The Tree That Defied the Wind

The sages told the Pandavas of the great silk-cotton tree that boasted it feared not even the Wind, and of how its pride was humbled - a short, sharp tale of the folly of boasting against the mighty, and of how loud boasts of fearing nothing often hide a secret fear.

There grew in a certain forest an enormous and ancient silk-cotton tree, the Shalmali, vast and spreading, with a mighty trunk and great wide-flung branches, the largest and oldest tree in all that country. It had stood for ages, and it was proud of its size and its strength and its long endurance; for while storms had broken and uprooted many another tree around it over the years, this great tree still stood, and it took all the credit to itself, believing that it stood by its own might and would always do so, fearing nothing in the world. And in this pride the great tree grew boastful, until its boasting reached the ears of the wandering sage Narada.