29 - Act Now, Think Later

Summary

In this episode of 'Stories from India,' host Narad Muni narrates two tales from the Panchatantra. The first story tells of a mongoose mistaken for a threat by its adoptive mother, leading to tragic consequences. The second recounts the tale of a tortoise and geese attempting a daring rescue flight, foiled by the tortoise's quick temper. The podcast also touches on the Panchatantra's educational purpose and the story of the 'Elsa fish,' drawing parallels with the biblical Jonah and the whale.

Takeaways

• 🎵 The podcast 'Stories from India' explores myths, legends, and folktales from India, hosted by Narad Muni, a mythological character with eternal life and knowledge.
• 🐍 The first story features a man who, after forgetting his wedding anniversary, adopts a baby mongoose as a pet for his wife. This mongoose later saves their son from a deadly cobra.
• 👶 The wife initially treats the mongoose like a son, but her attention shifts to her human son when he is born, leading to a change in her attitude towards the mongoose.
• 🐍 In a tragic twist, the wife, unaware of the mongoose's heroic act, kills it, believing it had harmed her son, only to discover later that it had actually saved him from a cobra.
• 🦢 The second story involves a tortoise and two geese who are friends. The tortoise's pond is drying up, and the geese devise a plan to fly the tortoise to a new pond.
• 🌳 The tortoise's pond is the last water body for miles around, making it crucial for the tortoise to find a new home before the pond dries up completely.
• 🚁 The geese and tortoise attempt a daring aerial rescue, with the tortoise holding onto a stick carried by the geese, but the plan fails when the tortoise opens his mouth to speak.
• 📚 Both stories are from the 'Panchatantra,' an ancient Indian collection of fables attributed to Vishnu Sharma, intended to educate and impart wisdom.
• 🌈 The character of the week is the 'rainbow fish,' known for swallowing the Buddha, and its scales represent elements like grass, water, air, and fire.
• 🎶 The podcast's music is sourced from Purple Planet, and there will be a special episode on Buddha's birthday discussing a water filtration method and anger management.

Q & A

What is the name of the podcast and its main focus?

The podcast is called 'Stories from India' and it focuses on myths, legends, and folktales from India.

Who is the host of the podcast and what is unique about them?

The host is Narad Muni, a mythological character with the gift of eternal life and knowledge of the past, present, and future.

What is the first story in the podcast about?

The first story is about a man who finds a baby mongoose and brings it home as a gift for his wife, leading to a series of events involving the mongoose saving the couple's son from a cobra.

Why does the man in the first story bring home a baby mongoose?

The man brings home the baby mongoose because he has forgotten his wedding anniversary and sees the baby as a last-minute gift for his wife.

What tragic mistake does the wife make in the first story?

The wife mistakenly kills the mongoose, believing it to be a threat to her baby, not realizing it had saved her son from a cobra.

What is the second story in the podcast about?

The second story is about a tortoise that befriends a pair of geese and is saved from a drying pond by being flown to a new location.

Why do the geese help the tortoise?

The geese help the tortoise because its pond is drying up, and they want to save their friend from dying.

What goes wrong during the tortoise's flight to a new location?

The tortoise opens its mouth to shout at laughing children, causing it to lose its grip on the stick and fall.

What is the source of the stories covered in the podcast?

The stories are from the Panchatantra, a collection of fables attributed to Vishnu Sharma.

Why was the Panchatantra written?

The Panchatantra was written to educate a king's sons who were struggling with their studies, using stories to impart wisdom and important ideas.

What is the significance of the rainbow fish mentioned in the podcast?

The rainbow fish is a creature from a story that swallowed the Buddha, and its scales represent different elements of nature.

What is the connection between the rainbow fish and the biblical story of Jonah and the whale?

The connection is the theme of a person being swallowed by a large sea creature, which is a common motif in stories from different cultures.

