Author: Manoj Das
Publisher: Sahitya Akademi
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 298
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8126011750
Description
Retold by a master-story teller of our time - one of the best-loved creative writers of India - a hundred tales of light, wit and delight- tales of common sense and sensxe uncommon - tales of the wise and their wisecracks.
A significant branch of India's vast literary heritage consists of tales told by mystics through the ages, different from myths and legends. Though taken for granted as a part of our folklore and rarely discussed, their influence on the minds of generations of common people has been only next to that of the epics. Sometimes they hit the nail of the head, sometimes they shock and sometimes they make one laugh at oneself, but they invariably enrich one's mind by identifying the complex and intriguing forces - psychological and occult, at work in our lives.
This collection, probably the first ever of its kind, of a full hundred tales culled from sages known and unknown through decades of a sustained interest by its present author, should prove as revealing as they have proved for centuries past.
Contents
Preface
Four Travellers and a Stranger
The Song at dawn
Two ways to learn a Hymn
The last Brahmin
God in smiles and in tears
Riddle of the Brahman
Hair-Oil for the Bald
Deeds and Destiny
The Dangerous Rider
Crossing the River
The Miraculous contact
The Strange case of a Blanket
The Forgotten Vow
Crazy in the wilderness
The Seeker of Happiness
The Bare-Handed Baba
An Experiment with a cup of oil
The Ochre Garb
Brahma Face to Face with the Brahma
The Miracle that failed
The Serpent's predicament
A Project of prolonged thought!
Of Action and consciousness
of the nose behind the nose-ring
A Suernatural achievement
The Propitious Hour
Who has renounced wealth and happiness?
Feats human and otherwise
The Ascetic and the angler
The true miracle
Mysteries human and divine
The Scholar remembers his native dialect
The swan from manasarovar
The mighty Elephant and the Tiny Fish
The final choice
The Jackal's Magic
In search of fire
A most delicious drink
How long to wait?
The indefatigable bondage
From whom to beg?
A fight against fate
"Come back properly Dressed!"
Myself
The Sadhu who saved a village
In quest of the beautiful
How to lead home a cow
The changing taste
of Truth and lie
Trying to know the Elephant
The hand that thrashed is the hand that nursed
Three boons
The man who went forward
Indra to blame!
Signs of the Ascetic
Far beyond the masks
The untouchable
Curse or Blessing?
The man atop the hill, the man midway the hill and the Climbers
A speculation that became a prophecy
A Gift for the Queen
Why the Sage Kept silent
Ganja sanctioned!
The Guru and the Disciple
Enlightened overnight
Handling the wishing cup
A windfall of luck
The fasting devotees
The location of paradise
Gold for happiness
The Transformed soil
The Sinner
A Revelation for the thief
While God waits
When the while lotus was red
Back from pilgrimage
Under the wish-fulfilling tree
Roy Sahib turns Non-Violent
The Flattered Donkey
The wholly Holyman
Wisdom through charity
Wanted a Scholar-Old and Bald
A strange ware for sale
Secret of the poet's sight
The ultimate boon
The locked gate
A companion in the wilderness
That explains!
The Friendly mirror
The word
When cleverness turned into wisdom
The day the earth turned gold
The three candidates
Erudition in midstream
The invisible blow
Garuda's Compassion
The Last Lock of hair
The Miracle yet to happen
The Magic stone
The Misunderstood Prayer