Thought 24 Anger (Continued)

Consider this interesting Indian parable. In a small village in India, there was once a dangerous snake, which was always trying to bite the villagers. One day, a wise Sannyaasi (mendicant) came to the village. The villagers complained to the wise Sannyaasi about the snake - how it was making their lives miserable. They requested him to advise the snake not to bite them. The Sannyaasi dutifully advised the snake as desired by the villagers and went on his way. A month later, this Sannyaasi happened to visit this village again and found the snake in a miserable condition – terribly wounded and weak. Seeing this pitiable spectacle, the Sannyaasi, asked the snake why was it in that miserable condition. The snake said, “What horrible advice you gave me, sir. Since I did not bite any person – no one was afraid of me. Even the small children of this village are pelting stones at me and beating me with their sticks”. Thereupon, the Sannyaasi said, “I told you not to bite - but I never told you not to make menacing and frightening snaky “Hissssss, Hissssss” noises”.

In our daily living too, we have to make such frightening noises to scare some people away. At times, we have to feign anger – although feeling anger is better avoided.

The next thought is about “Hatred only harms the person who entertains it in his mind”