Outlines

00:00

🎶 Introduction to the Podcast and the First Story

The host Narad Muni introduces 'Stories from India,' a podcast about myths, legends, and folktales. Narad, a mythological character with eternal life and knowledge, narrates the stories. This episode features two stories from the Panchatantra. The first story is about a man who forgets his anniversary gift and ends up bringing home a baby mongoose, which his wife loves. As the wife later gives birth to a son, her attention shifts, and she becomes distrustful of the mongoose, fearing it might harm her baby. One day, the mongoose heroically kills a cobra that had entered the house, but the wife, misinterpreting the scene, tragically kills the mongoose, thinking it had harmed her son.

05:00

🐍 The Mongoose and the Cobra

The second part of the first story continues with the mongoose being left alone to babysit while the wife goes to fetch water. A cobra enters the house, and the mongoose bravely fights and kills it to protect the baby. The wife returns to find the mongoose with blood on its teeth and, assuming the worst, kills the mongoose with a pot of water. She then discovers the dead cobra and her unharmed baby, realizing her grave mistake and feeling immense guilt for killing the mongoose that saved her child.

10:02

🦢 The Tortoise and the Geese

The second story involves a tortoise whose pond is drying up due to a drought. His friends, two geese, come up with a plan to save him by flying him to a new pond. The tortoise has to bite onto a stick carried by the geese and keep his mouth shut during the journey. As they fly over a group of children, the tortoise becomes angry at their laughter and opens his mouth to shout at them, causing him to fall to the ground. The story concludes with the tortoise learning a harsh lesson about keeping his mouth shut.

15:03

📚 Closing Remarks and Next Episode Teasers

Narad wraps up the episode, noting that both stories are from the Panchatantra, a collection of ancient Indian tales written by Vishnu Sharma to educate princes. He highlights the educational purpose and storytelling method of the Panchatantra. Narad then introduces the next episode, which will feature a special on the Buddha's birthday and stories from the Ramayana, including a political move by a nanny and a father torn between his love for his wife and son. He also mentions the character of the week, an elephant surviving a crocodile attack with divine help, and invites listeners to subscribe and leave feedback.

Keywords

💡Narad Muni

Narad Muni is a mythological character in Hindu mythology known for his eternal life and omniscience. In the context of the video, he serves as the host of the podcast, 'Stories from India,' and uses his knowledge to narrate various myths, legends, and folktales. His role is central to the theme of the video, as he guides the listeners through the stories.

💡Panchatantra

The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of animal fables in verse and prose, which is one of the key sources of the video's stories. It is noted for its moral tales that impart lessons on life and politics. In the script, the Panchatantra is mentioned as the origin of the stories about the mongoose and the tortoise, illustrating its significance to the video's educational purpose.

💡Mongoose

A mongoose is a small carnivorous mammal known for its agility and sharp teeth. In the video script, a mongoose is portrayed as a loyal pet that saves its human brother from a deadly cobra, demonstrating themes of loyalty, family, and the unexpected heroism of unlikely heroes.

💡Cobra

A cobra is a venomous snake known for its hood and neurotoxic venom. In the narrative, the cobra represents a deadly threat to the baby, and its encounter with the mongoose highlights the natural instincts and protective behaviors of animals, as well as the tragic misunderstanding by the mother.

💡Guilt

Guilt is a deep feeling of remorse or responsibility for a wrong committed. In the script, the mother experiences guilt after mistakenly killing the mongoose, who was actually a protector of her child. This concept is pivotal as it explores the consequences of hasty actions and misjudgments.

💡Tortoise

A tortoise is a land-dwelling reptile with a protective shell. In the video, the tortoise befriends geese and faces the predicament of its drying pond. The tortoise's story illustrates themes of friendship, survival, and the ingenuity of finding solutions in dire situations.

💡Geese

Geese are waterfowl known for their social behavior and migratory patterns. In the script, the geese are depicted as loyal friends to the tortoise, devising a plan to save it from its drying pond. Their role emphasizes the values of camaraderie and creative problem-solving.

