Do not Provoke Others and
So be Safe from Others
Violence breeds violence and peace breeds peace. This is the
simplest and best formula in life.
The white tiger has the reputation of being a large, powerful, carnivorous animal. But one such white tiger called Vijay, a resident of the Delhi zoo, had always been known to be a very gentle animal and, according to the zoo officials, had never been seen to be aggressive. However, on September 23, 2014, a group of boys went right up to the tiger’s enclosure and started acting in a rowdy manner and throwing stones at it. One of the boys even jumped over the iron railing and entered the tiger’s enclosure. The tiger remained motionless, watching the boy in silence for a full fifteen minutes. Then it pounced on the youth and killed him. It then dropped his dead body at the far end of its enclosure. What almost certainly provoked the tiger into attacking the boy was that the onlookers kept trying to divert its attention by pelting it with stones
This incident is not only the story of a tiger, but is rather the story of life. The tiger, or any other animal for that matter, is not innately aggressive. By nature every animal is peaceful. Animals attack only when provoked or when they sense danger. Even when an animal is provoked, it attacks not out of anger but as a matter of self-defence. So long as it does not feel under any kind of threat, it remains indifferent to whatever is happening around it,
The same is true of humans. A human being is also an animal in that he possesses all those traits natural to animals. Man, too, does not attack merely for the sake of attacking. When one person hits out at another, he does so in self-defence. If a person is not provoked, he remains unruffled. Therefore, if you are in earnest about saving yourself from the violence of others, follow this principle: Provoke no one. No one at all. In other words, refrain from hurting anyone’s ego. One who sedulously adheres to this principle will never have to complain of violence from others. Violence breeds violence and peace breeds peace. This is the simplest and best formula in life.
