[Advaita-l] Geeta verses and its practical applicability

[Kaushik Chevendra]

Thank you for sharing the story sir.

On Wed, 15 Sep 2021, 23:46 V Subrahmanian, <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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