💡Drought

Drought refers to a period of unusually low precipitation, leading to water scarcity. In the video, the tortoise's pond is drying up due to a drought, which sets the stage for the story of survival and relocation. This environmental context is crucial for understanding the challenges faced by the tortoise.

💡Rainbow Fish

The Rainbow Fish is a mythical creature in the script, known for its colorful scales representing different elements and its story of swallowing the Buddha. This creature symbolizes the cultural richness and diversity of Indian mythology, as well as the interconnectedness of nature's elements.

💡Moral Tales

Moral tales are stories that convey a lesson or moral to the audience. The video's stories from the Panchatantra serve as moral tales, teaching about loyalty, friendship, and the consequences of actions. They are integral to the video's educational theme, aiming to impart wisdom through engaging narratives.

💡Mythological Creatures

Mythological creatures are beings from myths and legends, often possessing supernatural qualities or abilities. The video features several such creatures, like the mongoose and the Rainbow Fish, which are used to explore cultural narratives and impart life lessons, adding a layer of fantasy and intrigue to the storytelling.

Highlights

Introduction to 'Stories from India' podcast, a platform for sharing myths, legends, and folktales from India.

Host Narad Muni, a mythological character with the gift of eternal life and omniscience, presents the podcast.

The podcast covers stories from the Panchatantra, an ancient Indian collection of fables.

A tale of a man who forgets his wedding anniversary and ends up adopting a mongoose as a gift for his wife.

The mongoose becomes a beloved pet but is later neglected when the wife has her own son.

The mongoose saves the son from a deadly cobra, demonstrating loyalty and bravery.

Tragic irony as the wife, unaware of the mongoose's heroism, kills it mistakenly.

A story of unlikely animal friends: geese and a tortoise facing the challenge of a drying pond.

The geese devise an ingenious plan to fly the tortoise to safety using a stick.

The tortoise's downfall due to opening its mouth mid-flight, leading to a humorous and tragic end.

Discussion on the Panchatantra's significance as an educational tool for imparting wisdom.

The Panchatantra's unique storytelling structure, where stories are chained together.

Introduction of the 'Rainbow Fish', a creature with scales representing elements of nature.

A parallel drawn between the Rainbow Fish and the biblical story of Jonah and the whale.

Announcement of a special episode on Buddha's birthday exploring connections with water filtration and anger management.

A preview of upcoming stories from the Ramayana featuring political intrigue and familial conflict.

Teaser for the next character, an elephant surviving a crocodile attack with divine intervention.

Closing remarks with an invitation to follow the podcast for new episodes and additional content.

