Ahimsa - Is being Non-Violent always right?

Non-violence means being harmless to others in every condition. In life, we face certain situations which make it hard to choose between violence and non-violence. The following story makes this clear.

In a village, there was once a snake that used to scare the villagers and the children that came near it by hissing and attacking them. One day, a wandering monk came to the village and saw the snake troubling the people of the village and spoke to the snake explaining the importance of non-violence and left. The snake took the lesson to heart and stopped troubling the villagers.

A year passed and the monk paid a visit to the village again. He saw the snake in a very skinny and bruised condition. He asked the snake what was the reason for its plight. The snake explained that it had practiced non-violence and stopped attacking the villagers. The villagers in turn took advantage of this and started taunting it, the children started throwing stones at it. Due to this, it stopped hunting afraid to leave its hiding place.

The monk shook his head wisely and said that though he had explained the importance of non-violence, he had never told the snake not to hiss.

This story teaches us that non-violence should be practiced not only against others but towards self too. Thereby, it is essential to protected oneself both physically, mentally from unjustified assaults.

The Story of Ekalavya

Once upon a time, there was a cruel king called Venu who wanted everyone to worship only him and no other. The Brahmans were aggrieved on hearing this and killed him with their powers of Vedic chants. To teach him a lesson, they churned his lower body and created a short, dark and fierce man and ordered him to live in the forests. The race of Nishadas (a forest tribe) descended from him.

The king of Nishadas,  Hiranyadhanus had a son, Ekalavya. One day, he observed Dronacharya, a guru teaching the art of archery and weaponry to the princes of Hastinapur (Pandavas and Kauravas). He developed a keen interest to learn the art in the gurukul and requested Dronacharya to accept him as his student. Dronacharya denied him as he was given shelter by the Kuru kings and he can't accept a Shudra by caste and teaches only Kshatriyas.

Though dejected by the rejection of Dronacharya, Ekalavya was very strong-willed and determined to learn archery. He went into the forest and prepared a statue of Drona with clay and practiced archery daily for years without any deterrence.

One day, the Pandava princes were out in the forest and noticed a dog which was unable to bark as its mouth was covered with arrows without a single drop of blood oozing out. Dronacharya too was amazed at this skilful way of archery and was looking around for the archer and saw Ekalavya coming towards them. He asked Ekalavya who has taught him archery and Ekalavya replied 'You are my guru, I have learnt archery under your guidance' and showed him the mud statue. Dronacharya was surprised but felt that this great talent was misused on a harmless creature and thought that if the talent is retained it may cause more harm to others as well, in the future. He also wanted to maintain the order and stability of only Kshatriyas having such a knowledge. Hence, he says to Ekalavya 'A student should be willing to offer Guru Dakshina to his guru'. Ekalavya says 'All I have is yours, please ask.'  Drona then says 'Give me your right hand thumb'. Ekalavya without even thinking took out his knife, sliced his thumb and offered it to Drona.' Ekalavya knew that he won't be able to use the bow and arrow without his right hand thumb but even then his respect for Drona was so great that he gave the thumb without any hesitation.

Later, Ekalavya worked in the army of Jarasandha who is an adversary to the Hastinapur kingdom. Rukmini was in love with Krishna and wanted to marry him, however her father, Bhishmaka wanted her to marry Shishupala. On the request of Jarasandha, Ekalavya acted as a messenger between Shishupala and Bhishmaka. Lord Krishna however takes her away from the swayamvar to marry her and during this fight Ekalavya gets killed by Lord Krishna hit by a rock.

Even today, Ekalavya is known as an example for self-learning with a meditative mind without physical presence of a Guru. 

Story of a Hindu temple built by the British

This happened in the 1880s when the British were ruling India. An Englishman, Colonel Martin was in the war with Afghanistan and used to regularly write letters to his wife assuring her of his safety and the conditions prevailing there. The war was for a very long time and his wife, Mrs. Martin stopped receiving his letters after some days. She became worried and spent sleepless nights fearing what must have happened to her husband. One day, while riding on her horse she passed by the temple of

Baijnath Mahadev, present in Agar Malwa, Madhya Pradesh. She was attracted to the sound of the conch and the mantras, went inside the temple and saw Lord Shiva being worshipped. The priests observed that she was in grief and asked her the reason. She explained the reason behind her sorrow and worry. The priests suggested her to pray to Lord Shiva earnestly and chant 'Om Namah Shivaya' for 11 days. She started praying to Lord Shiva sincerely since then for 11 days and made a vow that if she hears from her husband, she would get the temple renovated.

On the eleventh day, she received a letter. Her husband wrote

‘I was sending letters to you regularly though I was in the war field but all of a sudden we got surrounded by the Pathans and there was no way of escaping death. Suddenly I saw a person with long hair, draped in lion skin, carrying a weapon with three pointers. He had an amazing personality and he drove away the Pathans using his weapon in a magnificent way. Due to him, we became victorious. That great Yogi told me that due to your prayers he had come to rescue me.’

Mrs. Martin started crying with happiness while reading the letter and she fell onto the feet of Lord Shiva's statue in the temple and burst into tears.

Later, when Colonel Martin returned, she narrated everything to him after which both of them became staunch devotees of Lord Shiva and donated Rs. 15,000 for renovating the temple. This information has been engraved on a slab and is still present in the Baijnath Mahadev Temple. This is the only Hindu temple built by the British.

Five traits of Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva, one of the primary god ('Trimurti') apart from Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu is known as 'The Destroyer' or 'The Transformer'. He possesses certain traits that every human should inculcate in his life.

