The greedy jackal

Once upon a time there lived a lazy jackal. Also in the hills there lived a hillman and a wild boar. Once when the hillman went to hunt, he saw the wold boar. He took a sharp aim with his arrow and stuck the boar. But the boar was only injured and it attacked the hillman and he died on the spot. But the boar also collapsed due to the injury and died.

The jackal happened to pass the site of both the dead bodies, and the jackal decided to eat them slowly. But he was excessively greedy and first wanted to eat the bowstring, before the other bodies. As he tried to eat the bowstring which was tightly attached to the bow, it snapped and the end of the string pierced the roof of its mouth and it stuck a big injury to the jackal and the jackal died on the spot.

MORAL: Too much of greed is harmful.
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Blue Jackal

Once upon a time there lived a jackal who strayed into a city in search of food. He was hungry and was being chased by a group of dogs. He accidentally entered the house of a dyer and fell into a vat of indigo(blue), and was stained blue from head to toe. When he escaped from the house back into the forest, all animals were surprised at his appearance and could not place its identity. Taking advantage of the situation, the jackal decided to play the situation to his advantage. He proclaimed that he was Fierce Owl, sent by the king of Gods, Indra, to earth to gaurd the forest.

The gullible animals believed the jackal. The jackal then appointed the Lion as his Prime minister, tiger as his gaurdian of the bed chamber and the elephant was made the door keeper. He then drove all the jackals out of sight from the forest for fear of being recognized. The animals would hunt food and bring it to the self proclaimed king and the king would distribute the food to all equally just as a king would do. So he was leading a life of luxury.

One day a herd of jackals were passing by howling to their glory. Unable to control his natural instinct, FierceOwl showed his natural voice and howled at the top of his voice. Hearing this howl, the animals realised that they had been fooled by a jackal and killed the jackal instantly.

MORAL: Excess of Greed is harmful.
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Sparrow and the Elephant

Once upon a time there lived a sparrow with her husband on a tree. She had built a nice nest and laid her eggs in the nest. One morning, a wild elephant with spring fever feeling restive came to the tree in search of shade and in a rage broke the branch of the tree on which the nest was residing. Unluckily all the sparrow eggs were lost though both parents were saved. The she-sparrow was deep in lament.

Seeing her lament, the woodpecker bird, a friend of hers offered her consolation that she would think of a way of killing the elephant. Then she went to her friend the gnat, who in turn went to the counselor frog for advice. The frog then devised a scheme for killing the elephant. He asked the gnat to buzz in the ears of the elephant, so that the elephant would be thrilled to listen to the music of the gnat and close its eyes. Then she asked the woodpecker to pluck his eyes. She herself would be on the edge of a pit and would croak misleading the elephant to think that it is a pond.

The next day at noon the three carried out the plan and the elephant was killed when he fell flat into a pit after being blinded by the woodpecker when he closed his eyes in response to the gnat. So the revenge was taken with collective wit of all three animals.

MORAL: Wit is superior to brute force.
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THE STORY OF KRISHNA AND PUTANA

The story of Krishna, and Putana is very well known. Kamsa, the evil uncle of Krishna, had hired the services of Putana, the Rakshasi (female demon), to kill Krishna. Putana was a magician and could take any form she wanted. She disguised herself as a Gopikaa, a cowherdess, and entered Krishna's house. Krishna was still a baby then. She fed Krishna on her own milk which was poisoned. Krishna, though a baby, knew of the real form of her and sucked her so hard that he extracted her life along with the milk. Before dying she assumed her original form and died. So Krishna possessed divined powers since his childhood days.
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The tale of Kaliya the serpent

