Sadhu And the Monkeys

 There is a large Semal tree by the side of a less travelled road and a dilapidated temple across it. The ruined temple is home to two monkeys. Nobody comes to temple so they lead peaceful lives, drawing sustenance from the jungle all around the place.  Occasionally ascetics pass through that road to get to higher mountains, take rest under the Semal tree, drink water from a nearby dyke. The water in the dyke is dazzlingly clear and simmers in sharp sunlight, should be exhilarating to parched souls. On the whole it is a good place for short rest before moving forward to appointed destination.  Not too far away is a sparsely inhabited hamlet of simple folks, just in case one needs help one can fall back on it’s reassuring presence.  Villagers rarely venture this side of the jungle; probably some mythical curse deters them to come to this side.  

Peaceful life of monkeys was interrupted by a Sadhu who decided to settle down under the Semal tree for considerable time.  It was not liked by the monkeys but Sadhu ignored them. Given their mischievous nature, monkeys began to pester Sadhu. Initially Sadhu thought that the monkeys will tire out of their pranks so showed lots of patience in ignoring them. One day one of the more adventurous of the two monkeys, climbed up the Semal tree, sat right over the Sadhu and started dropping crumbs and half eaten fruits and nuts. Seeing no effect on Sadhu, the monkey dropped poo over ascetic then quickly descended, sat right in front of the Sadhu to mock him.  This apparently was the last straw on camel’s back. In a stern rebuke he yelled, ‘Freeze!’

It was spring time, Semal tree was in full bloom, laden with fat crimson flowers most delicious item for the monkeys. This was the best time for monkeys to have plentiful stuff to eat and make merry. Jungle had lost its fearsome character instead a kind of serene tranquility pervaded the atmosphere. It was hard for anyone to lose cool in such time and yet such was the menace of the monkeys that mild mannered Sadhu lost cool. The rebuke of Sadhu had telling effect. Immediately the marked monkey felt his foot firmly glued to ground. No amount of effort would make him to get his feet break free from the grip of the ground.  First he began to shout in panic, made wild threatening gesture at the Sadhu but all was in vain. Sadhu had no impact whatsoever by the antics of the monkey, meanwhile his mate, who was watching the entire thing from sidelines got in his act. He was angry, very angry.

In mad frenzy he began to hurl whatever he got hold of, boulders, twigs fruits, nut etc. Sadhu kept his cool and dodged all projectiles. But the effect of all the hurling on other monkey was bad. Every item the other monkey hurled on Sadhu, an inch of this monkey’s body began to turn into stone from down below. He looked at his mate beseechingly to calm down. After a while when all of his legs were turned into stone, his mate gave up in exasperation and walked away in despair. When he came back he saw an unusual sight.  Sadhu was feeding ripe Timla (a kind of pear shaped fruit found in Garhwal which has honey like syrup inside when ripe) fruits to his mate. His anger began to subside; he was puzzled by the behavior of Sadhu, became thoughtful. At last he went to the jungle picked prized fruits and offered them to Sadhu, who looked at him kindly offered half of them to his mate. Later when Sadhu went to dyke to drink water, monkey broke a small branch from a Neem tree, used it as broom to sweep the area clean. He collected soft leaves and made cushion for sadhu where he used to sit for meditation. Every day, he saw that his mate was regaining his body inch by inch which had turned into stone. In a few days his mate was complete free from the curse of Sadhu. 

Sadhu stayed on for few more days then left for higher mountains