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One of the most famous Zen stories concerns two monks, both very young, who came to a flooded river and found a beautiful young woman struggling for life in the strong currents. One of them jumped into the river and rescued the comely woman, carrying her piggy-back to the other side. She thanked him and went her way. The other monk, having swum across by himself, upbraided his companion severely, saying that as a monk he had no business to touch any woman, much less a young and comely one. He kept on haranguing his friend for such a long time that the other monk was forced to respond. He said gently: 'My friend, it is true I carried that young woman in distress across the river but I made sure I dropped her on this side and forgot all about her! But you seem to be carrying her still! Shall we proceed further in our quest for truth? You need to, in any case!'
Truth in proper perspective:
The critical monk understood the point in his friend's observation, felt ashamed and resolved to view the 'truth' in proper perspective. Sex, gender, age, status -- nothing mattered where a human being was in distress. All that mattered was to render proper aid to the needy! The ochre robe or the monk's attire was of no consequence. The heart must be properly attired! That was all! This is a very popular Zen story.
The 'epic' episode:
In the epic Mahabharata, when queen Draupadi was about to be disrobed in the royal court, she posed several queries on the propriety of her being staked as a wager by her husband, who had already enslaved himself in the infamous game of dice, to Bheeshma and other learned men.
Pedantic response:
All of them were pedantic in their response. None of them realised that their first duty was to protect a woman's honour at all costs and nothing else should be allowed to stand in the way. They did nothing to help her. It was only Lord Sri Krishna who came to her rescue in time. Much later, the Lord Himself regretted deeply His own inordinate delay in this context.
Draupadi's derision:
Again, when at the instance of Sri Krishna, the Pandava scion Dharmaputra sought the counsel of grandsire Bheeshma, lying supine on the bed of arrows, on the varied aspects of Dharma Sastra, Draupadi laughed derisively at the ridiculous nature of the choice of Bheeshma as Counsellor Supreme.
Bheeshma's explanation:
Bheeshma understood Draupadi's frame of mind and pointed out to her that he had taken the food of the evil-minded Duryodhana and, hence, his power of reasoning was also polluted. And, therefore, he was dumb and left Draupadi in the lurch. Now that Draupadi's husband Arjuna had drained out the polluted blood with his sharp arrows, Bheeshma's intellect had become sharp, as before! Therefore, there was nothing wrong in his counselling Dharmaputra on Raj Nithi. Draupadi accepted this reasonable explanation and tendered her apologies to the patriarch and was also ready to listen to the precious words of wisdom from the treasure-house that Bheeshma was!
Don't you appreciate both the Zen and the epic episodes, my friends!
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