Seventh Story of Falling off the Horse
by Fr.Costanzo Beschi [aka, Veera MaMuni]
sangam.org/articles/view2/654.html
Front Note by Sachi Sri Kantha
The seventh story in the Guru Paramarta series describes the obstinacy of his five dummy disciples, who were short on common sense and would do only what was instructed specifically. In this story, the Guru instructs his disciples that they need “to pick up every thing that hath fallen” and the disciples do just that.
There is some shade of resemblance here to the current strategy of President Chandrika Kumaratunga in picking up every ‘happy-go-lucky head in the parliament’ who has ‘strayed’ so that she can produce a simple majority for her SLFP-JVP ruling combine. By hook or by crook, she has pulled in quite a chunk of heads from other parties; two from the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), four from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), eight from the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), and, most recently, one from the United National Party (UNP). Only Chandrika’s strategy of forming an alliance with LTTE deserter Karuna and pulling a couple of ‘indigenous Tamil heads’ in last April became a cropper.
Now, to the original Seventh Story of Guru Paramarta from Fr.Beschi. It continues from the end of the sixth story, where the Guru Paramarta was given a future prediction by a brahmin passerby that ‘On the whatsoever day when Guru’s posteriors shall become cold, it will be a sign that his death is at hand.” The Guru and his disciples were in need of cash and if they stayed at their Retreat that would hinder their plans. Thus, the Guru opted to move on his lame horse. The lame horse in the story may well stand as an allegory for the currently ruling SLFP-JVP combine.
I have made marginal revisions in spelling, repetitive phrases and obsolete words to the 1822 text of Benjamin Babington.
Guru Paramarta’s Seventh Story: Of falling off the horse
After the circumspection, which has been mentioned, had been for sometime used, they set out upon a tour from village to village; impelled by the consideration, that should they travel around the district, the disciples might collect their money, but that in the Retreat no income could be realized.
One day, when they were on their return to the Retreat, as the Guru was jogging along on horseback, his turban happened to fall off behind him, in consequence of encountering the branch of a tree which hung downwards. [A foot-note in the original: The roads, in India, are not infrequently lined with banian trees, whose wide spreading boughs, covered with thick foliage, afford a welcome shade to the traveler. From these boughs, the largest and lowest of which are horizontal, numerous roots are suspended, which in time reach the ground and become new trunks. They may with truth be said to hand downwards; an expression, which would scarcely apply to the bough of any other tree.] Thinking that the disciples had picked it up, after he had traveled on quietly for a considerable distance, the Guru asked them, “Where is my turban? Please give it to me.” They replied, “It is yonder, and probably lies on the spot where it fell.” Upon which the Guru grew angry, and said, “Is it not necessary to pick up every thing that hath fallen?” So, Idiot immediately ran off, and as he was bringing along the fallen turban which he had picked up, he placed in it some dung loosely evacuated by the horse (for he had been feeding on the commons, upon grass that was green in consequence of some rain showers which had fallen that night), and delivered it into the Guru’s hand.
Guru then became exceedingly enraged, crying out, “Fie fie.” To this the disciples replied with one accord, “How is this Sir? Did you not deliver your instructions before, saying, that everything which fell was to be picked up; and now, because Idiot acts according to those instructions, you fly into a passion; wherefore is this?” And Guru replied, “Not so. There are some things which it is proper to pick up, and others which it is improper to pick up. You should act with some show of sagacity.” To this the disciples replied, “We are not men so clever as all that.” So they requested that the Guru would write down, separately, such things only as they were required to pick up, and these he wrote accordingly.
After this, in traveling along, the ground being slippery and wet, the lame horse, which tottered as it went, tripped and fell down, and the Guru tumbling head downwards and feet upwards into a large hole which was near, roared out for help and cried, “Pray run and pick me out.” The disciples ran to him, and one of them taking out the script which he had written before and given to them began to read thus, “To pick up a fallen turban – to pick up a fallen waist cloth, and short cloth – to pick up a fallen jacket and drawers.” Thus the Guru lay there naked, while they went over each article, one by one, according as it was read out, and notwithstanding all his entreaty and all his rage, because this was not written in the script. The disciples persevered in refusal, saying “Sir, where is it written that you are to be picked up? Show us. We will do exactly according to what is written; but we will never consent to do that which is not written.” The Guru, perceiving their obstinacy and seeing no other way of escape, took another script and a stile and wrote, in the place where he was lying, “And if I fall, you are to pick me up.”
His disciples, when they saw what was written, all with one accord went and picked him up. As his body was entirely covered with mud, because there was muck in the hollow into which he had fallen, they washed him in some water which was at hand; and, afterwards, having put on all his clothes as before, they seated him on the horse and proceeded to the Retreat.
[Source: Benjamin Babington – The Adventures of the Gooroo Paramartan – A Tale in the Tamul Language, accompanied by a translation and vocabulary together with an analysis of the first story, 1999 reprint of the 1822 original published in London, by J.M.Richardson, pp.93-97.]