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.