Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Sheep, wolf and resolution

I came across this quote
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion", by William Ralph Inge,

It's a very interesting quote as i could readily apply this analogy everywhere in day to day life.
First thing that came to my mind is anti-corruption drive, when there are a whole lot of common people fighting against it and resolving that we are no longer going to pay bribe is like the sheep's resolution, While the politicians and public officials acting like wolves.

But then this lead to two parallel thoughts which i would like to share,

First one being the concept of swabhava and swaroopa, There was this incident i was told which goes like this, "There was a swamiji in whose ashram came an abandoned tiger cub, as it looked helpless the swamiji decided to feed it and bring it up like its own child, he gave it milk and vegetarian food, when people asked he told that he wanted to prove that if given a chance one can overcome swabhava, this continued for few years and one fine day as the swamiji was in meditation the tiger started licking the hand of swamiji and it cut his hand by mistake and after the first taste of blood the tiger forgetting that fact that it was this swamiji who had given it a life tore him into pieces".
What does this show ? that no matter what it is impossible to come out of one's nature ?
But then valmiki the great sage, vivekenanda, gandhiji had all done mistakes but had over come them? Is it the boon we have of being placed higher in the ecological chain ? But may be that is why there is this saying "loko binna ruchihi"( Interests of people in this world are diversified).

The other thought being a tale read in panchantantra, which empasizes unity and wit is strength, we all have heard many stories of how a group of pigeon caught in net flew together and escaped the hunter.
So tweaking the quote if instead of sheep (considered dumb) if a group of rabbits (considered smart in tales) pass the resolution of vegertarianism although they may not be able to change the nature of wolves might atleast be able to save themselves better ??
 
Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs