The Wheel That Spun on His Head

In a certain place four brahmins' sons were friends, and all of them were ground down by poverty. They talked it over: "A curse on this poverty! A forest full of lions and elephants is better than living penniless among one's own relations. Where a man has nothing, his virtues are not counted either." And they resolved to leave the country and go and earn.

Travelling on, they came to Ujjayini, bathed in the Shipra and bowed before Mahakala. As they were leaving, a yogi named Bhairavananda met them, and they went with him to his monastery.

He asked: "Where have you come from? Where are you going, and for what?" They said: "We are travelling to make our fortune; we shall either get wealth or die — that is our resolve."

The yogi said: "Then your resolve will be fulfilled. Great ends are for great men to accomplish." And he gave each of the four a magic wick and said: "Go towards the Himalaya. Wherever the wick falls from your hand, dig there — you will certainly find a treasure. Take it and come back."

They set out. The first man's wick fell; he dug, and found earth of copper. He said: "Take all the copper you want!" The others said: "Fool! What use is that? All the copper in the world will not lift poverty. Get up, let us go on." He said: "You go; I shall stay here" — and he took copper and went home.

The three went on. The second man's wick fell; digging, they found earth of silver. Delighted, he said: "Take as much silver as you like!" They said: "Behind us was copper, here is silver — surely ahead there will be gold. What is this worth?" He said: "You two go on" — and he took silver and turned back.

The two went on. One man's wick fell; digging, they found earth of gold. He said: "Take all the gold you want; there is nothing better than gold!" The other said: "Fool, you understand nothing. First copper, then silver, now gold — beyond this there will certainly be jewels, of which the smallest quantity ends poverty. Get up, let us go on." He said: "You go; I shall sit here and watch the road for you."

The fourth went on alone. The sun's heat burned him; parched with thirst, he lost the road and wandered.

Then, on a high place, he saw a man — his body soaked in blood, and on his head a wheel turning. He hurried up and said: "Who are you? Why is this wheel spinning on your head? And tell me if there is water anywhere."

The moment he said it, the wheel came off that man's head and settled on the brahmin's. He cried out: "What is this?" The man said: "It came onto my head in exactly the same way."

He asked: "Tell me, when will it come off? The pain is terrible." The man said: "When someone comes with a magic wick in his hand and asks you what you asked me, then it will pass to his head."

He asked: "How long have you stood here? And who is king on the earth now?" — "Vinavatsaraja." — "I do not know the reckoning of the years. When Rama was king I too, worn down by poverty, took a wick from an adept and came by this road; and I saw another man with a wheel turning on his head, and I asked him this same question — and it came to me."

He asked: "Then how have you had food and water here all this time?" He said: "Kubera, fearing that adepts would carry off his treasure, has arranged it so that nobody comes here; and whoever does come is free of hunger, thirst, sleep, old age and death — and feels nothing but the pain. So give me leave to go now." And he went.

Meanwhile his companion — the one who had taken the gold — came looking for him, following the drops of blood along the path, and found him sitting there in agony with the sharp wheel turning on his head.

With tears in his eyes he asked: "Friend! What is this?" And the other told him the whole story of the wheel.

Hearing it, he reproached him: "I stopped you again and again, and you would not listen. What is to be done now? A man may have learning and high birth and still be without judgement.

"Judgement is the better thing, and judgement stands above learning — those without it perish, like the men who made the lion."

वरं बुद्धिस्तथा विद्या विद्याया बुद्धिरुत्तमा । बुद्धिहीना विनश्यन्ति यथा ते सिंहकारकाः ॥

Moral: Judgement is the better thing, and judgement stands above learning — those without it perish, like the men who made the lion.

From the Panchatantra, Book V — Ill-Considered Action.