THE WORST ENEMY
-6. A Past Event

After all of them were seated, they spoke on some general topics for some time.  Then, Mahirat began, “O revered sage, my mother tells me that you were a very angry person during your younger days.  But looking at you now, it is hard to believe this!  What brought in you such a remarkable change?” 

Mahirat’s parents apprised the sage about the recent events which showed how angry a Prince he was and also about the promise which he had now given to his parents.  After the King had concluded, Queen Surekha spoke up, “Today he was upset that we had to wait for some time to have your darshan.  Usually, when he gets angry he blurts out something and walks away from the place.  But today, for the first time he did not do anything like this, O Sage!  He stuck to his commitment of controlling his anger and had a stroll outside in an attempt to divert his attention elsewhere and regain his temperament.”

The sage smiled endearingly at Mahirat and said, “While I once again express my regrets for the inconvenience caused due to my late arrival, I am pleased by the attempts you have made today to control your anger.  I will tell you about that incident which made me realise the pernicious effects of anger.  It is unfortunate, Mahirat, that we open up our eyes only after we witness a crisis.  Listen! 

During my younger days, I had a terrible anger, perhaps even worse than you!  I used to shout, throw things at the person on whom I got angry and even bang my head on the wall!  I did not learn anything from my father, the great Sage Pratishtha, who was himself a very calm and composed person.   On many occasions, he tried to make me understand that I should not lose my temper in this fashion but all that fell on deaf ears.  My father had adopted an orphan whom he named Aditya.  He loved him like his younger son and did everything possible to keep him happy.  One day Aditya and I were sitting and trying to identify the various fruits that grew in our garden.  From afar, I identified a fruit as orange and he recognised the same fruit as sweet lime.  An argument ensured which was to take a very serious turn later.  I did not like the fact that Aditya, who was much younger to me, was trying to contradict my views.  This enraged me and soon I had no control over my anger.  I got up and warned him that if he did not stop this argument and agreed that the fruit was actually an orange, he would have to face dire consequences!  But, he, too was unyielding and maintained that the fruit was sweet lime.  Here, I would like to point out that had both of us thought over with a cool head there was a simple solution to this problem.  Had we just called our father and asked him to identify the fruit, this minor issue would have been amicably resolved.  But both of us were angry with each other over this argument which blocked our sane thinking.  In my fury, I picked up a stone which was lying nearby and was about to throw it at Aditya when my father who had heard about the commotion going on came out of his cottage and was shocked at what he saw. He asked me to desist from this action but in my anger I did not listen to him.  Even as I was about to throw the stone, father ran as fast he could and by the time the stone left my hand, he reached Aditya and stood ahead of him. The stone hit his right eye! The impact was so severe that he lost his sight in that eye!  Had father wanted, he could have regained his eyesight through his yogic powers but he did not do that.  He wanted the damage that I had caused to his eye to always serve me as a reminder about the evil effects of getting angry.  I felt miserable at the thought that this happened due to my uncontrollable anger and firmly decided that henceforth I would leave no stone unturned in keeping my rage at bay.  I began to read some holy textures to get inspiration from great Kings and Mahatmas who have graced our motherland.  Lord Rama who led a very conscientious life having tremendous adherence to his principles immensely influenced me.  Despite knowing that he would have to forsake his kingdom and be in the forest for fourteen years if he went ahead to fufill his father’s twin boons to Kaikeyi, he undertook vanvas with a smiling face. Whenever I got angry I remembered about the injury I caused to father and invoked the smiling face of Lord Rama in my mind.  I began to chant his name with bhakti and it worked wonders.  Slowly, in this manner, I managed to win over my anger much to the glee of my father.  Once my father told me that, at one stage, he had an ardent desire in him to open an ashram for children and impart them education.  However, his conscience did not permit him to do so for he felt that when his preaching of being calm and peaceful went unheeded by his own son, why would others listen to him?  Now, although I had improved he had lost interest in fulfilling that desire and wanted to spend his last days doing penance in the forest.  As soon as I heard this, I decided that I would fulfill my father’s wish and open an ashram for children and spread the message of love and peace among them.  I am happy that I achieved this motto of mine years ago when I built an ashram in your neighbouring kingdom of Krishnanagar.  It is due to my father’s blessings and God’s grace that students from far-off kingdoms came to get education under me and I hope that I have done justice to their cause.  My brother, Aditya has now taken over the students’ education in my absence from the ashram. Mahirat, there are many ways to control one’s anger……”