Tale-2

Years back, there lived a cobra snake on the outskirts of a village. It was so wicked that it would bite all

and sundry who passed the path. So many had died to his bites. As such, the path itself was abandoned

as people grew very afraid of the snake. Once a sage, happily unaware of all this, was passing this path

on his way to a distant village. As usual, our snake rushed to bite him. The bold sage harkened the snake :

" Hello, what makes you rush at me. will you bite me?" " Yes, I will do so as I hardly spare any one- sage

or non- sage," said the snake. It bore a vicious smile on its face. Thoughtfully, the sage spoke thus to the

snake;" Dear snake, you definitely did so many misdeeds and committed so many sins in your previous

life and those led to your birth in such pitiable beastly shape. You are, during this life too, committing sins

by biting innocent people. What makes you bite?" " I bite for thrill and satisfaction", said the snake. On

this, the sage retorted, " Ever thought what beastlier shape you would be born in after you die with such

a heavy load of sin of biting innocent people to death? Pause to think." The snake was really dumb fold on

hearing these words. " So what should I do, sir?" asked the snake. The kind sage advised it, " Pray God,

sing devotional songs and stop biting." The sage moved ahead leaving the snake full of remorse. It began

praying God and shunned its habit of biting. News of the now-non-violent snake spread, people began

mustering courage to visit that spot, children started pelting stones on this non-violent snake and

ultimately the poor snake badly mauled by stones was thrown into a nearby waterless well. An year

passed and the sage passed back the same path. On missing the snake he harkened aloud, " My dear

snake, where are you." The snake cried out from the well, " I am here, sir. " The kind sage took out the snake from the well and learnt of the entire episode. After hearing all, he laughed, " My friend, I had

asked you to shun biting, not hissing loud. This is a merciless world and if you wish to live at all, at least

don't forget to hiss up. Be happy." Then everafter, the snake lived happy. You can figure out, how?