Ravina Sewani

It happened in ancient times that a slave named Androcles escaped from his master and fled into the forest, and he wandered there for a long time until he was weary.Just then he heard a lion near him moaning and groaning and at times roaring terribly.&nbsp;And when&nbsp;he tried to get up, there he saw the lion coming towards him.Instead of attacking him it kept on moaning and groaning and looking at Androcles, who saw that the lion was holding out his right paw, which was covered with blood and very much swollen. Looking more closely at it, Androcles saw a great big thorn pressed into the paw, which was the cause of all the lion’s trouble.Plucking up courage, he seized hold of the thorn and drew it out of the lion’s paw, who roared with pain when the thorn came out, but soon after found such relief from it that he rubbed up against Androcles, and showed&nbsp;that he knew, that he was truly thankful for being relieved from such pain.One day, a number of soldiers came marching through the forest and found Androcles. They took him prisoner and brought him back to the town, and he was condemned to death because he had fled from his master.Now it used to be the custom to throw murderers and other criminals to the lions, and on the appointed day he was led forth into the arena.The Emperor of Rome was in the royal box that day and gave the signal for the lion to come out and attack Androcles. But when it came out of its cage and got near Androcles, what do you think it did? Instead of jumping upon him, it rubbed up against him, and stroked him with its paw.It was of course the lion which Androcles had met in the forest. The Emperor summoned Androcles to him. So Androcles told the Emperor all that had happened to him and how the lion was showing gratitude for his having relieved it of the thorn. Thereupon, the emperor pardoned Androcles and ordered his master to set him free, while the lion was taken back into the forest and let loose to enjoy freedom once more.Moral: An act of kindness is always remembered. This act is often expressed as gratitude through other kind act.

This is a story of forest, king and lion.Moral(s) of the story: gratitude

Androcles and the lion

Yesha Desai

Here’s another great story from the Hitopadesha. Once upon a time, there lived a deer and a crow in a dense forest. They were very good friends and often spent time with each other. One day a jackal spotted the deer and said to himself, “Nothing tastes better than&nbsp;deer flesh! I must somehow make friends with this deer and try to get close to him.”So, he approached the deer and said, “O deer! I am an orphan jackal and do not have any friends in this forest. You appear very kind-hearted to me. Would you agree to be my friend?” The deer was very pleased with the jackal’s mannerisms and took his new friend to his home.When the crow saw the deer with the jackal, he warned him, “Dear friend, you must be careful!” But the deer did not pay heed to the crow’s warning and continued being friends with the jackal. One day, the jackal said to the deer, “I know of a big field that is full of fresh corn. Do you wish to go there with me? “The deer happily accompanied the jackal to the corn field. From that day onwards, both of them started visiting that corn field every day. The owner of the field was very annoyed and decided to catch the thief who ate corn from his field. He set a trap in the field and the next day when the unsuspecting deer came to eat the corn, he got trapped in the net.The jackal saw the deer getting caught in the net and thought, “Once the owner of the field kills the deer, I shall finally get to eat the tasty deer meat for which I have waited so long.” The deer called the jackal for help, but the cunning jackal said, “I am sorry, I cannot do anything! The net seems to be very strong.” Saying so, he walked away from there and hid himself near the field, waiting for the owner to come and kill the deer.When the crow did not see his friend deer by the evening, he started searching for him and found him lying trapped helplessly in the field. When the deer saw the crow, tears filled up in his eyes and he said, “My friend, I disregarded your advice at first and now I suffer. Tomorrow, I shall be killed by the owner of this field.” The crow felt very sorry for the deer. He thought for a while and then a bright idea struck him. He told the deer, “Listen to me, my friend! When the owner comes tomorrow morning, lie down quietly; make your legs stiff and pretend to be dead. When he takes off the net, I will start cawing. That would be a signal for you to stand up and run away quickly.”The owner of the field came the next morning and saw the deer seemingly dead. As soon as he removed the net, the crow began to caw loudly. In a moment, the deer stood up and sped away. The owner got very angry and threw a stick at the deer. The deer escaped, but the stick hit the jackal on the head and killed it. Moral:We must not trust unfamiliar people very easily and instead put our loyalty and belief in the advice of the people we know.

