| Vedantic Tales |
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| 'Yes,
yes,' Sri Nag interrupted. 'But what
has all this to do with me?'
'If you will kindly allow me to finish,' Akhu said with dignity, 'ecology means in simple terms, a balance of nature. When you began to well, I do not like to use the word cheat let us say, renege, or, to be blunt, when you flouted the Law, You disrupted that most excellent balance, which our society had enjoyed for generations and generations past.' Sri Nag was silent. 'You see,' Akhu started up again, 'it is a simple matter of your svadharma. Moreover, as you must have noticed, your wife and children are in a most lamentable condition. You are not providing for them, nor are you permitting your wife to provide for herself and the little ones. You are a householder, Sri Nag; and yet you are acting like an ascetic.' Here he broke into Sanskrit: '"Sreyan svadharmo vigunah paradharmat svanusthitat" - "Better is one's own duty, though defective, than..."' 'I know the meaning,' Sri Nag said mildly. 'Well, then, sir, we implore you to mend your ways. it would, after all, be in the best interests of ... ' 'Enough!' Sri Nag said. 'I have given my word to my guru.' It was now Akhu's turn to be silent. He and his colleagues knew there was no answer to this. He opened and closed his mouth several times, and then, shrugging his shoulders, turned and walked sedately away. The four other mice folio . wed him in single file.
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Sri Nag, The Cobra |
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