Once there used to a live a very poisonous snake in a garden. Young boys were always cautious and afraid of the snake. One day a Sage was passing through that place. Boys told the sages about the snake and asked him to be careful.
Listening this Sage went towards the hole where snake used to live. After some time when snake came out from hole it tried to harm the sage but sage used a powerful mantra to calm the snake and showed him the path of rightful living and asked him to stop this violence and recite a particular mantra to attain god realization.
After some days boys noticed that snake has dropped its violent nature and has become very calm. One naughty boy threw a stone at him but still snake did not showed any anger. Slowly Boys confidence started increasing and one day one boy took snake by its tail, whirled him round and round and dashed it away against the hard surface. Snake suffered a lot of injuries and he quietly went back to his hole. Snake was following the path shown by the sage but today he became very afraid of Boys.
To avoid boys snake started coming out from hole in the night only. But food was not easily available in night. So slowly snake started losing weight and he became very weak. On the other hand he was growing more in spirituality. He became more calm and peaceful.
One day that sage happens to pass by the place. He came to the hole and called snake. He was surprised to see snake in such weak condition. On being asked about its health snake could not remember any thing. Good qualities in snake had become so prominent that he felt no sign of anger against boys. Sage asked him to try hard and then at last snake remembered the incident when one of the boys had hurt him.
Sage replied “You are a fool. You don’t respect yourself. This body is the temple in which one day God will resides. Take proper care of it. I asked you not to injure any one but I didn’t forbid you to Hiss. Why did not you scare them by Hissing? If you don’t scare them and you simply tolerate their sinful acts then you are indirectly encouraging sinful acts. Just frighten the boys but don’t hurt them”
Note: This story is told by Sri Ramakrishna to his disciples, but here we have written it in our words.