This is a classic story from Hitopadesha tales.This is a story of crow, deer, jackal and trust.Moral(s) of the story: trust

The Story of The Jackal, The Deer And The Crow

Shina Utavani

Lord Mahavira was the twenty-fourth and last Jain Tirthankara according to the Jain philosophy. A Tirthankara is an enlightened soul who is born as a human being and attains perfection through intense meditation. For a Jain, Lord Mahavira is no less than God.Lord Mahavir invested twelve years in silence and penance with great success.At the beginning of his asceticism (person who does not involve in anything other than meditation), he met a cowherd who left his oxen in the care of Lord Mahavir. The cowherd went to the village and came back a bit later. The oxen had drifted away while grazing. Not being able to find his oxen, he asked, "Ascetic, where are my oxen?"Mahavir was in deep meditation and unaware of all this. The cowherd asked again and again but he did not get any response. He was irritated and shouted, “You hypocrite! Are you deaf, don’t you hear anything?”Mahavir still did not respond. “You pretender, it seems that both your ears are useless. I will fix your ears.” He took long nails like thorns from a nearby and pierced the ears by hammering the thorns in.Even such an incident did not annoy Mahavir from his meditation; neither did it evoke any feelings of anger or hatred in him.

This is a story of the Jain God - Mahavir.Moral(s) of the story: faith

Mahavir

The festival is celebrated on Full moon day of the Ashadha month. The festival is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists to honour their spiritual leaders or teachers. On this day, people express gratitude towards their Gurus.Story:The festival of Guru Purnima was first celebrated by the Buddhists to honour their Guru, Gautam Buddha. Lord Buddha delivered his first sermon (a lecture by a preacher) on this day.Vyasa Muni was one of the greatest Gurus in ancient Hindu traditions. He was also the author of the Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’. Hindus follow this festival by paying tribute to Vyas Muni.The day is also celebrated as the birth anniversary of Veda Vyasa. Therefore, Guru Purnima is also known as Vyas Purnima.The main purpose behind celebrating the festival is to follow the teachings of our Gurus and to pay tribute to them. People worship and show gratitude towards their Gurus, teachers for guiding them. It is a festival of honouring Gurus/ mentors of our lives. Moral:Always respect your Gurus in life and be grateful to them.

This is a story educator, Guru Purnima and student.

Guru Purnima

The Ramayan is an ancient Sanskrit epic written by the famous sage Valmiki. It describes Lord Rama's effort to rescue Sita from the demon king Ravana. It also describes the challenges faced by Lord Rama, Laxaman, and Sita when they were exiled from the kingdom for 14 years. Following is a story from “The Ramayana”.Ramayan is the Hindu Epic tale of India which describes the struggle of Lord Rama in rescuing his wife from the demon king Ravana. Lord Rama decided to build a bridge to reach Lanka in order to rescue Sita. This particular story describes the efforts put by the little squirrel in building the bridge.When the entire army of monkeys was busy making the bridge on the sea to reach Lanka to take Sita, a small squirrel living in the area watched the entire scene. Seeing them, the squirrel also wanted to contribute to building the bridge. But the squirrel was too small to even carry the sand or stone. So, the squirrel thought of an idea. It went to the sea and had a dip. Then, the squirrel rolled over in the sand. With the sand all over its body, it went between the rocks and rolled over it. She continued doing the process from sunrise till sunset. She did this for days effortlessly. No one noticed her for days.One day, a monkey noticed her and started making fun of her. He told her to stay away otherwise the rock would crush her. Everyone started making fun of her. The squirrel was in tears. Lord Ram happened to watch the actions of the squirrel. The squirrel was tireless and went on doing its job without any break until the project was completed. Lord Ram described to the army how the squirrel has worked as the connector between the two rocks. Lord Ram was pleased with the efforts of this little squirrel. He explained to all others the relevance of the squirrel and its sense of duty. He took the squirrel on his lap and showed his appreciation by moving his three fingers from head to tail. It is said that those are the three lines which we see today in a squirrel.Since then, the squirrels have carried white stripes on their bodies. Moral:No work is big or small. It is not the type of work that matters, but what you learn from working that counts. Never listen to people who tell you that the work you are doing is demeaning or would undermine your prestige.

