Bharathi’s Parable
A worm was crawling in its own course. An ant came near it. The worm contemptuously dismissed it saying,” you flesh eating ugly creature! Don’t you dare to come near me!” The ant was adamant, went still closer. “Why are you coming near me, sinful creature?” shouted the worm. The ant quietly said, “To eat you!”
“Fool! I will crush you in no time! How audacious you are! Leave here immediately, or else…” warned the worm.
Mean time, the ant got very close to the worm and caught hold of its body. Unable to bear the pain, the worm cried,”Please, please leave me! You must not be violent!” preached the worm. The ant did not care, but left the worm, because on its own it was not able to carry the worm.
The worm heaved a sigh of relief, muttered to itself,”Thank God! The wretched fellow is gone” and took shelter under the shade of a plant, and was resting calmly as if in meditation.
The ant which went, returned with four more of its comrades, caught hold of the worm and made a feast of it.
Bharathi said, “Ants are always united. When there is a problem for one all of its clan will rush to help. But the worms are selfish. They care for themselves only. If they find a comrade in distress, they do not even pause to take notice, and go about with their own jobs. “Why invite trouble for ourselves, after all he is in distress.” It is their attitude”
Bharathi asked his listeners,” Which is good? To be like the worm or the ant?” without waiting for the answer, he himself narrated the moral of the story, by singing a poem in his stentorian voice, The stanza recited started with the line,”onru pattaal undu vaazve”
In Prof. P.S.sundaram’s rendering the stanza means,
“Only united, true life we attain
Divided go down, and none of us gain!
This is the lesson we all have to heed
Once we know this, what else do we need?”
(Narrated by an associate of Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiyar-Source “Bharathi Vijayam” –a Compendium on Bharathiyar by Sandhya pathippagam)
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