How stillness was disturbed

The storyteller, whom I met several decades ago, was a prophet more than a narrator.

This is what he said on a peaceful morning.

A certain man entered a jungle to fetch some wood. To get good wood perhaps one has to cut a good tree grown well. He went on searching tree after tree to find the one that gives him the best wood.

As he went on searching he saw a well grown tree on a hilltop. He climbed the hilltop with difficulty to find another surprise. There was a huge rock at the foot of the tree, which prevented him cutting the tree.

If I roll the rock down, I should be able to cut the tree. It's not difficult to roll the rock down.

Thinking so, he pushed the rock down the hilltop. The rock rolled down. It bounded into a clump of bushes. There was a certain antelope resting in the bush. The antelope instinctively felt the impending disaster.

As the rock was about to bring disaster to him, the antelope frighteningly ran as fast as possible. He hit against a buffalo resting in the bush. The buffalo was angry for the disturbance caused.

"I want to kill the one who disturbed me," said the buffalo running out of the resting.

All of a sudden the buffalo saw a hunter trying to escape. Thinking that the hunter is the culprit who brought disturbance, the buffalo charged him with his sharp forms. The hunter was instantly killed. Then the buffalo left the dead body and ran away.

A vulture was flying in the sky above the jungle and smelled the human blood. It swooped down to the place where the dead body lay. Vultures came one after another to the spot where the hunter's body lay.

It was a strange sight for the villagers to see vulture after vulture swooping down. The villagers talked to each other.

"There is some sort of an impending disaster," said one. The message passed on gradually to most villagers. They gathered in a place and discussed the matter.

What had caused this man to die in this manner, was the first question raised.

"Look, there are hoofprints of a buffalo. The fellow must have been charged by a buffalo," said another.

"But how come a buffalo?" Asked another.

"Look, there are some hoofprints of an antelope too. I am sure that an antelope had come from somewhere to disturb the buffalo." Then they went on discussing the matter further.

"But why an antelope? How can an antelope come here?"

"An antelope had entered the place of a buffalo. So let's see where the antelope had lived." Then they went in search of the resting place of the antelope. Look! This is the place where the antelope had rested," said another.

"Why has he left his resting place?"

"Look, there is a rock fallen from the hilltop over there." Said the leader of the villagers. Then he looked up to the hilltop.

"Come here and you can see from where the rock had fallen. It's hilltop."

"How has it rolled down?"

"Let's go and see. See for ourselves how it had fallen." So all of them climbed the hilltop to see the place from where the rock had rolled down.

"It may not have happened naturally. Someone should have pushed the rock down," said another.

"Oh yes you are perfectly right. Look, this is a stump of a tree cut by a man." They all looked into the tree stump.

"Who is the culprit?" Asked the leader in surprise.

"There is no point trying to find the man who had cut the tree." Said an old man in the team.

"He ought to be punished," said the leader. Everybody seemed to be whispering to each other.

"A man had cut a tree here, and he had moved the rock to do it."

So they went home. They discussed everything. This is what they said:

"In the morning when the sun rose, everything was peaceful. The land was blessed with quietude and peace.

A man had gone to cut wood. He picked the best to cut. He moved the rock to cut the tree. So he had disturbed a whole series of harmony."

Saying all this, the prophet-like storyteller concluded.

"The disturbance that fills the mind of an individual may result in a series of disturbance which will culminate in deaths."