This is a story of monkey, Ram and squirrel.Moral(s) of the story: effort

The Story of a Squirrel

The Ramayan is an ancient Sanskrit epic written by the famous sage Valmiki. It describes Lord Rama's effort to rescue Sita from the demon king Ravana. It also describes the challenges faced by Lord Rama, Laxaman, and Sita when they were exiled from the kingdom for 14 years. Following is a story from “The Ramayana”.Ravana, the king demon was the ruler of Lanka. He had ten heads and twenty arms. He had heard many stories about Ram’s wife, Sita’s beauty. He spied Sita in the forest and instantly fell in love with her. He decided to kidnap Sita and bring her to Lanka. He made a plan to abduct her and went to his uncle, Mareecha, a demon and asked for his help. Mareecha had the power to transform himself in any form and even change his voice. According to the plan, Mareecha transformed himself into a golden deer. Ravan went and hid near the hermitage where Sita was staying with ram and Lakshman.When Sita saw the beautiful deer, she was fascinated by its beauty and asked Ram to bring it for her. Ram had never seen a deer like him before. Laksham warned Ram that the deer might be a demon in disguise. But Sita was fascinated by the deer so, Ram went after the deer. Ram asked Laxman to stay with Sita and protect her. The deer ran deeper and deeper in the forest and Ram followed it. Finally, Ram aimed an arrow at the deer’s heart and shot it. When the arrow struck the deer, it transformed itself back into the Mareecha. Mareecha cried out to Laxman for help in Ram’s voice. When Sita heard Ram’s voice, she begged Laxman to go and see if Ram was in trouble.Laxman was in dilemma. On one hand, he promised Ram to stay with Sita and on the other hand, he was worried about his brother Ram. So, Laxman drew a line around the hut with his arrow and told Sita not to step out of the line. He then left to look out for Ram. Meanwhile, Ravana was hiding nearby and heard Laxman and Sita talking. Ravana quickly disguised himself into an old beggar. He begged Sita for food and water. Sita took pity on him and stepped out of the circle. The beggar man turned back into Ravana, catching Sita in his arms and pulling her into his magic flying chariot. Ravana forcefully dragged her into his flying chariot and took her away to Lanka.

This is a story of Laxman, Ram, Ravan and Sita.

Sita’s kidnapping

There was a little boy named Jerry regularly went to the beach with his family. He loved the sea and would often spend hours swimming and diving with his father.One time Jerry saw a small yellow fish in one of the shallow lagoons. It was almost washed up to the edge and had other fish attacking it.Jerry decided that he wanted to rescue the fish.He quickly rushed off to get a container and filled it with water before slowly picking up the fish and rescuing it. He brought the fish home where it was safe.He was very proud of him and the fish was grateful for his help as the boy nursed it to health. He loved his fish very much and always wanted to protect it.However, as much as the fish loved Jerry back, it wanted to go back home — to its own friends and family.Maybe it was in Jerry’s desire to always keep his fish around him that he ignored the way his fish became sadder day by day.One day when Jerry came back from school, the fish was not moving at all and dread filled his heart. He immediately rushed to get medical help.To his relief, his fish was just fine but the doctor said, “ It is lonely and that’s why it was sad.”Jerry frowned, “Lonely? How? I always spend time with it.”The doctor smiled, “Yes, you do and it is amazing how much can you take care of it but your fish misses its home.”The boy had tears in his eyes but he understood. That night he whispered an apology to his fish and decided to set it free the next day. The next morning he set the fish free and cried thinking he would never see it again.The fish was very happy to be home and the fish’s family was relieved to have it back home too.But unlike what Jerry had expected, the fish remembered him and waited for him to come swim in the sea everyday.There they would play together and both of them were happy. Moral:We need to set free what we love even if we do not want to.

