During the battle of Kurukshetra, which lasted eighteen days, Vyasa was tormented by remorse, since he was related to both warring parties. Therefore, he was unable to look at the fratricide. One of those days, he was so tormented by remorse that he hurried to leave the blood-soaked battlefield, where the battle was about to begin. He was walking along the road and suddenly saw a spider quickly crawling along the ground.
- Why are you in such a hurry? - asked the sage.
The spider ran off the road, crawled onto the ant heap and answered from this height:
“As if you don’t know that Arjuna’s war chariot will pass along this road now!” If I fall under her wheels, I'm done!
Vyasa was amused by this answer and said:
“Not a single eye will moisten if you die.” The world will not feel the loss when you are killed. There will be no emptiness left when you disappear!
This insult touched the spider to the quick, and, shaking all over with indignation, he exclaimed:
- How can that be? You pompous old man! It seems to you that if you die, it will be a huge loss, and no one will even grieve for me. After all, I also have a wife and children whom I love, I also have a house and food supplies, I am just as attached to life as you are. I feel hunger, thirst, pain, sadness, joy, delight and melancholy when parting with family and friends. The world is as great in me and for me as it is in people and other beings.
Vyasa lowered his head and silently left, muttering the line “saamanyam etatp pashubhir narani” (All is one: man, beast, insect and worm). And yet he said to himself: “Knowledge of the highest limit, the desire for beauty, truth and goodness, comprehension of the unity of the world - all these distinctive attributes of wisdom are the unique treasures of man.” And he went his own way.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru