Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
Once upon a
time a rich merchant lived in a city located near the sea coast. He had two sons
who had domesticated a crow. They regularly used to feed the crow with the
leftovers in their own plates. The crow had thus partied now for sometime on
the tasty and nourishing food that he got from his masters, and with that he had
grown fat. And, because of the royal treatment that he got from his masters he
had also become arrogant and had started considering himself class above the other
superior birds in the ilk and often used to insult them.
One day near
the sea coast some swans landed, perhaps they were coming from a long distance
and wanted to rest. The sons of the merchant, who happened to be there,
couldn’t help but praise those beautiful swans; but, the crow could not bear
this. And in anger he went up to the swans and to the one who appeared to be their
head and said—‘I want to have a flying competition with you.’
The swans
tried explaining—‘brother! We are long distance fliers. Our home is in
Mansarovar and it is quite far off. By competing with us what will you achieve?
And can you fly with swans?’
The crow
with an arrogant gesture said—‘I know many ways of flying and I can fly at
various speeds and each speed I can maintain for hundred yojans (miles)—so
tell me if you have the guts to take me
on? And at what speed you want to fly—dear Swan?’
The head
swan politely said—‘Dear crow! I must say you are very talented. But I know of
only one speed—that is my speed and I’ll fly in that speed only.’
Upon hearing
the meek answer of the Swan the arrogance in crow increased manifold. He said—‘Fine,
you fly the way you can.’
By then some
birds had also arrived there to witness the competition. Soon both swan and the
crow flew towards the sea. The arrogant crow just to show off started
performing acrobatics above the sea and with full strength he flew ahead of the
swan. But the swan was cruising at his optimum speed. Seeing the swan trailing
the crows that had gathered there appeared happy.
But after a
little while the crow started tiring. He started looking here and there for
islands with trees and shrubs where he could rest. But he was unable to see
anything else than the deep sea. In the meanwhile the swan surged ahead of the
crow. By now the speed of the crow had dropped. He was extremely tired and was
about to fall into the deep sea that had various types of mammals and fishes
that were waiting to swallow him up.
When the
swan realized the crow was left behind he turned around, and decided to return.
He came up to the crow and asked—‘brother your beak and wings are touching the
waves of the sea as if in a rhythm. So which is this speed of yours?'
Upon hearing
the sarcasm, the crow in a humble tone said—‘Dear Swan! We crows only know to
caw-caw, and not how to fly long distances. I have paid the penalty for my
stupidity. Kindly, therefore, save my life.’
The Swam
took pity in the half-dead, semi-conscious and drenched crow and decided to
help him. He lifted the crow by his legs and loaded him on his back and flew
over the sea and dropped him at the same spot from where they had started
flying.
The story
conveys the downside of being arrogant and one should not overstate his talent to
acquire false pride as it will only land him in trouble.
*****
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