Transcripts

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

hello and welcome to stories from India

a podcast where we talk about myths

Legends and folktales from

India I am your host narad money and I'm

a mythological character myself

I have the gift of eternal life and

knowledge of the past the present and

the

future by profession I'm a traveling

musician and a

Storyteller so the way I'm doing my job

is by

podcast this week we'll cover a couple

of stories from the pchat

Tantra one is about a little baby boy

and his very unlikely animal sibling

the other introduces air travel to a

toris the cost of the flight

ticket he just has to keep his mouth

closed the character this week is a

colorful

creature it's a rainbow

fish I also like to think of it as the

Elsa fish for reasons that'll soon be

clear our first story begins in a little

village in Ancient India where a couple

lived one day as the man was enjoying a

long day out drinking with the boys he

suddenly remembered with

shock it was his wedding anniversary and

he had completely forgotten to get his

wife a

gift he did not even have a

card this was going to be terrible

it was too late now to scare up a gift

from

somewhere he didn't have a choice he had

to face the

music on his way home he saw something

that Disturbed him a

lot it was a tiny baby crying next

to the lifeless body of its

mother the man picked up the baby

mongus alone

and helpless like that it wouldn't last

minutes as he entered his house his wife

saw the baby Mongoose in his hands and

squealed with delight a pet mongoose

that's exactly what she wanted for her

anniversary oh yes said the man

recovering

quickly I had been planning this for

weeks sorry I'm late just took a while

to get this little

fell the wife loved the little baby

mongus and took very good care of him

treating him like he was her own

son that is until she had a real

son at that point her attention shifted

completely to the new

baby the wasn't ignored but he did

Miss all the

attention

nevertheless he kind of understood that

it had to do with the birth of his baby

brother the and the baby got along

really well they played with each other

all

day the wife's treatment of the

unfortunately got

worse while previously she just paid him

less attention

now she was outright

distrustful look at those sharp teeth

she thought of the

who by now was all grown

up who's to say he won't playfully bite

my baby and end up hurting him real

bad she didn't act on this line of

thought though she often nagged her

husband about

it and this turned out to be very

fortunate for

her one day she had to go down to the

river to fetch

water she quite strictly asked her

husband to keep an eye on her baby boy

and the

but the moment she was out of

sight he sneaked off to play poker with

his

buddies folks please don't try this at

home

amongus is usually not an adequate

babysitter well there was a hole in the

wall and an Indian cobra sneaked into

the

house an Indian cobra not to be confused

with the king

cobra is one of the deadliest snakes in

the

world as the cobra slithered in

the spotted it right

away worried about his brother's

safety the mongus entered full battle

mode it was a very even

contest the snake deafly struck out many

times and the mongos narrowly avoided

each

strike finally the sunk its teeth

into the Cobra's Hood and clung on for

what seemed like an

eternity the did not lose in its

grip until after he was sure the snake

had

died

Victory the was proud he had done

his duty by his

family just then he heard footsteps

outside and rushed out to greet his

mom wouldn't mother be pleased to see

the Brave thing he had done he had saved

his little brother from the

Cobra

Well Mother wasn't

pleased the Mongol hadn't anticipated

the psychological impact of a mother

thinking her worst fears had been

realized she saw the with a big

smiling face and its sharp teeth

dripping with

blood she couldn't have know known it

was Cobra blood and not human

blood she reacted

instantly the pot of water she was

carrying on her

head she brought it down hard on the

killing it right

away she then rushed inside to

discover no

husband and wait a minute a smiling baby

boy alive and well in his crib and what

was that it looked like a dead Cobra

bleeding all

over she had just killed the creature

who had saved her baby's

life she would have to live with guilt

all her

life and she would have to live with the

husband who was careless enough to

neglect his babies at

home our Second Story is also about

unlikely animal

friends in this case there were a couple

of GES that made friends with a

toris every day the geese would come to

visit the toris in his pond and they

talk for hours while munching on fish

sticks and frog

legs the toris was a really good

host But as time went by fish and fr

frog seemed harder to come

by and then the tortois realized that

the most horrible thing was

happening his pond his home was drying

up he might have attributed this to

non-anthropogenic climate

change but it was just a regular drought

in the

land unfortunately L the pond would

almost certainly dry up before the next

rainy

season and that meant the toris would

not

survive when the geese visited the toris

later that day he explained the whole

situation to

them the geese had flown all over this

area

