The Monk with the tail

There was once a monk with a tail in old China. He had to suffer much persecution from his abbots for it. He finally died in a village retreat and when some cowherds were carrying his body away, the tail rose up in the air and proclaimed that it will attach itself to all bad abbots and would have the last laugh. ‘When the monk Samzoo Xanda comes under yonder peepul tree, that’ll be done’ it declared and disappeared under the grounds of that tree.

In a week’s time, Samzoo, a monk with a face, came to that retreat. Abbots had loved to persecute him for different reasons; some loathed the curve of his nose and some the twirl of his tongue.

One day, Samzoo was musing sadly about his community under that very tree. Suddenly there was laughter and a whoosh of tails flying away into all directions. The cowherds narrated the prophesy of the tail to the amazed monk.

That night all bad abbots had a dream in which they grew tails and were told that they’d have to please Samzoo if they wanted to drop them. They woke up to find an ugly tail in their posteriors.

Carrier pigeons soon arrived with placatory messages for Samzoo who just wanted that the monastic community be restructured so that democracy, love and justice get their chance just as their founding Buddha wanted. That was done. The tails disappeared. Samzoo lived unmolested all his life and the community flourished ever afterwards. But some abbots instinctively touch their posterior when they visit that retreat. The older cowherds watch out for this sign and smile.

Golo the Elephalo

Golo the Elephalo


The King elephant had sent Kelo the baby elephant to help Golo the Governor. But Kelo found Golo always surrounded by buffalos. He did not mind bowing to the whims of Golo, for Golo was an elephant after all. But Kelo found it galling to defer to the dictates of Golo’s buffalo fans. He found it strange that an elephant Governor could get so immodestly chummy with buffalos.

Kelo did not know that it all began one indiscretion of a previous King. The elephants were raiding a village when the King accidentally drunk off a trunk-full of rice toddy. Realizing what he had done, in order not to betray himself, he got overtly busy in herding the baby elephants in line. In his overzealousness he had pushed a big buffalo in line with the baby elephants. The blinkers of loyalty that all elephants wear did not allow them to spot the buffalo. They all started liking this jolly fellow who survived by speaking very little and confining himself to saying ‘Oh Yes’ to everything that male elephant leaders said and saying ‘Aha’ to the lady elephants. Soon Golo almost forgot that he was a buffalo.

But when he became Governor, his primary nature asserted and buffalos crowded around him.

It was easy for the buffalo to survive with the food left by elephants. But it was really no surprise that the Kelo the baby elephant could not survive among the bevy of buffalos who hardly left anything.

Will Kelo’s travails end? We can’t say anything. Loyalty runs deep among elephants. Herds remain loyal to their leader even when going down into the deeps.

Swami Sampurnananda
1st June 2009, 11.59 p.m.
Belur Math
The Old Math (Mother’s Place)
Nilambar Mukherjee Garden House

The Foxy Smile (in full)

Once upon a time there lived a fox in a little mountain cave. One day it tore its face while trying to steal some food. When the wound healed it left a scar which made the fox’s visage look as if it was smiling and sound as if it was singing. The fox was sitting wearing its forced smile sighing with its sad song when a deer family passed by. The smiling face attracted their attention but the cautious mother deer herded her wards away. But one innocent little doe came back later to the fox’s cave. The fox smiled and sang for her for some time and then ate her up.

The smiling fox soon found that it did not need to hunt but just walk lazily near its cave smiling and singing. Many innocent animals were attracted and were merrily eaten. The fox got a bit bored having only little animals for lunch. He wanted the big ones too. He thought up a plan.

When the tiger was passing by dragging its prey, the fox called out, ‘Come O Lord, to this cave. It is your place. Please be gracious and have your meal here’.

Tigers are prone to depression as they don’t get opportunity to socialize nor do they have the Lion’s aura of royalty that gives some consolation. So when the fox called it with such an obviously cheerful face this tiger was pleasantly surprised. It came in and as it was having its meal the fox smiled and sang. The content tiger left the remaining portion of the prey there. As the fox escorted it out, it said very sweetly ‘please come again Lord and again and again, for this is your place, I am only your keeper’.

Soon the King Lion noticed that the animal count was decreasing alarmingly. It came to investigate. The Fox sweetly called, ‘O King, please come in, to your place. Do help yourself to whatever you find here’. The Lion looked in and found too many bones, rotting flesh and a fat fox waging its plump tail.

‘Thank you, O fox’ the Lion said and pounced on the surprised fox and tore away a large chunk of its tail. ‘Your tail is very tasty to chew, I will come for the rest later’ said the lion.

‘Do come, O King’ sang the fox bitter-sweetly, ‘but I am afraid my flesh won’t taste good, because I am starting to hunt’ and hurriedly ran away.

Most of the innocent young were no more foxed by its smile as they could all see its mangled tail too. It took an extraordinarily stupid animal to be foxed again. And nobody minded it as all felt that if the fox could still fox in spite of its torn tail and the foolish prey could be so foolish as to fall for the fox-smile even after seeing the fox-tail then they both deserved what they got. And this extremely rare event gave the animals society something to chew their idle hours with. So the King Lion, who was keeping a wary eye, let it pass.

1st June 2009, 6.30 p.m.
Belur Math
The Old Math (Mother’s Place)
Nilambar Mukherjee Garden House

The Foxy Smile (in 273 words)

A fox once tore its face while stealing some food. The wound left a scar which made its expression look as if it was smiling and sound as if it was singing. The smiling face attracted one curious little doe. The fox smiled and sang for her for some time and then ate her up. The fox did not need to hunt but just walk lazily near its hole smiling and singing. Many innocent animals were attracted and were merrily eaten.

When the tiger was passing by dragging its prey, the fox called out, ‘Come O Lord. This is your place. Please be gracious and have your meal here’. The tiger was pleased and as it was eating the fox smiled and sang. The content tiger left the remaining portion of the prey there and went away. As the fox escorted it out, it said sweetly ‘Do come again Lord, to your place’.

Soon the King Lion noticed that the animals were decreasing alarmingly. It came to investigate. The Fox sweetly called, ‘O King, please come in to your place. Do help yourself to whatever you find here’. The Lion looked in and found too many bones, rotting flesh and a fat fox waging its plump tail.

‘Thank you, O fox’ the Lion said and pounced on the surprised fox and tore away a large chunk of its tail.

‘Your tail is very tasty to chew, I will come for the rest later’ said the lion.

‘Do come, O King, but I am afraid my flesh won’t taste good any more, because I am hunting again’ said the fox bitter-sweetly and ran away.

Swami Sampurnananda

31^st May 2009, 7.00 p.m.

Belur Math

The Old Math (Mother’s Place)

Nilambar Mukherjee Garden House