Don't harm others, but should we tolerate someone's harm to us?

When I got up at 4.09 am today morning I did know that I would be in an irritant mood. I got up as usual. Went on the treadmill for 40 minutes (Now I can’t go for one hour, looks like I have become old suddenly!) and came out to water the plants. My foot got hurt because there were small stones, part of cement and small pieces of bricks.

The next door neighbor Mr. S H is rebuilding his house. He totally demolished the house, dug the ground again, and drilled a bore-well (a second one), built pillars and now constructing walls.

He has already broken (not he, it is just a figure of speechJ) the slab which was just outside our gate. That is yet to be properly repaired and placed. Bricks are covering our space near the gate.

We have to keep quiet and tolerate all this because we are neighbors!

The demolition time was quite horrific. The dust and the noise was so much that I had to keep my computer closed. Generally our computer keeps downloading something or the other.

Later the attack from the bore-well noise. Ooh, it was horrible. 3 or 4 days we had kept our house windows and doors shut in the hot summer.

He offered lip sympathy.. sorry, I hope you are not bothered.. I also had to tell it’s ok. We have to be patient because we respect the neighbors.

Today all these annoyance must have got together and I blew my top. No one to tell them, horrible people, they don’t care to come and clean in the evening everyday etc.,

My wife Usha had already requested them to do the cleaning every day which has not been carried out.

Now, when she heard me talking loudly, she came to the window and told don’t make so much of noise.

I was also annoyed. Why are you saying this? No, no people will be still sleeping and we have no right to make such noise.

This really made me more annoyed. I asked her, I know that we should not harm others, does that mean that we need to even tolerate any harm from others?

This reminded me of a parable I love.

There was a snake at the edge of the forest bordering a town. People of the town were afraid to cross the forest because the snake was biting anyone passing it.

One day there was a monk talking about non-violence and the advantages of being friendly. The snake had a change of heart. When the monk was passing that side the snake went near him. He got frightened.

The snake said, “Sir, I want to follow non-violence. Can you help me?”

The monk said after much thinking, “Do not bite anyone who comes near you”

Snake accepted and the monk went off.

Then one day a boy came there suddenly. He did not know about the snake in the forest edge.

He took a stone and threw it on the snake. The snake got annoyed, but remembered the monk’s words just in time. It kept quiet.

The boy grew bolder and took a stick and beat the snake. The snake was lying like a log.

The news spread that the snake is harmless. The boys came, the people who had got bitten came, the people whose relatives and friends were bitten came. They all beat the snake to pulp. The snake hid in the forest. It was afraid even to go for its food.

Fortunately for the snake, the monk came that day morning. He was aghast when he saw the snake.

The snake told that it is because of his words that it has been beaten almost to death.

The monk smiled and said, “I did say not to bite. Did I say that you should not hiss?”

It dawned to the snake that it had the defence mechanism in itself!

I was remembering this story when I had raised my voice in the morning.

I know that we should not harm others. We even teach our children this. But tolerating someone’s injustice is not at all justice!

But annoyance clouds the mind and anger blinds the judgment.

What a pity!