The story of Krishna, and Kaliya the serpent is very well known. Kaliya, a naga (a serpent), had been occupying the river Yamuna and its banks.It had poisoned the waters of the Yamuna and also dried the forests nearby by the poison airs breathed by it. Krishna jumped into the water to kill the serpent. He was coiled around by Kaliya, the serpent king and he lay at the bottom of the river. But then he soon was reminded of his divine powers and exercising his powers he uncoiled himself from the serpent and danced on the head of the serpent and wanted to kill it. But on imploration from the wives of Kaliya, he left it alone and asked them all to leave the shores of Yamuna. So they left and Yamuna and its shored regained their normal form. This feat is termed as Kaliya-Daman.
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The story of Bakasura

Bakasura is again one of the asuras contracted by Kamsa to kill Krishna. Bakasura was the brother of Putana, whose story is given earlier. Bakasura took the form of a giant bird and terrorised the cowherds and cowherdesses of Gokul. Krishna, in an act of bravery entered the beak of the bird, and then the bird closed its beak. But Krishna wriggled round and round inside so as to make Bakasura uneasy and ultimately Bakasura had to vomit Krishna out and he died on the spot.

Similar to Bakasura, his brother Aghasura was similarly deputed by Kamsa. But Krishna again vanquished him too who took the form of a giant serpent, by going inside and wriggling his body.
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Krishna and Arjuna

A long long time ago, people believed that by doing "yagnas", they would become strong and their every wish would be granted. What did these "yagnas" involve? Well, they involved setting up a huge fire and doing long poojas. During these poojas, lots of ghee was put into the fire. This went on for a long time. One day, Agni the fire god started feeling very sick and weak. He went to Lord Brahma and told him, "Oh lord! I'm feeling very weak and very tired. I just don't feel my usual healthy self. What is wrong with me?" Lord Brahma answered, "Agni, you have been fed with a lot of ghee and that is making you feel like this. There is a big forest one earth, go and blaze in it. This will restore you to your former health". Agni was very happy to hear this and went and started devouring the forest. All the animals in the forest started running helter-skelter. Now it so happened that Indra, the king of gods had a friend - the king of snakes - and Indra thought to himself, "My friend is in that forest and he will surely get burnt if Agni continues to blaze forth". So, Indra released his thunder and brought rain, thus dousing Agni. This happened again and again. Agni finally got very sad. He went to Lord Brahma once again and the lord told him to approach Arjuna and Krishna. They were camping near the forest. Agni went to them and told them his problem. The two friends immediately agreed to help Agni but Arjuna did not have the necessary weapons. Agni immediately gave Arjuna a magic quiver, from which the arrows would never get exhausted. Taking this, Arjuna and Krishna went to the forest with Agni. Agni started blazing away at the forest once more. When Indra saw this, he once again came to the aid of this friend by bringing rainfall. Arjuna immediately shot arrows at the sky and blocked the entire sky above the forest. This stopped the rain from dousing the flames. Indra was frustrated and immediately took his large army and went to fight with Arjuna and Krishna. At the same time, the asuras who were hiding in the forest came out. Krishna started fighting with the asuras and Arjuna with his father's huge army. (For those who don't know, Indra is Arjuna's father.) The war that ensued was a long and hard one. Finally, Indra's army was losing when a heavenly voice spoke out to Indra, "Indra, your friend is not in the forest. He went away just before the fire started. The forest was destined to burn down and you can't stop it". Hearing this, Indra conceded defeat. Suddenly, they saw an asura trying to run away. Krishna raised his Sudarshana Chakra to kill him. The asura ran to Arjuna and pled with him to save his life. Arjuna promised him his life and prayed with Krishna not to kill him. This asura was an architect and in return he asked Arjuna to make a wish. Arjuna said, "Make a very beautiful palace for my brother, such a palace which the world has not seen earlier or will see again". The asura designed a wonderful palace and the Pandava brothers went to live there after their "vanvas" of 13 year. This wonderful palace was the last nail in the coffin of the enemity between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Agni then blazed away peacefully for 15 days and at the end of it, he regained his lost vigor. There are many stories from mahabharata about his later part of life. We shall be adding more stories of krishna in due course of time. Jai Krishna
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