A rat from nowhere have been very aggressive and biting my wooden windown panels as well as the wooden skirting in my study room, the tapper wares and food plastic containers. I do not understand why this rat is so aggressive and despite setting several traps , it has managed to evade these traps. Finally,yesterday, I have to call in the pest control guy to do something about this rat.
Just now while I was about to sleep, I heard a scream and there was a few shouts of the word "rat" and my maid can down from her room to assist my wife. I thought that was the end but my daughter who is back home on holidays with her girlfriend, came to my bed room and ask me to go down stairs. I quickly get out of my bed and ran down the stair case to my study room where I saw my wife holding on to the study room door and I could see the back half of the rat jerking from the gap of the study room door. When the rat was running into the study room from my living room, my wife was trying to close the door and the rat was caught sandwiched between the door. Its head in the study room and his back half on the outside. She was screaming as I told over to hold on to the door and I could see and sense her fear of the rat. I could not open the door, otherwise, the rat would run into the study room and it would be difficult to catch it again. So, I ask my daughter's friend to take a string and help me to tie one leg of the rat and I tie the other end of the string to the door knot, letting it hanging in the air when I open the door. I presume this will happen unless the string was not tied tight enough. So, I open the door and it happens just the way I figured it will happen. The rat was hanging in the air and we took a plastic beg to put the rat in and my maid took over from there by throwing it away.
I was now wide awake and feeling guilty about holding on to the door and kept the rat sandwiched and I could sense the discomfort and pain of the rat. Buddha says be kind and compassionate to all living beings and here, I have done something wrong. I could let the rat off and let it continue to bite my wooden window panels and the rest of the items and treat it as if it is a normal routine in life or take action on this matter. The forest monks who live in the jungles have been bitten by the mosquitos and they do not kill this mosquitos and here, I kill a rat which is so many times bigger in size. There is so much guilt in me. I have make a choice to kill the rat and I will need to take responsibility for it.
The question here is whether my action is right or wrong? Should it be killed or let off? In India, some Hindus live with the rats as if they are like dogs and cats. They even feed them with milk. But, in this part of the world, the rat is considered as a dirty creature and it could spread disease and sickness. So, our culture here is to kill the rats before it kill or harm you and the people around us. Letting the rat go may reduce our guilts but it will continue to destroy my home furnitures and food containers and allow these creatures to spread disease and sickness to us, our family members and the people living around us. If we cannot help others , we should not harm them. In this aspect, I have to kill the rat before it harm others.
In our daily life, we are faced with alot of such questions and dilemma. Is it right or wrong? It is either be compassionate or do no harm to others. It is a difficult choice at times but for this case of the rat. I need to kill it because it is harming my family and possibly, it will also harm my neighbours. This is a clear cut choice but there are other more difficult choice in our life.
Whatever happens and if we need to make a choice. We should make the choice acoording to our own internal intuitions and be responsible for it. There are so many interpretations and perceptions of other people and we have to look for the inner voice which is generate by our wisdom.
Lets not judge others, lest others will judge you.
Namaste.
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