JOIN USIn this story the hare tells the lion that there is another lion in a well which is ferocious and powerful and which is a challenge and threat to the lion of the jungle and leads him to the well.
Then when the lion looks into the well he sees his own reflection in the water and thinks that there is another lion in the well and is filled with rage and wanting to kill him jumps into the well and in this manner meets his end.
Rumi in his Mathnawi adds another dimension to this story and says that just as the lion when he saw his reflection in the water of the well thought that it was another lion just like that when we spot bad and evil in others we presume that the bad quality belongs to the other but he says that it is in realty our own nature reflected in them.
It is not really the bad or evil in others but in fact it is the bad or evil in own nature. Since we are not aware of this we so often like the lion pounce upon people and try to tear them apart with our words, even if we cannot do with our hands like the lion, just because we see some evil or bad in them.
Seen in this light it is not the other but it ourselves that we need to censure and take action against.
The meaning of what Rumi says can be clearly seen by us if we care to notice, so often we come across situations when a person is seen as bad by some and the very same person is considered good by others because they fail to spot any bad in him. We are like mirrors for we see our own natures reflected in each other.
Keeping this in mind if we are able to, every time we see something wrong in others to turn our gaze around and find the source of it in our own selves and take action to get rid of it then surely it will be a big step in our journey of Spiritual progress.