The 10th man story!

If there is one story that is a great hit with children, it is the “10^th man story”. It is an ancient story. Adi Shankara (well before 8^th century AD) has referenced the tale in two of his works. In the 14^th century, the story was expanded by Swami Vidyaranya in his philosophical treatise "Pancha-dashi". These works are available today, lending credence to the fact, that the story is an ancient one.

More recently, in the 18^th century, the story was retold in Tamil by an Italian Jesuit priest called Beschi. His version called “Paramartha-guru and his foolish disciples” became very popular. It is this adaptation that I tried to narrate to my daughter, as a young parent, and she, as a kindergarten kid.

“Paramarthaguru was a teacher who had 9 disciples.  Each disciple was more foolish than the other. Their names were- “Matti”, “Madayan”, “Muudan”, “Muttaal”, “Milechan”, “Somberi” and others!” (It is tough to translate these names in English. We can loosely translate the names as “the simpleton fool”, “the total fool”, “the chronic fool”, “the pathological fool” etc.- essentially, increasing degrees of foolishness. The only outlier was “Somberi”, who was not only foolish, but lazy too.)

My daughter interrupted me immediately. “Appa! Why did these disciples have strange names like “Matti”, “Madayan” and “Muttaal”? Why didn’t they have names like the boys in my class- Aditya, Akhilan and Aryan? Why did Paramarthaguru have no girl students? Because they were not foolish? That’s why? How did the guru manage to collect so many foolish students?”

These were tough questions. I evaded them with simplistic answers and proceeded with the narration. “The guru and the students had to cross a river. Once they crossed the river and reached the opposite bank, they had to confirm that all 10 of them were intact. The guru asked Matti, the class monitor, to count. Matti counted- “1, 2, 3….” and found there were only 9. Matti was alarmed. One person is missing, he said gravely. Madayan knew that Matti was weak in Maths. He decided to count. Madayan counted, “1, 2, 3…” and reached 9 again! Indeed, one person was missing. Panic set in! Who was missing? Who was missing? Who got drowned in the river? Eventually, Paramarthaguru had to step in. The guru counted, but lo and behold, it was still 9! All of them started crying, fearing one student was lost. They just did not know who was lost!”

“Did they cry softly or loudly, Appa? The teacher also cried? He also? Did they have a handkerchief to wipe their face?” my daughter asked. Again, I side-stepped these concerns and continued.

“A passerby saw this bawling group and wanted to help. He heard the entire story. He lined up all of them. He gave a whack to each person with a cane! Each victim shouted out his name and the increment in the count. Matti-one, Madayan-two, Muttaal-three…and finally, it was Guru-ten! The 10^th person has come back, the 10^th person has come back, they screamed in glee! They rejoiced and hugged each other!”

As a parent, you couldn’t end the story abruptly, without elucidating the profound message that it conveys. Shifting gears, I went on a philosophical spiel. “What does this story convey? What was the problem? Each person counted the rest, without including himself. That is the problem in life. We feel the problem is outside and search for a solution outside. We never realize that the root cause of the problem is me. The problem is me. The solution is me! The 10^th person, for whom they all cried, was never lost. He was already there, all the time, even while they were crying. They didn’t realize that the 10^th person was the very “cryer”, the crying person! “Aham dashamah, aham dashamah”, I am the 10^th person, I am the 10^th person…that is the claim that must be made! That is realization! That is realization! Do you get it?”

I sat back, filled with the satisfaction of a parent, who had succeeded in disseminating the most profound teaching to the next generation, that too, so early in life. My daughter was lucky. She blinked back, rolling her eyes. “But Appa, actually…actually…who got lost and came back? It was Somberi correct? He was lazy and stayed back on the other side itself, right?  He played hide-and-seek and crossed the river when they started counting, no? I knew the missing person was Somberi! I knew that! I knew that!” 

Paramarthaguru may have found a new disciple and an original thinker!