Short Stories » The Lion That Sprang to Life

The Lion That Sprang to Life - Panchatantra Stories for Kids

A long time ago, there lived four friends in a village. They all were very good friends with each other. Those all four were young Brahmins. Out of the four, one friend was completely illiterate but had good common sense. All three were very qualified in terms of Holy Scriptures but lacked common sense.

One day all four friends were discussing with each other that their hard-earned Holy Scripture knowledge is of no use. Perhaps, they should visit the King and get some reward for their respective education.

Next day, they all three packed their bags and travelled to the city, they didn’t want to take their illiterate friend with them. They felt that his common sense knowledge was good for nothing, it doesn’t help in earning any money either. But after much pondering, they decided, “It will not be fair to behave rudely with their best friend and treat him like this”. They all softly replied, “let him come with us.”

Another day, the all four Brahmins started their journey towards the city. In the jungle, they found bones of a dead lion lying on the ground. After seeing the remains of the dead lion, one Brahmin said, “this is the best idea to test ourselves. We have bones of a lion in front of us. Let us try to bring back Lion to life.”

All the three friends agreed to bring back the lion. But the fourth friend didn’t like this idea at all. He told them, if you all want to test your knowledge, then please test on any other animal. Lion is not the right option to testify to your scholarship. But all three laughed and taunted him and said, “You don’t know anything, so you better keep quiet.”

Now, all three made preparations to bring the lion back to life. One friend collected all the bones and made the skeleton of a lion by chanting mantras.

The second Brahmin used his divine power and initiated its rituals to cover the skeleton with flesh and skin and make all the vital organs into the lion’s skeleton. After this procedure, the lifeless lion was ready to get alive.

As the third Brahmin started his dynamic power to put life into the lifeless lion, the fourth who was mutely watching them, said to his friends, “Oh my friends, what are you doing? After coming back to life, he will kill all of us. Please don’t do this mistake; it will be dangerous to our life.”

After listening to this, they contempt him and said, “You are jealous of our divine knowledge. After, doing such hard work, you are asking us to stop. You want to waste our precious knowledge and time both.”

The fourth Brahmin understood it’s a sheer waste of time in arguing with them. So he said, please wait for few minutes. The fourth friend instantly climbed high upon a nearby tree.

The Brahmin started chanting mantras and brings back life into the lion. As soon as the lion became alive, he jumped on each of them and killed all the three Brahmins.

The fourth Brahmin couldn’t do anything, except for watching the disastrous end of his foolish friends. He waited on the tree for the lion to go back into the jungle. Later, he came down from the tree and went back to his home with a heavy heart.

Moral: Common sense is superior to knowledge.