The Point Where Duty Turns into Hate

The master was telling a story. His peaceful face and deep eyes bound the audience--traders, peasants, masons, carpenters, ironsmiths and many more--into one social unit irrespective of their different roles in the society. Many seemed freely lost so far during the sermon, but now drew their mind to listen attentively.

In Japan someone killed a Samurai’s master. Now, it was the tradition to avenge one’s master’s death by killing the murderer. The Samurai went after the culprit, duty-bound as he was, and won’t leave any stone unturned in fulfilling it. Bringing this person to death was a matter of honour to him and nothing was more precious to a Samurai than his honour.

The sinner was a very wily man and gave him a tough time. It was not before many years of relentless pursuit that the Samurai laid his hands upon the criminal in a deep forest.

The Samurai raised his sword to kill the person and salvage his honour by fulfilling his duty. But just before the strike, the man spat on the Samurai’s face. Possibly he expected a quicker death in one stroke. He had tried to further aggravate the anger in the Samurai. The unexpected happened. The Samurai held his sword back and asked the man to take his sinned face off his eyes.

The murderer was surprised. Much relieved to be still alive, he but couldn’t check his curiosity. “Why did you spare my life?” he asked.

The Samurai was visibly trying to overcome his anger.

“For so many years, I was following you to kill. But there was no anger in that pursuit. There was no hate involved. I was just following the tradition and duty of avenging my master’s death without bringing my ego in between. But when you spat on my face, you changed all that. You got me angry. You brought my ego into the play. Now if I kill you, it will appear like I killed you because of being angry after being spat upon. It won’t be an objective, egoless pursuit of my duty. I cannot kill you as an angry person. Please go away for the time being. If I can detach this personal anger from the cause of my duty, your death, I will go after you again.”

Sometimes, a doing, carrying the same effect as an act committed under a spell of anger and hate, can be beyond the germs of ego, hate and rage. It then becomes a duty. The challenge lies in finding where duty stops to turn into revenge or hateful reaction. Check your ego. Tame it within the limits of duty. This world will become a far better place and life more enjoyable.