Ukraine and the squirrel

I am not one of those who is acutely aware of the types of trees or animals.  Especially in the adopted country where I have no childhood familiarity, unlike with tamarind or banyan trees or elephants.  So, years ago, when a friend asked me whether what I saw was a squirrel or a chipmunk, I thought to myself "does it really matter?"  I vocalized that internal voice as "is there a difference other than their size?"

As we got into talking about those rodents, I told them about the story of how the Indian squirrel earned its stripes.  Now, that was new to them.

I might not know a pine tree from a fir, but boy do I relish in connecting with the old Hindu mythologies.  I suppose the mythology to a non-believer is religion to others.  After all, it takes a giant leap of faith to believe that a dead man came back to life after three days, or that the religious leader took a night trip to the heavens on a winged horse, or that chanting to a granite idol will solve one's problems.

Of course, the Hindu mythologies were at one time integral to my faith.  There were times that I tried to convince myself that the gods weren't delivering the goods only because I was not believing enough.  I heard a religious pundit use an example to drive home the point about faith.  A Vedic scholar is pushed off a mountain by anti-social elements.  As he is falling down to his death, he remains calm and says "if the Vedas are true, then this fall will not kill me."  Splat he hits the ground and dies.  In heaven, he asks the gods why they didn't save him and let him live.  They tell him that he said "if the Vedas are true" and that there is no ifs and buts about the Vedas.

I have been a non-believer for decades.  But, I love the old mythologies because they offer wonderful insights into the human condition.  When I think about them as allegories, they are valuable moral guidelines on how to live a good life.

The story of the squirrel in the Ramayana, an epic that every Hindu is at least superficially familiar with, is one such allegory.

In the mythology, Rama is on his way to Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita, from Ravana.  One minor problem that Rama--a human incarnation of the god Vishnu--faces is that Lanka is an island off peninsular India.  Rama didn't have a flying machine that Ravana had--the bad guys always seem to be the ones with better gadgets!  So, a bridge had to be built for Rama and his soldiers, which included a monkey regiment, to cross the sea.

As humans and monkeys worked day and night to build that bridge from Rameshwaram, a squirrel too wanted to help out in this just war.  It rolled around in the sand and ran to the bridge under construction and shook the sand off its body.  Rama was so impressed and moved by the critter's dedication to the war effort that he gently caressed the squirrel.

According to the Ramayana, those gentle caresses are how the squirrel earned its white stripes.  Rama's imprints on the squirrel that wanted to help the good guy fight the bad guy.

Which brings us to Ukraine.

Of course there is very little that this blogger can do from a small town that is ten time zones away.  There is practically nothing that most of us individuals can do.  However, we can, should, be like the allegorical squirrel in the Ramayana and do whatever is possible within our capabilities so that a country and its people can be rescued from the evil actions of a madman.

Here are some ways that you too can be a squirrel in this modern day retelling of the Ramayana and help defeat the Russian Ravana.