Anandi and a buddhist parable.

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tinoo

@tinoo

Rocker

Posted: 14 years ago

A lot has been said about anandi not punishing jagya, in spite of what Jagya did to her. People (including myself) dont understand it, let alone agree with it.

Anyway, it brings to mind a Buddhist parable which I had in one of my 4th standard english readers.

There was a buddhist monk, and he was walking on the road and he saw a snake trapped in a bush. The snake was thrashing about wildly, and there were a couple of people who were watching the snake's struggle.

Anyway, the monk stopped and put his hand in the bush to free the snake, when the people there cried out and said "stop, stop, stop - dont do it, the snake is already agitated, it will bite you"

But the monk did not listen. He put his hand inside. Indeed, the snake bit him.

The villagers said "see we told you, please stop"... but the monk did not listen and after a couple of more trials, freed the snake. In the process, the snake bit him a couple of more times.

When he finally freed the snake, and put it on the ground, the snake before slithering away again bit the monk on his foot and then went away.

The monk, his body filled with poison from so many snake-bites, collapsed to the floor. As he was breathing his last, the villagers said "why did you do this? why did you do this? IT IS THE NATURE OF THE SNAKE TO BITE. Why did you do this knowing its nature"

and the monk, peaceful as ever, said "I know it is the nature of the snake to bite. But I do not base my own nature on the snake's nature. IT IS MY NATURE TO SAVE. I do not allow any one else's nature or behaviour to influence my own nature or behaviour"...

and then he passed away.

The moral of the story was to develop a self-definition of character so strong that others could not influence it.

Somehow, I think of Jagya as the snake and anandi as the monk in this parallel. 😆😆

Any comments on how you feel are welcome. 😃😃

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Frequent Posters

@-SilverAngel-

Stunner

+ 4

Posted: 14 years ago

Nice topic and a nice story to correspond with it... and I agree with Anandi being the monk but not with Jagat being the snake. As the monk already knew that the snake would bite him while Anandi trusted Jagya blindly before he shattered her trust!!... He is a million times worse than a snake.

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sreevask

@sreevask

Voyager

Posted: 14 years ago

perhaps I read it from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's parables!Nice citation!!

A noble virtue of forgiving to this height could be practiced by monks only.
How ever a character like Anandi who is going to dedicate her entire life for the sake of people,should have no bonds & should have the qualities of a monk!!

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sreevask

@sreevask

Voyager

Posted: 14 years ago

Originally posted by: mahi0809
Nice topic and a nice story to correspond with it... and I agree with Anandi being the monk but not with Jagat being the snake. As the monk already knew that the snake would bite him while Anandi trusted Jagya blindly before he shattered her trust!!... He is a million times worse than a snake.

well said!👏
Jagya is NOT a snake! He is an anaconda!He won't allow the monk 2 save him!He will swallow the monk!!

Edited by sreevask - 14 years ago

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642126

Hibernated

Posted: 14 years ago

@Tinoo

I don't think Anandi is comparable to that monk. She also hid the truth about him. I would have compared her to the monk if she had herself sensed J'd infidelity and asked Bapu sa (especially after knowing the laws) to get her divorce from J so that J could live happily with his choice of a wife and get legal recognition.

By keeping silent about laws etc. and not taking any action, she has not helped Jagya.

And yeah, Jagya is worse than the snake! At least monk knew snake would bite. Anandi kept trusting him blindly.

And snake is still innocent, because it's just an animal, has no thoughts or feelings. It could not have judged that the monk was trying to save him.

But at least Jagya is human, has heart, brain, sense of feeling and judgement! He could have handled things more tactfully and carefully instead of biting his family and Anandi (and even Gauri), and poisoning everyone's lives including his own, with the murky ways in which he did things!

He can't be excused if we take context of this story!!

One more thing I would like to know - is it always about saving others? Or should one also try to save himself or protect himself from exploitation?

And what was the crowd doing there? Simply standing and watching the tamasha? Shouldn't they have tried to save the monk and called a hakim/vaid or tended to him?

Such stories are good to illustrate one point. But can't be applied to larger context.

If Anandi is told to move on or not bother about funding Jagya or update him of his family's well-being, that doesn't make her a snake (of this story) or ruin her basic character!

This story also shows that kindness ought to have a limit, selfishness and unkindness have no limits. Unkind people and even ordinary people don't bother about the kind one. The kind one dies and everyone watches drama of his death while the unkind/unfeeling and thankless one moves on with life!

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Suchi-

@Suchi-

Sparkler

+ 3

Posted: 14 years ago

I agree with Annika and I understand Tinoo where you are coming from.

I like the parable of Nature vs. Nature.

THe difference is, what the Monk did was stupidity in my opinion not a sign of intelligence.

But he did what he thought was correct and stuck to it so I understand where he is coming from, I do not blame him as thats what he is conditioned for.

Now this is what I am talking about Annika that,
What Anandi is doing is not intelligent. She is wrong in still having feelings for Jagya and thats hurting her more. but I understand where she is coming from and I do not blame her because thats what she is conditioned for , her entire life.

And I am glad that unlike this monk, she will move ahead and move on completely as how you wish and how I wish. Though a small and slight taint will always remain and be prepared for that because, thats how the matters of heart works.

Its never easy to forget.
or to forgive someone.

