[Advaita-l] Geeta verses and its practical applicability

[V Subrahmanian]

Kaushik, that's a fine answer.    This is a story that Sri Ramakrishna had
said:
https://www.vifindia.org/article/2020/march/23/insights-from-sri-ramakrishna

“Do not bite, but hiss!”

This is a relatively well-known teaching from the *Kathamrita.*2 When asked
about how spiritually-minded people could deal with evil people in the
world, Sri Ramakrishna recounted a story. Once upon a time, there lived a
deadly snake in a meadow near a village. Many cows that went grazing in the
meadow fell prey to its venom. Once, a *sadhu*, passing through the meadow,
was warned of its existence. He chose to traverse the meadow nonetheless.
As was usual with the snake, as soon as it saw a new passer-by, it raised
its hood to attack. The *sadhu* immediately recited a *mantra* and lo
behold! The snake lay at his feet, conscious, but without any vigor. The
sadhu exclaimed to the snake: “Why do you go about doing harm to everybody?
Come, I will give you a holy mantra and initiate you.3 By repeating the
*mantra* you will have a vision of God and your violent nature will
change.” The snake happily accepted the act of grace. The *guru’s* parting
advice was: “Repeat God’s name, and do not harm anybody. I shall visit you
again.”

Days passed, and the cowherd boys noticed that the snake was not biting
anyone. They tried to poke it and see its reaction. No reaction came. They
got encouraged and started throwing stones. No reaction still. Finally, one
day, one of the boys lifted the snake by its tail, whirled it around and
thrashed it again and again on the ground. The snake vomited blood and
became unconscious. Since his *guru* had explicitly asked him not to harm
anyone, it had eschewed violence completely. Many more days passed. The
snake survived, but became completely emaciated.

In the meantime, there was a genuine change in the nature of the snake. It
had not only forgiven the boys but had also almost forgotten the incident.
It started living on fruits and leaves. As promised, the *sadhu* visited
his disciple again. Seeing it very weak and thin, he enquired into the
reason. The *sadhu* heard the episode of the cowherd boys and learnt that
his beloved disciple would not harm anybody because he had forbidden him to
do so. On hearing this, the *sadhu* exclaimed: “But you are such a fool! I
had asked you not to bite, but I did not forbid you to hiss! Why did you
not hiss and protect yourself against the mischief of the boys?” After
recounting this story, Sri Ramakrishna summed up the moral, saying one
should always hiss at wicked people, lest they harm you; but one should
never harm anyone.

This parable is meant for the majority of us. A saint is above such
compulsions. The extent of love and peace that a saintly man exudes might
even tame a tiger. But the rest of humanity needs a pragmatic solution to
tackle evil, especially for those who want to remain in the camp of the
‘good’. Harming others for no good reason is not an option; getting
annihilated in our attempt at being good is also not an option. One has to,
in certain contexts, demonstrate one’s capacity to harm—which has to be a
real capacity—if it becomes a question of one’s own survival.

On Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 7:01 PM Kaushik Chevendra via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste.
> I will answer to what is my capacity.
> A similar question was posed to vidyarirtha swamin by a devotee.
> The answer given is that we must pretend to be angry, and act with regards
> to what is right in the situation. But while pretending so, we must not let
> our emotion cloud the decision.
>
>
> On Wed, 15 Sep 2021, 17:30 Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l, <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > praNAms
> > Hare Krishna
> >
> > there are two beautiful verses in geeta chapter 12, samaH shatrau cha
> > mitre cha, tathaa mAnApamAnayOH, tulyanindAstutirmounI etc.  are these
> > verses meant for only sthita prajnA-s as described in 2nd chapter or is
> > this the virtue should be adopted/developed by sAdhaka-s in  day to day
> > vyavahAra ??  Just curious to know  practical application of these verses
> > in our day to day life.  are these verses applicable only in our
> spiritual
> > sAdhana or equally applicable and efficacious in our day to day
> > materialistic life??  For example if our boss fires us or wife scolds us
> or
> > dvaitins abuses our Acharya baselessly, immediately, without thinking
> about
> > these verses, we should settle the scores or should keep quiet
> maintaining
> > the tranquility of mind??  Just wonder are these verses meant for sAdhana
> > in vyAvahArik world??
> >
> > Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> > bhaskar
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