there
would be to regret or repent afterwards! It
is lucky for us that wishes depend
onoutward circumstances for
accomplishment, since that saves us from
much sin and sorrow.



Kausika sorrowed that the evil thought
that passed in his mind in a moment of
anger had killed an innocent bird. Some
time later, he went as usual to beg alms.
He stood before the door of a house to
receive his dole. The housewife was
cleansing utensils at that time. Kausika
waited in the hope that she would attend
to him after her work was over.



In the meantime the master of the house
returned, tired and hungry, and the wife
had to attend to his wants, wash and dry
his feet and serve him with food.
In this preoccupation she seemed to have
forgotten the mendicant waiting outside.
After her husband had been cared for and
fed, she came out with alms to the
mendicant.



She said: "I am sorry to have kept you
waiting long. Pardon me."
Kausika, burning with anger, said: "Lady,
you have made me wait for such a long
time. This indifference is not fair."
The woman told the brahmana: "Best of
brahmanas, kindly do forgive me. I was
serving my husband and hence the delay."


The brahmana remarked: "It is right and
proper to attend on the husband, but the
brahmana also should not be disregarded.
You seem an arrogant woman."



She said: "Be not angry with me and
remember that I kept you waiting only
because I was dutifully serving my
husband. I am no crane to be killed by a
violent thought and your rage can do no
harm to the woman who devotes herself to
the service of her husband."
The brahmana was taken aback. He
wondered how the woman knew of the
crane incident.



She continued: "O great one, you do not
know the secret of duty, and you are also
not aware that anger is the greatest enemy
that dwells in man. Forgive the delay in
attending to you. Go to Mithila and be
instructed in the secret of good life by
Dharmavyadha living in that city."
The brahmana was amazed. He said: "I
deserve your just admonition and it will
do me good. May all good attend you."
With these words he went to Mithila.



Kausika reached Mithila and looked for
Dharmavyadha's residence, which he
thought would be some lonely hermitage
far from the noise and bustle of common
life.



He walked along magnificent roads
between beautiful houses and gardens in
that great city and finally reached a
butcher's shop, in which was a man selling
meat. His amazement was great when he
learnt that this man was Dharmavyadha.



The brahmana was shocked beyond
measure and stood at a distance in disgust.
The butcher suddenly rose from his seat,
came to the brahmana and inquired:
"Revered sir, are you well? Did that
chaste brahmana lady send you to me?"
The brahmana was stupefied.



"Revered sir, I know why you have come.
Let us go home," said the butcher and he
took the brahmana to his house where he
saw a happy family and was greatly struck
by the devotion with which the butcher
served his parents.



Kausika took his lessons from that butcher
on dharma, man's calling and duty.
Afterwards, the brahmana returned to his
house and began to tend his parents, a
duty, which he had rather neglected
before.



The moral of this striking story of
Dharmavyadha so skillfully woven by
Vedavyasa into the Mahabharata, is the
same as the teaching of the Gita. Man
reaches perfection by the honest pursuit of
whatever calling falls to his lot in life, and
that this is really worship of God who
created and pervades all. (Bhagavad Gita,
XVIII, 45-46)



The occupation may be one he is born to
in society or it may have been forced on
him by circumstances or be may have
taken it up by choice. But what really
matters is the spirit of sincerity and
faithfulness with which be does his life's
work.



Vedavyasa emphasizes this great truth by
making a scholarly brahmana, who did not
know it, learn it from a butcher, who lived
it in his humble and despised life.