Oh Shalini… the story you wrote is beautiful. It carries a deeper meaning, and it stirred something in me.
To the same story, I want to bring a different angle....I hope you’ll appreciate this too.
Let’s imagine the small fish as Karna and the shark as Duryodhana.
Karna faced so much... injustice, humiliation, and the kind of pain a person of his calibre never deserved. Good people made choices according to them within the rules... hurt him bad… just like the maybe fisherman who waits for the fish to grow only to feed his children. That’s his swadharma.
In the same way, when the Karna is saved by the Duryodhana and chooses to accompany him, he is simply showing gratitude. If the shark ever needed help, fish would probably stand by it. Again, Karna would be following his swadharma.
And the shark? It too acts according to its own swadharma, as it understands it same as Duryodhana
But there is something everyone forgets... Lokdharma, the greater good, what benefits society as a whole.
If tomorrow the shark attacks other fishes... not because it needs food, but simply because it can ...will the small fish still support the shark just because it once saved him?
Will gratitude blind him?
Or will he choose what is right for the world around him?
This is the very question at the heart of the Mahabharata.
If Karna, Bhishma, Dronacharya, even Duryodhana had paused and asked themselves this… Kurukshetra might never have happened.
Wow Harinath! I did not expect this at all, but as I am preparing to learn the Gita, your story comes at the precise moment to herald me in! Thank you! Appreciate it much! I do wonder what the fish might do! When his kind is getting hurt! Wow! That’s something I never would have thought about in a million gazillion years! 🤩
This reminds me of the Nuremberg trials: “We were only doing our job”! If only they had known the Gita and what Sri Krishna had said to Karna, Bhishma and the other legends, we wouldn’t be witnessing another disaster happening right here and now!! 😖
If you build the right narrative and strike the right emotion…especially fear…
you can make ppl believe tat whatever they’re doing is for a greater good or a higher purpose, like freedom, or standing up for what they perceive as right.
Normal, ordinary, gud ppl can end up doing monstrous things, yet feel no remorse. Instead, they may even feel proud.
For example, from our perspective, killing a mosquito to protect ur child from being bitten seems like an act of love…a good thing.
But from the mosquito’s point of view, it’s monstrous.
Tomorrow I’m going to watch the Nuremberg.
Incidentally, the Nazis were the ones who researched the Gita extensively, but for the wrong reasons.
Even the Gita can’t help if you don’t know what you’re seeking.
Wow! That’s exactly right! It’s the Christian nationalists that caused the Iraq war and are causing the deportations splitting babies from their mommies, defunding Medicaid, shutting down the government and bringing chaos everywhere! Every other religion in the world would wonder, did these men and women read the Bible at all? Because they would know the Bible better from what they have been told!!
Shalini’s story is tender, haunting, and quietly profound. Beneath its simple rhythm lies a deep emotional truth how easily we mistake comfort for freedom, and how salvation, when it comes, can bind us in ways we never expected. The fish’s devotion to the shark is not just gratitude it’s longing, awe, and the ache of being seen in a moment of helplessness. We’ve all been that fish at some point: caught, rescued, and left wondering whether our closeness to power is love, fear, or both. Shalini captures the complexity of spiritual awakening with such grace the ego’s illusions, the hunger for meaning, the surrender to something greater. Her words don’t just tell a story; they echo a feeling many of us carry but rarely name. This is more than a parable it’s a mirror held up to the soul.
I didn’t expect to fall into a whole ocean fable today, but here I am, quietly rooting for this brave little fish and its intimidating, oddly tender shark. I love the way you wove something spiritual through their strange friendship — it made the whole story feel like a wink from the universe. Such a curious, sea-salt kind of parable, and it stayed with me more than I thought it would.
Oh Shalini… the story you wrote is beautiful. It carries a deeper meaning, and it stirred something in me.
To the same story, I want to bring a different angle....I hope you’ll appreciate this too.
Let’s imagine the small fish as Karna and the shark as Duryodhana.
