One day young king Vijay Sen was hunting in a forest with bow and arrow. To chase a deer he ran through trees and bushes, bumped and fell but didn’t lose the sight of it. But after a long run the deer brought him under a huge tree where a sage was sitting. Eyes closed, absolutely still. The king immediately stopped and the deer disappeared into the distance. Due to the disturbance the sage opened his eyes and saw the king rasping in heavy breathing. Vijay Sen brought himself under control and bowed down to the sage. The sage asked, “What happened?”
“The deer!” Replied the king. “It got away.”
“Why?”
“Sorry to say, but you came in between.”
“How long you’ve been chasing it?”
“Quite a long, but didn’t lose it until…”
“But why you’ve been chasing it?”
“Oh! I was hunting, what else a king would do in a forest?”
“Sorry to disturb your hunting, king!”
“Don’t be sorry, I’ll find another. I still have the whole day. As long as there is time, there are chances, you know!”
The sage raised his hand with wishing smile and closed his eyes again when the king left. Not very long when Vijay Sen found another deer and again started the great chase. Slipped through trees and bushes, dodged and bumped and fell but still didn’t lose the sight. After a long chase again he came to the same spot where the sage was sitting, eyes closed. He forced himself to stop and slipped and dropped right in front of the sage. Opening his eyes the sage looked down on him and smiled. “Lost again?” he asked. The deer was gone by then. The king stood up, brought his breath back and with a deep questioning face asked, “how come I ended up here twice?”
“Maybe you lost the same deer!” replied the sage.
“No way, I almost had him, only because of…”
“…me!” finished the sage. The response made the king a little calm. He didn’t make a quick reply. Instead sat down on the ground, still curious.
“Can you explain what’s going on? I know you have explanation to everything.” Said the king.
“Yes, because of me.”
Realizing his mistake he said, “Ok, I feel sorry for saying that, just tell me what am I missing?”
“I see you are carrying bow and arrow. None of them are useful to you?”
“Well the deer was moving fast.”
“The bow and arrow will be in use only when you become still.”
“Where is the challenge shooting a standing deer?”
“No, the deer will move fast, but you don’t.”
“I see, but I am a strong king, I can hunt all day! Just being still didn’t seem proper to me. And I don’t get it how can being still be a solution!”
“Don’t you see you failed catching two deer after running and jumping all day, and still I found you twice without moving a bit from my place?”
The king became still right there. Realizing those words, bowed down to his feet. The sage said, “If you pay attention and dissolve into it, then there will be no question that cannot be answered. A mountain stands still, but the river flows from within.”
That was the story. Now its time I reveal that Vijay Sen never met such a sage. But a lot would take it as real if that wasn’t mentioned. In the story I just used the name of the great king who started a dynasty that lasted for a century in Bengal. Like this there are stories throughout history. Some histories are just stories and some are true. Some stories lost in history and some became legends. When speak about tales, anecdotes, lore, legends and myths we talk about the past which carry tons of important dimensions, morals, lessons, pleasant or unpleasant events. Authenticity is hard to find all the time. Whether the stories actually happened or not that’s another matter, but squeezing the moral and lesson out of it should always be welcomed.
Having characters, brutality, magic and lie some people added their imagination over thousands of years, on the other hand some parts of the history are so dominant that for sure they are not just some stories in papers. Some incidents became lore in telling to survive time. History is a field of infinite potential, but people hardly want to look back in the past. Although kings, queens, battles, reign, region, betrayal these are mentioned so often that the history made itself boring to most of us. But whenever we hear a story, we seem to enjoy every bit of it. So if tales from history, tales of history or history through tales, whatever the way, are told, then…
留言