PANCHATANTRA - Fifth Strategy: Imprudence

Following is the highlights of these stories, please click on the story name to read in detail.

Imprudence

• Whoever without judgment does what the foolish barber in this chapter did comes to eternal grief.

The Brahmani and The Mongoose

• Wisdom is always superior to learning.
• Self-interest is good; Too much of it will earn a man the fate of Chakradhara.

The Lion That Sprang to Life

• He who has a narrow mind thinks this is mine, this is his. To a large-hearted person the whole world is his
  family.
• Even if one is very learned, if he is without common sense becomes the butt of ridicule.

The Tale of Two Fish and a Frog

• What God chooses to save survives sans human effort and no human effort can save what God ordains to perish.
• Where one cannot pierce sun and wind the wits of a resourceful man enter.
• One should not leave motherland, for, nothing is happier than one’s own land.
• He who cannot control cough or cannot keep sleep at bay or cannot resist good food should not burgle a house.
• Wisdom alone without education does not serve any purpose.

The Story of The Weaver

• He who has no wits of his own or does not heed advice of friends perishes as the weaver in this story.

The Miserly Father

• He who covets the impossible or builds castles in the air comes to certain grief.
• He who is overwhelmed by greed and doesn’t weigh its consequences, will become a victim of deceit like King Chandra in this story.
• He who wants to live in peace must leave a house of daily strife. Conflict breaks up kingdoms like bad words separate friends.
• He who spares himself the spectacle of a friend in distress, of his house occupied by an enemy or of the division of his country, is the happiest.

Tale Of The Bird With Two Heads

• Alone, do not eat delicious food, do not sleep when others are awake, neither should you travel alone nor ponder alone over matters.
• Those who feed on the rich do not help them in distress.
• When their wealth is in tact everyone hovers around the rich.

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PANCHATANTRA - Fourth Strategy: Loss of Gains

Following is the highlights of these stories, please click on the story name to read in detail.

The Croc and The Monkey

The Greedy Cobra and The King of Frogs

The Lion and The Foolish Donkey

The Story of The Potter

A Three-in-One Story

The Carpenter’s Wife

The Price of Indiscretion

The Jackal’s Strategy

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PANCHATANTRA - Third Strategy: Of Crows and Owls

Following is the highlights of these stories, please click on the story name to read in detail.

Of Crows and Owls

• Trust not even a close friend who earlier was your enemy.
• Never accept peace with an enemy who is not just for, he will break his word and stab you in the back.
• Bend to the enemy when he is strong attack him when he is vulnerable. Don’t wage a war if it doesn’t bring power, or wealth or friendship.
• Neither peace nor bravado can subdue a strong enemy where these two do not work. Flight is the best alternative.

Elephants and Hares

• The great Manu had said that it was better to abandon a person to save the whole community, abandon the community to save the village and abandon the village to save the country. Even if the land were fertile, a wise king would abandon it if it were in the interests of his subjects.

The Cunning Mediator

• Doing good to others is virtue. Tormenting others is vice.
• Words out of tune with times, words that bring grief in the end, words that bring pain to others, are, any day, as good as poison.

The Brahmin and The Crooks

• There is hardly any person who is not misled by the servility of a new servant or the sweet words of a guest or the mock tears of a wily woman.

The Brahmin and The Cobra

• Love once betrayed cannot be regained.
• Blessed and happy is the man with a caring and loving wife. A home is not a home without a wife; A wifeless home is like a jungle.

The Old Man, His Young Wife and The Thief

• If two rivals quarrel among themselves, we would be the beneficiaries.

The Tale of Two Snakes

• The learned have said that where wicked men are honoured and wise men are insulted, there will be fear, famine and death.

The Wedding of The Mouse

• I want you know that a crow is a crow and cannot become an owl.

Tale of The Golden Droppings

• He survives who anticipates a danger and acts to avert it, he who does not comes to grief.
• If you want to achieve your goal you will have to put up with all inconvenience and discomfort.

Frogs That Rode a Snake

• What you have said is correct. Great men do not give up what they have begun even in the face of obstacles. Cowards, afraid of failure, do not venture at all. There are some that begin a task and give it up when there is a problem. But courageous people do not give up whatever dangers they face.
• It is dangerous to leave a fire un extinguished a debt unredeemed an enemy uncrushed and a disease untreated.

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PANCHATANTRA - Second Strategy: Gaining Friends

Following is the highlights of these stories, please click on the story name to read in detail.

Gaining Friends

• Fools can never foresee peril.
• People often lose sense when danger lurks in the corner.
• Even if a wise man has everything he needs, he should still seek friends. Even if all the rivers flow into the Sea, the Sea still waits for the Moon to come out.

The Crow-Rat Discourse

• Enmity is of two kinds. The first is natural and the second is artificial. The second kind disappears when what caused it disappears. But natural enmity ends only with the death of one of the two enemies.

Meeting a New Friend

• They are happy who are fortunate not to witness the destruction of crops and the decline of the people.
• Nothing is impossible for a competent person. There is no land that does not respond to effort.
• For a scholar every country is his own country and there is no enemy for a sweet-tongued person. Learning and power are not the same. Remember that the king is respected only in his country but a scholar is honoured everywhere.

The Hermit and The Mouse

• You must not accept the hospitality of such a host who does not welcome you gladly, does not offer you a proper seat and does not make inquiries about your well-being.
• When a man earns a lot of wealth, that pile of money increases his strength and confidence.

Shandili and Sesame Seeds

• Learned men can measure the strength of the rival by just looking at him.
• The man gets what he is destined to. Even God cannot alter destiny.

Story of The Merchant’s Son

• Man gets what is in his destiny; Even God cannot prevent it; To me it makes no difference.
• What’s mine can never become others.

The Unlucky Weaver

• He enjoys life with whatever he has. What’s the use of being rich but miserly?
• Our luck is linked to what we have done in a previous birth. If you have done a good deed in your previous birth, you will reap the harvest in this birth without your effort.
• If you don’t have it in your destiny, you will not get it even with effort. Just as sun and shade are inseparable, cause and effect are also linked to each other.

The Rescue of a Deer

• It is easier to get friends who talk sweetly but difficult to find friends who venture to tell you the truth however bitter it is. The latter alone deserve to be called friends.
• A rich person who does not spend money is as poor as any poor person can be. Not being able to enjoy is common to both the poor and the miserly rich. Nothing on this earth is greater than charity and there is no greater enemy than miserliness.

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