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sreevask

@sreevask

Voyager

Posted: 14 years ago

Originally posted by: Suchi-NivReniac
I agree with Annika and I understand Tinoo where you are coming from.

I like the parable of Nature vs. Nature.

THe difference is, what the Monk did was stupidity in my opinion not a sign of intelligence.

But he did what he thought was correct and stuck to it so I understand where he is coming from, I do not blame him as thats what he is conditioned for.

Now this is what I am talking about Annika that,
What Anandi is doing is not intelligent. She is wrong in still having feelings for Jagya and thats hurting her more. but I understand where she is coming from and I do not blame her because thats what she is conditioned for , her entire life.

And I am glad that unlike this monk, she will move ahead and move on completely as how you wish and how I wish. Though a small and slight taint will always remain and be prepared for that because, thats how the matters of heart works.

Its never easy to forget.
or to forgive someone.

Anandi was once a caterpillar,till J leaves for MBBS!As soon as she had learnt that she's out of his mind,she began transformation and as of now,she is in pupal stage!!She'll soon come out as a full bloom butterfly...much 2 our happiness!

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642126

Hibernated

Posted: 14 years ago

@Suchi

I know about her conditioning and I can understand a person's helplessness in matters of heart. The hardest thing in the world is to fight with yourself! I know that even from personal experience.

But I would have understood her if she were trying her best to keep herself disconnected from Jagya, and still battling feelings of attachment for him.

The worst thing is that she is forgetting her pain but along with it, at times she also forgets or chooses to ignore who gave her that pain!

She can excuse DS for being senior, well-meaning or just trying to follow a tradition/custom.

But she can't excuse Jagya for playing with her life and cheating her! I understand her feeling but I don't understand why she isn't angry. Or was she angry also? At times when she sternly talked to Jagya or tried to ignore him when he was in the house or took away the goggles and told him she'd never forgive him, it made it seem as if she was acknowledging that he was wrong and caused her pain or ruined her life!

But what she is doing now is negating Bhairon's punishment or Singh family's stance towards Jagya!

I could have understood if she had talked properly to him, but later sobbed a bit AFTER disconnecting the phone.

She should at least keep her sense of attachment personal, to herself only. Why let Jagya know about it?

It is only due to her show of attachment that Jagya gets confident that she will never do anything against him and through emotionally blackmailing her he can get anything done! Through her apparent ways she is giving that security to Jagya!

Plus, it was unnecessary to ask about his well being and again pause and give him a chance to talk about family or act as connecting link to family. She was behaving like a vadhu after all!

I say then perhaps Gauri is not wrong when she suspects Anandi of still being in love with Jagya or performing her duties as adarsh bahu or wife!

Keeping silent and as detached as possible is fine. It is not revenge. She is doing her duty of getting him money na?

[I blame her because she claims to move on, instead of being TOTALLY honest that she is finding it hard to move on. She's giving false hopes to Bhairon and family. And her claims to educate women or be a social reformer weaken completely. She should focus on herself first and then think of opening society's eyes!]

Edited by annika20 - 14 years ago

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Suchi-

@Suchi-

Sparkler

+ 3

Posted: 14 years ago

Nahi yaar Annika I do not agree. Its easier said than done.

She needs a goal to move on. She cannot say let me first complete get over Jagya adn then work on my dreams rather , she is doing it together. Working towards her dreams and in that she is moving on.

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vasuja

@vasuja

Voyager

Posted: 14 years ago

#10

tinoo loved the post...though i strongly believe that Anandi need to punish Jagya, yet i loved the logic you applied...the situation can be argued both the ways...

.I wanted anandi to punish, because it will be a lesson to all the villagers and also it will bring to light the legality of child marriage. as of now the whole village thinks that JAAN marriage is illegal and GAGA is legal...Morally all the elders would have felt bad...parents seeing Anandi's plight may decide against marrying their daugters in childhood..but my question is about marriages that has already taken places...Lot of youngsters in villages go to the city to earn...many may get tempted in the city but would have not done anything thinking their moral obligation...Jagya's argument of illegality of child marriage might trigger a light in their heads and they may think that their is a loop hole in the marriage. Thats why in my previous post I told that even if Anandi does not take Jagya to court ( though I wish she did) she must divorce jagya and tell and teach the villagers the legality of child marriage and her reason and choice for seperation.She should also say that what punishment jagya would have got if she took him to court. that way women would know the rights and men would know that leaving their wife behind is not easy...I would think that as one of the first steps in her social work...

Tinoo I have another story of a snake and sanyaasi that I would like to share: Once a sanyaasi came across a snake. The snake was ferocious and the entire village used to be afraid to cross it. The sanyaasi asked the snake why are you biting everybody. killing people who are not your prey is wrong. don't do this. the snake listenend to the sanyaasi and sstopped biting. after fe weeks the sanyaasi crossed the same path and saw the snake in avery weak condition. it was stoned and hurt all over...the snake saw the sanyaasi and said," on great one, see I followed what you said and look at my plight." the sanyaasi shook his head smiled and said," I asked you to not bite but i never asked you to stop hissing. killing is wrong but not knowing self defense is equally bad."

I can think about overlooking Anandi not punishing Jagya if she spreads the law of child marriage to jetsar and all the neighbouring villages. I feel she has aduty to illuminate the villagers.

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Anandi and a buddhist parable.

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