Thursday, February 9, 2017

The slaves of a slave - aren’t we all ?

The slaves  of a slave  - aren’t we all  ?

By
P.R.Ramachander





(Based in a remarkable story narrated by   my face book friend  Rajagopal  Srinivasan. The last few stanzas   are from my  English  translation of   31st chapter  of Thirukkural   called Vekulamai (not getting angry)  I have translated   the first 108 chapters of THirukural  and have posted them in https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4893856948746334410#allposts/src=sidebar )

Once  after  conquering an Indian town,
The emperor   Alexander   was inspecting  it on a horse back,
And then   he saw there  a very saintly person,
Being worshipped   by every one there.

Alexander   got down his    very great steed,
And approached   that  very saintly person   and told,
“Somehow  I like you very much and I feel   that   if you,
Come with me to my country , my country would become prosperous

The very  saintly   person  smiled  in a very pretty manner,
And told that he likes  to live  in his motherland  and not elsewhere,
And then the king slightly perturbed   told that saintly person,
“If you come with me  I would give you  lots of riches and gold  and make you rich.”

The saintly person told the king, Riches   would not make me   happy,
But the earth, the sand   and the thorns  of my mother land would,
And so please  do excuse me as I do not  want to come with you,
And then Alexander  took his huge sword  and advanced to kill the saint.

The saint laughed at him, “At best you can kill this  useless body,
But I feel  that you cannot    even do that because  you are slave of my slave.”
Alexander who was   emperor  of all that   he saw    was intrigued,
“What nonsense , how can I be your slave of slave?”

The saintly person then told  ,  I never get    angry at any time,
And keep  Anger as my slave  and you got angry in a jiffy  without cause,
And so   you are   a slave   of anger   and so man , who things you are  great.
Are you not a slave   of my slave, whom I rule over and detest?”

The emperor understood   and became silent  and want to know more ,
Of this anger   who seemed to be a master   ruling  over him.”
The saint said,”If  you can control this slave , in places of need,
You are great , but if you do it in useless places, what is the use?”

“ You should forget    getting angry   against every one  ,
For all the evil things    are generated  by this  anger.
Also remember   that no greater enemy than anger exists for you,
Because   it kills all your pleasant thoughts   and good feelings”

“Any time , anywhere  , if you want  protect yourself  , control anger,
For if  it is not controlled, it would destroy you  as well as  yourself .
Anger   which destroys    those   who get    angry, would also,
Destroy  all the  good people who are interested in supporting  and saving them,”

“He who uses    anger  as a weapon, would get destroyed by it,
Similar  to the fist getting hurt   when it  tries to hit a stone.
And also please  know   that banishing anger from the mind,
Would help you fulfill   all your desires  without  any effort.”

Hearing these   great  words of the that very saintly person,
Alexander   was pleased  and wanted to be   a master  of anger,
And then the saintly  person told him, :All this were  told to me,
By a great  Tamil poet whom people call “A poet whose   words are not lies”

Alexander   anf that saintly  person , both off whom,
Were  masters of anger , turned   towards   south,
And saluted   that  great  master  of  non lying words,
And the emperor   departed to his country  , a happy man.




No comments: