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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision routine in life, but it is inconsequential. Forgiveness for show is a vanity. Some say that absence of anger is forgiveness. To grow angry first and then to ask forgiveness is not forgiveness. Bhagwan Mahavira compares anger to a flaming fire. In the Puranas, anger is said to be the gateway to hell. In the Koran, anger is said to be Satan's son. In the Bible, anger is said to be a volcano burning every man to ashes. Anger expresses itself in four stages. In the first stage, a person senior in respect of age, status or wealth grows angry with a junior person. A mother-in-law grows angry with the daughter-in-law, a guru grows angry with his disciple and father grows angry with his son. For a slight reason they grow angry. The second stage is that of suffocation. When a person is unable to express his anger openly, he becomes mentally upset and seeks an opportunity for retaliation. The third stage is that of weeping. This is a helpless condition of anger, when feelings of anger cannot be expressed or contained, person bursts into tears. The fourth stage of anger is excessive tranquillity and it is found in gentlemen and great men. They transform anger into tranquility. They do not wish to retaliate. Anger is Like Fire
Anger is said to be blind. It means that anger destroys itself. Chandakaushik, the snake, was an ascetic in his previous birth. He grew angry with children who had completely destroyed his garden. So with an axe in hand he ran to strike them. But he came upon a ditch. Kaushika, the ascetic, did not see the ditch, and the axe in his hand recoiled on him and killed him. A similar incident happened during Bhagwan Mahavira's period of penance. He came to the rich city of Vaishali. For meditation he selected a blacksmith's desolate low-roofed
Kshamapana house. The sick blacksmith had gone to live elsewhere for change of air. But the blacksmith recovered and returned. He saw that a monk had taken possession of his house. He thought that surely somebody has taken occupancy of his premises in his absence. He, who believed that 'All land is God's land', had taken possession of his land.
The blacksmith had recovered from a long illness. He had become irritable. Moreover, as soon as he stepped into his house, he saw this. Wild with anger, the blacksmith lifted a weighty sledge-hammer. He thought of hitting the weighty sledger-hammer hard on the monk's head so as to kill the monk in a moment. Some tried to dissuade the blacksmith, some tried to prevent him, and some warned him of the great sin of killing a monk. But as they tried to calm the blacksmith, his anger rose. At last, it was a question of life and death. The blacksmith lifted the weighty sledge-hammer and began to brandish it. Mahavira stood firm as before. No fear. No tremor. Resolute like Mount Meru he stood full of equanimity, engrossed in meditation. The monk's tranquility provoked the blacksmith all the more. He vigorously brandished the sledge-hammer. In a moment he would strike the monk and the latter would fall dead. But a strange thing happened !
As the blacksmith began to brandish the sledge-hammer, his hand started trembling. He was so excited that he wished to kill the monk there and then. The blacksmith's hand was arrested. Instead of being brandished forth, the sledge-hammer receded. It recoiled on the blacksmith who, just recovered from illness, killed himself through anger. Mahavira stood firm in meditation as before.
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