Vengeance is inflicting harm on another as we are harmed by them or we feel that we are harmed by them. We like to insult or injure those who harm us. The actual harm may have not taken place. Most of the time it is perceived harm or hit to the ego. The passion for revenge is very strong. It overtakes our logic and reasoning and we lose all sense of decency and goodness. Only the goal of vengeance stands in front of us. Our thinking gets twisted and we have a peculiarly self destructive logic which tells us that our need to hit out and destroy the others is right thing to do. We feel shamed by someone and we want to get even. Vengeance is creating pride from shame. This appeals to our ego and we indulge in vengeance. But vengeance never pays and in the end we suffer terribly. The story below teaches us about the boomerang effect of vengeance:
There was a Queen who was very devoted to Buddha. She feared going out and paying him homage in public as she felt her husband, the King would not approve of it. So the Queen and her ladies in waiting made holes in the walls of their living quarters so that they could watch Buddha and bow their heads in respect as he passed by. The Queen and her ladies in waiting were ardent followers of Buddha and practised his teachings. They meditated daily and lived in mindful awareness. The King had another wife who was very different in her thinking. She hated Buddha. Once her father had offered her to Buddha in marriage and Buddha had flatly refused. She felt terribly humiliated and wanted to take revenge on Buddha. She had decided that she would make Buddha pay dearly for his refusal.
The second wife’s chance came when she discovered that the Queen and her maids were followers of Buddha. She went to the King and uttered lies about Buddha secretly meeting the Queen behind the King’s back. She showed the King the holes in the walls as proof. The King summoned his Queen and questioned her. He was satisfied with her answer and let the matter drop. The second wife was enraged and decided to avenge herself by hurting the Queen even if she could not hurt Buddha. So she told the King that the Queen was plotting to kill him. Then she hid a snake in his flute. When the King picked up his flute to play, the snake came out hissing, ready to strike at him. This convinced the King that the second wife was right. He ordered that the Queen and her ladies in waiting should stand in a line against the wall and shot poisoned arrows at them as punishment. He tried very hard to kill them, but the arrows magically moved away from their mark and none were harmed. The King realised that the ladies were pure and innocent and hence were not hit. He sought forgiveness from the Queen and he allowed the ladies to invite Buddha and his monks to the palace for a royal meal.
The second wife was extremely frustrated. She plotted again. She asked her uncle to set fire to the Queens quarters while all the women were inside. The building went up in flames. The Queen and her maids were meditating at that time. They recalled the teachings of Buddha and continued their meditation and succeeded in reaching higher levels of spirituality before they died. The King suspected his second wife and tricked her into admitting her fault. He declared aloud: Whoever has done this is my saviour. I now can sleep in peace. All these days I feared that my own wife would murder me. Now I am finally free of that fear! The foolish second wife immediately revealed her part and the role played by her uncle in the death of the Queen and her maids. The King showed great delight and invited her entire family to the palace to honour them. When they all came in, they were put to death.
When Buddha came to know of the Queen’s death along with her attendants, he said their mindful meditation took them towards Nirvana while the second wife and her uncle would suffer many lifetimes of hell for their vengeance. Understanding, forbearance, compassion and tolerance take us on the royal road to God and vengeance pushes us deeper in the karmic hell of our own making.
