A cobra once promised a Sadhu never to bite, only to be beaten by villagers who mistook its restraint for weakness. The Sadhu reminded it: “I asked you not to bite, but did I ask you not to hiss?” The parable mirrors Hindu society’s larger civilizational problem of mistaking non-violence for inaction in the face of aggression. True Ahimsa was never about surrender — it was resistance rooted in Dharma, with Shatrubodh (enemy-awareness) as its guiding strength.
