Me, My Guru – Hiss, but don’t bite

 

Contd....

Me, My Guru – Hiss, but don’t bite

Just mention of Nagaraj would send shivers down any man’s spine. Nagaraj enjoyed this fear.

But after listening to Buddha, it decided to practice non-violence and ahimsa. So, it stopped attacking people. There were no more deaths due to cobra bite in that village. Even if people passed our Nagaraj, it would simply slide away. Slowly people realised that it was not biting anyone anymore. Even children understood this. They no longer feared it. sometime passed. Children became so aggressive that they would stone it. It hurt badly. It would bleed and yet it didn’t bite anyone. People knowing this incident became more ferocious and vicious and started hitting it with stones and sticks whenever it came out in search of food. Out Nagaraj was bleeding regularly now. So, he stopped going out in fear of the villagers.

A few years later, bhagwan Buddha came to this village again. He came in search of his shishya – the Nagaraj. He called him out of his home – a hole! Nagaraj came out recognizing it’s Guru’s voice. It bowed to Buddha. Buddha was sad to see such a huge snake become so thin and famished. He asked Nagaraj for a reason. Nagaraj replied “Master, as per your advice, I stopped biting and killing people. So they became fearless and started attacking me whenever they saw me. Unable to bear the pain, I stopped coming out for food regularly”.

Buddha was touched. He healed the snake and patting its hood said with a smile in a very gentle voice “I asked you not to bite. But, I didn’t ask you not to hiss”.

The snake smiled.

Contd....

# me my Guru series, Buddha and the snake, hiss but not bite, be firm but gentle, 

also read suggested on this topic https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2022/12/me-my-guru-on-choosing-love-over-hate.html 

(read the complete link )