The Tiger and the piglets -Part II

Everytime the tiger crossed paths with the piglets, he ignored them and changed course. The piglets were amused by the tiger's behavior and soon lost their fear. Everyday they rolled themselves in muck and sought the tiger. They humored themselves seeing the tiger grimace and move away. They started bloating about making the tiger runaway with everyone they met in the forest. Soon all animals got tired of their bragging and wished someone silenced them.

This continued for a while and the piglets now dared to come near the tiger's den itself and started troubling the newly born cubs.

The tiger got enraged and roared at them to frighten them away. The piglets who had grown into young pigs were a bit shaken but did not back off as they were intoxicated with a false sense of boldness and arrogance. They dared the tiger to a duel. The tiger amused at their insolence reluctantly agreed to get rid of them once and for all.

He said to them, "Look I don't want to invite Mr.Vulture to my home after I am done with you, so lets match up somewhere else."

The pigs grunted derisively, " We will see about that but we do like to honour your dying wish, so lets fight at the place of your choice" and followed the tiger.

The tiger led them across a ford to the other bank of the river. The pigs haughtily followed the tiger least realising that the flowing water had cleansed them of all their filth they were covered in. When they reached the other bank of the river, they looked at each other and soon a realisation dawned on them but it was too late. They had one last fleeting look at the impending death and then it was all over. The grunts of the pigs were no longer heard in the forest and all the animals sighed a relief.

Like the tiger, one must be patient, ignore your adversaries as long as you can but when it becomes inevitable, one must be careful in planning when and where should one strike the enemy.
Once you hurt your enemy, your enemy should no longer be capable to attack you back both mentally and physically. But one should take on one's enemy only if it is inevitable and if you really mean to hurt. Half-hearted infliction will only fire back. By ignoring your enemies for a while, you let them pile their inflictions on you, so when you attack back you not only will have the support of your peers but also your moral conscience will not hurt you for hurting others. In this context, by enemy I just don't mean some person or human, the word subsumes all evils be it physical, mental or emotional.