Karna faced so much... injustice, humiliation, and the kind of pain a person of his calibre never deserved. Good people made choices according to them within the rules... hurt him bad… just like the maybe fisherman who waits for the fish to grow only to feed his children. That’s his swadharma.
In the same way, when the Karna is saved by the Duryodhana and chooses to accompany him, he is simply showing gratitude. If the shark ever needed help, fish would probably stand by it. Again, Karna would be following his swadharma.
And the shark? It too acts according to its own swadharma, as it understands it same as Duryodhana
But there is something everyone forgets... Lokdharma, the greater good, what benefits society as a whole.
If tomorrow the shark attacks other fishes... not because it needs food, but simply because it can ...will the small fish still support the shark just because it once saved him?
Will gratitude blind him?
Or will he choose what is right for the world around him?
This is the very question at the heart of the Mahabharata.
If Karna, Bhishma, Dronacharya, even Duryodhana had paused and asked themselves this… Kurukshetra might never have happened.
Your story opened up these thoughts in me.
Thank you for sparking them.
Wow Harinath! I did not expect this at all, but as I am preparing to learn the Gita, your story comes at the precise moment to herald me in! Thank you! Appreciate it much! I do wonder what the fish might do! When his kind is getting hurt! Wow! That’s something I never would have thought about in a million gazillion years! 🤩
Haha… this thought doesn’t come from me.
This is exactly what Sri Krishna tells Karna, Bhishma, and the other legends when they ask Him in their final moments...
what their fault was?
They had followed everything according to their dharma.
This reminds me of the Nuremberg trials: “We were only doing our job”! If only they had known the Gita and what Sri Krishna had said to Karna, Bhishma and the other legends, we wouldn’t be witnessing another disaster happening right here and now!! 😖
Nuremberg is an interesting story.
If you build the right narrative and strike the right emotion…especially fear…
you can make ppl believe tat whatever they’re doing is for a greater good or a higher purpose, like freedom, or standing up for what they perceive as right.
Normal, ordinary, gud ppl can end up doing monstrous things, yet feel no remorse. Instead, they may even feel proud.
For example, from our perspective, killing a mosquito to protect ur child from being bitten seems like an act of love…a good thing.
But from the mosquito’s point of view, it’s monstrous.
Tomorrow I’m going to watch the Nuremberg.
Incidentally, the Nazis were the ones who researched the Gita extensively, but for the wrong reasons.
Even the Gita can’t help if you don’t know what you’re seeking.
Wow! That’s exactly right! It’s the Christian nationalists that caused the Iraq war and are causing the deportations splitting babies from their mommies, defunding Medicaid, shutting down the government and bringing chaos everywhere! Every other religion in the world would wonder, did these men and women read the Bible at all? Because they would know the Bible better from what they have been told!!
Shalini’s story is tender, haunting, and quietly profound. Beneath its simple rhythm lies a deep emotional truth how easily we mistake comfort for freedom, and how salvation, when it comes, can bind us in ways we never expected. The fish’s devotion to the shark is not just gratitude it’s longing, awe, and the ache of being seen in a moment of helplessness. We’ve all been that fish at some point: caught, rescued, and left wondering whether our closeness to power is love, fear, or both. Shalini captures the complexity of spiritual awakening with such grace the ego’s illusions, the hunger for meaning, the surrender to something greater. Her words don’t just tell a story; they echo a feeling many of us carry but rarely name. This is more than a parable it’s a mirror held up to the soul.
Thank you Adriao. Thank you so much!
I didn’t expect to fall into a whole ocean fable today, but here I am, quietly rooting for this brave little fish and its intimidating, oddly tender shark. I love the way you wove something spiritual through their strange friendship — it made the whole story feel like a wink from the universe. Such a curious, sea-salt kind of parable, and it stayed with me more than I thought it would.
Thank you Asuka! You brought a smile to my face again! Thanks 😊
The pleasure is mine, Shalini~