Blog Marathon Post 20. The Sage and The Scorpion

When I was a kid, my father used to tell me stories at bedtime, or else I would refuse to sleep. These were the stories that he had heard from his father. One story has never left me and is my favourite till date:

The Sage and The Scorpion

A very old sage was bathing in a river in a forest. When he opened his eyes after praying to the Sun, he saw a scorpion that was getting tossed around in the river's mighty current. He picked up the scorpion and started towards the shore, but the scorpion being a scorpion, bit him. The sage recoiled from the vicious bite and the scorpion fell back in the river. 

The sage again picked the scorpion up and moved towards the shore to place it on dry land, where it will get a fighting chance to live. But the scorpion bit him again. Once more, the sage dropped him, though this time he had moved a little closer to the shore. 

This went on for a while till the sage was finally able to put the scorpion down at the river bank. 

Image from the Internet. No copyright infringement intended.

Another man was watching this struggle from a distance. When the sage reached the shore after saving the scorpion, and started treating his bites, the man asked him, "Why didn't you let the ungrateful scorpion meet its fate? It kept trying to kill you where as you were trying to save its life! He deserved to die! Such ungratefulness I have never seen!" 

The sage replied with a faint smile, "One cannot be angry at the scorpion for biting me. He does not know any better. It behaved as it is its nature to behave. He remained true to his core, and even in face of death, it did not give up its true nature." 

He finished nursing his wound, looked into the stranger's eyes, and added solemnly, "When a scorpion cannot give up its true nature of stinging, even when death stares him in his face, how can I, who has recognised and embraced compassion as my essence, abandon my true nature and stop trying to save it? Would not that be akin to cheating my true self?"

The man could only bow to such wisdom and such compassion.