Why should we know that pride goes before fall.
Competent
Human resources are precious. It is easy to loose them, but replacing them with
another one is hard and expensive. It may become futile also. “That is why we
must know that pride goes before fall.”
(The story
reproduced from tales of 'Panchatantra', as it is, to avoid dilution and
provoke students and managers to conduct brain storming for developing
efficient and effective strategies in managing an organization.
This is a
story told to children through a dialogue between two jackals named Karataka
and Damanaka).
The Fall And Rise Of A Merchant
In the
city of
Thus
insulted, Gorambha thought to himself, “I am a poor man and so cannot give a
fitting reply to such a wealthy person as Dantila. I must some how see that the
king stops his favors to him.” Then he hit upon a plan to take revenge on
Dantila.
One early
morning when the king was still in sleep, Gorambha pretending to sweep the
king's bedroom began loudly murmuring, “O, how arrogant is Dantila! He has the
cheek to lock the queen in his embrace.” Hearing this, the king demanded to
know whether what Gorambh was murmuring is true. Did Dantila embrace the queen?
“Oh, your
majesty, I don't remember nor do I know what I was saying because I was drowsy
having spent the entire night in gambling,” the sweeper told the king.
Not
satisfied with his reply the king thought that it was possible that the sweeper
had seen Dantila, who had equal access to the royal household asGorambha,
embracing the queen. He remembered wise men saying that men were likely to talk
in their sleep about what they did, saw and desired in the day. Women were
chaste because men were not within reach or they were afraid of prying
servants. Convinced that Dantila had indeed embraced the queen, the king barred
Dantila from entering the royal household.
The
merchant began grieving his fate though he had not done any harm to the king or
his relatives even in his dreams. One day as Dantila was trying to enter the
king's palace he was barred by the king's men. Seeing this Gorambha told them,
“You fools, you are barring the great Dantila who has won the king's favors. He
is powerful. If you stop him, you will meet with the same fate as I did at the
hands of Dantila one day.”
The
merchant thought that it would do him good to make Gorambha happy and win his
confidence. One evening he invited the sweeper for tea and presented him with
expensive clothes and told him, “Friend, I had never meant to insult you. You
had occupied a seat I had set apart for the learned. Kindly pardon me.”
Pleased,
the sweeper promised to win the king's favor for Dantila again. The next day,
Gorambha repeated the same drama of pretending to talk irrelevantly, raving
that the king was eating cucumber in the rest room. “What nonsense are you
talking? Did you ever see me doing such things?” the king demanded to know.
“No, your majesty, I do not know nor do I remember what I was saying because I
was drowsy having spent the entire night in gambling,” the sweeper said.
The king
then realized that if what the sweeper had said about him was not true what he
had said about Dantila also could not be true. A person like Dantila could not have
done what Gorambha had told him. The king also found that without Dantila the
affairs of the state had suffered and civic administration had come to a
standstill. The king immediately summoned the merchant to his palace and
restored to him all the authority he had enjoyed before he fell out of king's
favor.
Damanaka
resumed, “That is why we must know that pride goes before fall. ”Sanjeevaka
agreed. Taking him to the lion king, Damanaka introduced Sanjeevaka to
Pingalaka. After exchanging pleasantries, the king asked him to relate his past
and the purpose of staying in that jungle. On the bullock relating his story,
the king said, “Friend, don't be afraid. I assure you that I will protect you
from wild animals here because even stronger animals feel insecure here.”
Since
then, the king asked Karataka and Damanaka to look after the affairs of the
state and began happily spending his time in the company of Sanjeevaka. But the
jackals were worried that after Sanjeevaka had become a good friend of the
king, the king gave up his royal sports and pastime and became a saint.
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