“Bharatah panchamo Vedaha”- The Mahabharata is considered as the Fifth Veda! It is a compendium of everything that is essential and required by Man! The Santhi parva of the epic is a repository of all the Dharmas that the king and the common man has to follow. The grand old Bhishma describes to Dharmaraja various and subtle points of how a king should conduct himself. To a question if the king can appoint people of low caliber in the absence of the good and the qualified, Bhishma warns the Pandava warrior against such an indiscretion! He narrates a story that he had heard from the sages in the ashram of the renowned sage Parasurama. There was a sage in the forest practising penance and austerities. He was so good, gentle, and compassionate that all the animals in the forest behaved like his disciples and servants bereft of their wild nature! There was also a dog, lean and lanky with deep devotion and love for him. It remained always at his feet calm and attached!
One day, suddenly a fierce leopard entered the ashram and was about to pounce on the lean dog to eat it up. Terribly afraid, the dog prayed to the sage to save it from the jaws of the leopard. The compassionate hermit, who was a master of the languages of many animals and many siddhis like ‘ anima, mahima’ and others transformed the dog into a leopard! The animal that came to eat the dog went away disappointed! The travails of the dog didn't end there! Soon came a terrible tiger to prey on the new leopard. Again it sought the mercy of the sage and he converted the leopard into a formidable tiger. The tiger that came to engage the leopard had to run away out of fright! Now the dog that underwent transformation as tiger began killing and eating all other animals! After sometime, this tiger was shocked to see a huge elephant advancing menacingly towards it.The sage taking pity on the poor tiger,again transformed it into an elephant much bigger and violent! The original elephant got scared and disappeared into the forest.
The ordeals of the poor dog that changed its form due to the kindness and love of the sage did not stop there! Much time elapsed but one day, from the forest, emerged a dangerous lion to attack the elephant! When the elephant became jittery, the sage converted it into a lion. Thus this elephant was saved!The lion seeing another of its kind went away without attacking! But the life of this transformed lion continued without peace! After a while, the blood thirsty animal Sarabha appeared on the scene! The compassion of the sage knew no bounds and he changed the lion into a Sarabha! The Sarabha that came to kill the lion retired into the forest seeing the new Sarabha! As usual, it remained at the feet of the sage docile and obedient!
All other wild beasts left the forest afraid of the Sarabha! It went wild Killing and eating the flesh of other animals. Its low birth and conduct did not leave the dog though it was in the form of Sarabha! Evil thoughts crowded on its mind! It wondered at the amazing power of the sage in giving it so many forms and saving it from the attack of so many wild animals! But it shuddered at the thought that the sage may transform any bird or animal into another form! It never wanted to become a dog once again! To prevent the sage from effecting any more conversions, the dog,now a Sarabha, decided to kill the sage who was it's own master and savior! Such is the nature of the lowly and the evil minded! They are oblivious of the good done to them by others! They go to the extent of exterminating their well-wishers for their selfish ends!
Will the sage become the victim of the Sarabha and its evil designs? No! It cannot be. The great man who can transform the poor dog into Sarabha is equally capable of changing it into a dog once again! This thought didn't occur to the Sarabha! The Sage through his spiritual powers knew the evil intentions of the Sarabha intent to kill him. He grew angry and sad at the base feelings of low creatures who can never ennoble themselves despite the opportunity granted to them! He immediately cursed the Sarabha to become the lean and lanky dog that it was earlier! Bhishmapitamaha tells Dharmaraja through this anecdote that a king should appoint only deserving people with good conduct, character, education humility, compassion, valor, patience, and calmness as his ministers and subordinates!
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