The Sandpipers Who Took On the Sea
The sea carries off a tiny bird's eggs to teach him his place. He decides to empty the sea with his beak.
On the shore of the sea lived a pair of sandpipers. When her time came, the hen said to her mate: "My lord, the laying is near; find a safe place where I can put my eggs without fear."
The cock said: "My dear, this spot is pleasant enough; stay here." She answered: "At full moon the sea's waves here drag off even great elephants. Look for somewhere further away." The cock laughed: "What can the sea do to me? Who would dare touch my young?"
The sea overheard that boast and thought: "The conceit of this wretched little bird! Let me see what he can do." And when she had laid her eggs and gone off to feed, the sea carried them away on a wave.
Returning to an empty nest, the hen wept: "Fool! I told you the sea's waves would destroy them. In your pride you would not listen." The cock said: "Now watch. I shall dry up this ocean."
His wife said: "How will you fight the sea alone? One who takes on an enemy without measuring either his own strength or his opponent's is destroyed like a moth in a flame." The cock said: "Persistence is the root of all fortune. If I lift water in my beak night and day, why should the sea not dry? And know this — even a crowd of the weak, united, is hard to defeat."
He called all the birds together and told them his grief. They said: "We are too weak; why labour for nothing? Come, let us go to our lord Garuda — he is our king, and roused by an insult to his own kind he will find the remedy."
So all the birds went to Garuda and cried out with tears: "Lord! Even with a protector like you, the sea has taken our companion's eggs. Today it is one of us; tomorrow he will destroy every bird at his pleasure." Garuda's anger rose, and he made ready to march on the sea.
At that very moment a messenger came from Lord Narayana: "Garuda! The Lord summons you on business at Amaravati; come at once." Garuda stopped and said: "Messenger — does the Lord permit such an insult to a servant like me? The sea has stolen the eggs of my own kin. To insult the servant is to insult the master. Why should a wise man serve a lord who does not know his worth? Let this wrong be righted first; then I shall come."
The messenger carried this to the Lord. Narayana called Garuda with honour and commanded the sea: "Return the eggs." The sea, afraid, gave them back exactly as they were, and the hen took them into her nest again.
So it is said: never treat the small as nothing — and the weak, once organised, bring down the great.
बहूनामप्यसाराणां समवायो हि दुर्जयः । तृणैरपि च रचिता रज्जुर्यया नागोऽपि बध्यते ॥
Moral: Even a crowd of the weak, once joined together, is hard to defeat — from mere grass is twisted the rope that binds an elephant.
From the Panchatantra, Book I — The Loss of Friends.
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