1. Neelakanta (Selfless Savior of the world) - There was a time when both the gods and demons are churning the ocean for retrieving ambrosia ('amrutham'). Instead, a pot of poison has come out which is capable of destroying the entire world. Both the gods and demons were terrified and ran to Lord Shiva for help and requested him to save the world from the effects of the deadly poison. In order, to save the world, Lord Shiva drank the deadly poison but without swallowing it, withheld it in his throat and hence forth has been called the blue-throated god ('Neelakanta').
2. Rudra (Forgiving and merciful) - Lord Shiva was once involved in rigorous penance. The god of love ('Manmadha') tries to awaken him by shooting a flower arrow at him. Lord Shiva, infuriated, assumes his Rudra form, immediately opens his third eye and burns him to ashes. Later, when Rati, wife of Manmadha, prays to Lord Shiva for mercy and pleads him to let her husband live, he takes pity on her and restores Manmadha back to life.
   
3. Bhola Sankara (Innocent and kind hearted) - Lord Shiva becomes happy with his devotees by even a simple method of worshipping i.e. even by pouring just water on his 'linga'. As he is very kind hearted, innocent and grants boons even to the demons who do penance, he is known as 'Bhola Sankara'.
4. Bhairava (Simple-natured, down to earth) - Lord Shiva is known to be richer than the richest of Gods, Kubera. Even then he is always seen in a simple attire, clad in a tiger skin and smeared with ashes. He lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash, spending much of his time in meditation trance.
5. Gangaadhara (Savior of mankind) - There was a king. Sagara who has 60,000 sons. He was performing the 'Ashwamedha Yajna' in which as part of the ritual, they let a horse loose and if anybody stops it, has to fight with the king. Lord Indra stole the horse and Sagara sent his sons to search for the horse all over the world. The sons found the horse in the underworld next to a sage, Kapila who is in deep meditation. The sons of Sagara, believing that the sage has stolen the horse, start abusing the sage and disturb his penance. The sage opened his eyes after several years and with this glance, all the sons of Sagara were burnt to death. As no proper rites were performed, the sons of Sagara remained on earth as ghosts.When Bhagiratha, one of the descendants of Sagara, learnt of this, he pledged to bring down the sacred river, Ganga so that her water can cleanse their souls and release them. He prayed to Lord Brahma and Brahma agreed and ordered Ganga to flow down to Earth and then to the underworld onto the bodies of the sons of Sagara. Ganga felt humiliated for being asked to flow to the underworld and decided to sweep the whole Earth away as she fell from heaven. Bhagiratha became worried and prayed to Lord Shiva to control the intensity of the river Ganga. Lord Shiva, then stood in the way of Ganga and Ganga arrogantly fell on Lord Shiva's head. Lord Shiva calmly trapped her in his hair and only released her in small streams. The touch of Shiva further sanctified Ganga. 
   

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Yudhisthira answers Yaksha’s Questions

This story occurs in the great Hindu epic, Mahabharata at the time of exile of the Pandavas in the forest (Vana Vasa).
At the end of their twelve years of exile, a brahmin approaches the Pandavas and complains that a deer with antlers has taken away his two rods used for igniting fire for Vedic rituals.  In order to help the Brahmin, the Pandavas set out following the hoove marks of the deer but fail to trace it. Due to the tiresome search, Yudhisthira becomes thirsty and requests Sahadev to get some water. Sahadev finds a beautiful lake in which there stands a crane. When Sahadev was about to take water from the lake, the crane warns him saying "Sahadev! If you don’t answer my questions before taking water, the water will turn poisonous". Sahadev ignores the words of the crane and drinks water, after which he dies. In the same way, Nakula, Bhima and Arjuna die at the lake.

As none of his brothers have returned, Yudishthira becomes worried and goes to search for them. He finds his brothers dead at the lake and wonders that there are no foot marks around or marks of violence on their bodies and hence the killer must be a supernatural being. He sees the crane in the lake and demands "Who are you? What do you want?" The crane reveals that he is a Yaksha and says "This pool belongs to me. I have warned your brothers but they didn’t pay heed to my words. Unless you answer my questions correctly you can't touch the water". Yudhisthira replies saying "I have no intention to take what is yours, put forward your questions and I shall answer them as best as I can".

 Source:wiki

Dialogue between Yaksha and Yudhisthira
Yaksha: Which is the greatest of all pleasures?
Yudhisthira: Happiness

Yaksha: What is the highest virtue of mankind?
Yudhisthira: Non violence

Yaksha: What should we control in order to achieve happiness?
Yudhisthira: Mind

Yaksha: What is it that is born but doesn’t have a life?
Yudhisthira: Egg

Yaksha: What is it that results in ultimate fame?
Yudhisthira: Charity

Yaksha: What is spread across the world?
Yudhisthira: Ignorance

Yaksha: What is meant by sorrow?
Yudhisthira: Being ignorant

The last answer provided by Yudhisthira is a great example of his righteousness.

Yaksha: If I were to save only one of your brothers, whom will you choose?
Yudhisthira: I choose Nakula.

Yaksha: Why not Bhima or Arjuna who can give a good fight and help you get back your kingdom?
Yudhisthira: I have 2 mothers. My mother will have a son as I will be alive but my step mother will lose all her sons if I choose Bhima or Arjuna to live hence I chose Nakula who is one of her sons.

Pleased with Yudhisthira, the Yaksha reveals himself as Lord Yama Dharma who is none other than Yudhisthira’s father and admits that he has taken the two rods of the Brahmin in the form of a deer and returns them to Yudhisthira. He brings all the brothers of Yudhisthira to life and blesses him saying that as he adhered to righteousness (Dharma), Dharma will protect them, and grants a boon that during the last year of their exile in which they have to stay incognito (Ajnata Vasa), nobody will recognize them.