This is a doctor, fish ans sea.Moral(s) of the story: love and selfishness

The lonely fish

A long long time ago, lived a hugeee giant. No giant who walked on earth as big as him. His name was Soppo. When he was thirsty, he would drink all the water from the river. When he felt hungry, he would eat the whole forest. His favourite thing to eat was CLOUDS. He loved to eat clouds so much so that he always used to overeat and that led to his upset stomach. Soppo was good at heart but still he had no friends.Humans were afraid of him because when he ate the clouds, the rains would not fall and drought struck villages and towns. Because he used to eat crops and forests, people had no food to eat and survive. And when he overate the clouds, he would cry a lot and his tears caused floods everywhere. So wherever Soppo would go, people would leave that place. This made Soppo upset.On seeing Soppo upset, stars came to him and asked him about his sadness. Soppo told them his stories to which the stars replied, “Earth is a beautiful friends with beautiful people. Someone will be ready to be your friend.” Soppo immediately asked, “But where will I find someone who wants to be friends with me?” The stars told him, “You just have to help humans with something and then will surely accept you as their friend. We stars, shine in the night to show the way to travellers and sailors. In return they tell us many stories and give us company in the night.”So for the next few days, Soppo thought of ways in which he could be helpful to humans of earth. He thought very hard but could not think of a single thing to help people with anything. So he decided to go talk to Moon, as moon was an elder. Moon explained to Soppo, “You will not be able to help someone unless you know them well.” For the next few weeks, Soppo closely observed people’s lifestyles, their problems, and their pain. He realised that people were afraid of him because he would cause droughts and floods everywhere he went. One day, he had a great idea to help people. He decided to help people by his eating and crying at the right place and the right time.From that on, Soppo would eat up the clouds which would cause floods or storms. He would cry in a place where there would be shortage of water. This is how Soppo turned from a scary giant to a helpful giant.Soon people realised his help and started talking to him, play with him, and also take care of him. Moral:Not everyone who appears evil is actually like that. Sometimes people cannot figure out what to do about themselves. We should give time and always appreciate their efforts when they try to change for the better.

This is a story of cloud, flood, forest and rain.

 The  cloud eating giant

Long ago, there lived a woodcutter in a small village. He was sincere in his work and very honest. Every day, he set out into the nearby forest to cut trees. He brought the woods back into the village and sold them out to a merchant and earn his money. He earned just about enough to make a living, but he was satisfied with his simple living.One day, while cutting a tree near a river, his axe slipped out of his hand and fell into the river. The river was so deep, he could not even think to retrieve it on his own. He only had one axe which was gone into the river. He became a very worried thinking how he will be able to earn his living now! He was very sad and prayed to the God. He prayed sincerely so the God appeared in front of him and asked, “What is the problem, my son?” The woodcutter explained the problem and requested the God to get his axe back.The God put his hand deep into the river and took out a silver axe and asked, “Is this your axe?” The Woodcutter looked at the axe and said “No”.&nbsp;So the God put his hand back deep into the water again and showed a golden axe and asked, “Is this your axe?” The woodcutter looked at the axe and said “No”. The God said, “Take a look again Son, this is a very valuable golden axe, are you sure this is not yours?” The woodcutter said, “No, It’s not mine. I can’t cut the trees with a golden axe. It’s not useful for me”.The God smiled and finally put his hand into the water again and took out his iron axe and asked, “Is this your axe?” To this, the woodcutter said, “Yes! This is mine! Thank you!” The Goddess was very impressed with his honesty so she gave him his iron axe and also other two axes as a reward for his honesty. Moral:Always be honest. Honesty is always rewarded.

This is a story of gold, iron, silver and woodcutter.Moral(s) of the story: honesty

general places stories

Stories help in improving a child's imagination. Here are a few interesting ones for you to narrate to your child.