surely there was another Pawn not far

away that the tortois could crawl

to but the Gaze sadly shook their

heads there wasn't any other water body

around for hundreds of

miles this Pond was the

last they brainstormed a

bit and until finally they hit upon a

brilliant

idea the toris was too heavy for either

of the geese to

carry but they could divide the

load without actually dividing up the

tortoise they were going to fly him out

of

here in an animal version of

mcgyver they hatched a

plan each of the geese would clamp onto

one end of a

stick the toris would bite onto the

middle of the stick

the geese would be able to fly with the

stick and the

Tortoise they did a short and low

altitude test tried to

confirm the only

catch the toris could not let go he had

to keep his mouth shut throughout the

whole

journey but the geese were

fast and they could take maybe a break

or two on the

way the T da said a tearful goodbye to

the place that had been his home his

whole

life with a heavy heart but with just a

trace of

optimism he grabbed the stick as did the

geese and they were

off the takeoff was

smooth and so far they had had no

turbulence and look at the pretty sides

down there the toris had never imagined

what an aerial view of the land looked

like and there down there at

2:00 there was a group of children

playing and wait they had spotted the

geese and the Tortoise and they were

laughing nasty little kids how dare they

laugh at

him mind your own business screamed the

the

toris in a Wy coyote versus Roadrunner

moment he stopped suddenly in

midair he realized that in opening his

mouth to address the Laughing

kids he had let go of the

stick unlike Wy coyote

however the toris was unlikely to order

a pair of clipon wings from Acme to

complete his journey

that's all for now some notes on the

show both of these stories are from the

panchatantra we have previously covered

a couple of panchatantra stories in

episode 4 hay

Tales both of these stories are also

well known outside of

India thanks to tourism and

trade the punat Tantra was was written

by Vishnu Sharma as a

challenge a king was having a hard time

managing his

sons they were pretty poor

academically I guess they just didn't

have the aptitude to read dozens of

textbooks and to turn in homework

assignments and sit through 3-hour

exams Vishnu Sharma had the challenge of

educating the boys

and it was a time Box

challenge to do this he thought of a

revolutionary new

idea well it was revolutionary 2,000

years

ago he wrote and then told them stories

that could help them absorb important

ideas from

lectures so the pchat Tantra was a bit

like the for dummies or the idiots guide

book

series wisdom for

princes a story book for the rest of

us the stories in the panchatantra are

actually chains of

stories at the conclusion of each

incident one of the characters narrates

a new

story a little bit like in the thousand

one tales from the Arabian

Knights but without all the Cliffhangers

the character this week is a colorful

creature it's a rainbow

fish I also like to think of it as the

Elsa

fish the rainbow fish is a fish that was

as large as a

whale not to be confused with matsa from

episode 1 unicorn fish which was much

much

larger the rainbow fish is claim to fame

is that it swalled the Buddha the

founder of

Buddhism the Buddha didn't stay

swallowed of

course a group of fishermen and Fisher

women captured the rainbow

fish they rescued the

Buddha and guess

what they had enough fish fillets for

the rest of the

year the rainbow fish was called so

because scales were colored red blue

green and

yellow I suppose orange and violet

should really have been

present but I'm sure at a particular

angle of

sunlight those colors would have been

visible

too I'm deliberately not including

Indigo which is a madeup color in the

rainbow

anyway the green scales represented

grass the blue scale scales meant

water the yellow represented air even

though the air is

colorless and lastly the red scales

represented

fire a more plausible explanation would

have been to have the yellow represent

fire and the red represent the

air at least at sunrise and sunset the

sky does have a distinctly reddish tint

the story of the rainbow fish has some

parallel with the biblical Jonah and the

whale this may seem surprising but there

are many tales all around the world of

people being swallowed by a large sea

creature that's all for this week if you

have comments or suggestions please

leave a comment or a review on the site

sfip podcast.com

or tweet at SFI

podcast you can also find me on

Instagram and

Facebook be sure to subscribe to the

show to get notified automatically of

new

episodes thanks to all your listeners

for your continued

support the music is from purp

planet.com that's

purple-planet.com

this Thursday is the Buddha's birthday

so I'm going to do a special episode on

that day where we'll learn the

connection between a water filtration

method and anger

management but next weekend we'll pick

up where we left off in the

ramayan we'll see a nanny who executes a

very houseof card style political

move we'll also see a father conflicted

between his his love for his wife and

his love for his

son the character next week is an

elephant that manages to survive a

crocodile

attack thanks to some Divine

interference I'll see you next

[Music]

week