Page 116 - For Men of Understanding

DEFENCE TECHNIQUES

T he animal on the right page is not a snake but a tiny caterpillar, sim-
ply a tiny "caterpillar". This animal protects itself from its enemies by
its similarity to a snake. When attacked by an enemy, this tiny crea-
ture calmly turns its tail towards its enemy and puffs it up. At that moment, a
dreadful snake shows up right in the face of the enemy, which has no other
choice than to run away and save itself.
The caterpillar’s tail looks so much like a snake that even the sparkle of the
eye, within the dark spots that stand for the snake’s eyes, is not left out. As an
extremely slow-mover and thus a very easy prey for its enemies, the caterpil-
lar successfully escapes from many dangers owing to this extraordinary feature
of its body.
How did the caterpillar acquire such a trait? Such a striking "design" must
unquestionably have a satisfactory explanation. Now, let us examine the sce-
narios that could be fabricated as an answer to this question:
Scenario 1: Many years ago, a caterpillar looking for ways to protect itself
from enemy attacks, started carefully observing its surroundings. It one day
realised that all its enemies are afraid of snakes. At that moment, it looked at
its body and decided to make it "look like" a snake. (We cannot provide an
explanation as to how it would manage to make its body look like a snake’s,
how it would set up its outward appearance, the colour of its skin and the
shape of its body to look like a snake! Let us say that it would "do its best, force
itself and, in the end, do something". It, however, had a very limited time to
"change". For it would spend a very short time of its life as a caterpillar, and
then it would become a butterfly and fly.
It is very important that nothing was left out as it "changed" its body,
because it had only one chance to test its new tail. If the first trial was not suc-
cessful and if it could not deceive its enemy, all its efforts would be wasted,
and on top of that it would lose its life. Certainly, it had to survive during this
self-re-construction process. However, chance was on its side and it did not fall
prey to its enemies. Finally, it achieved the difficult task and "made" its tail look
like a snake.
Scenario 2: trees, flowers, insects, the sky, water, rain, sun and, in brief, all

114 For Men of Understanding