By Venuri Gangodawila
Once during the time of Lord Buddha, there lived a sect of Brahmins in India who observed a ritual of offering alms only to the people who were senior. This was thorough with Bhikkus too where they had a belief that they could gain merits only by offering alms to the senior monks. In the meanwhile they needed to offer alms to the Sangha and requested our Lord Buddha to send some monks to their dwelling with the intention of offering their precisely prepared offerings to the most senior Arahants of that time.
However the great Lord Buddha with his immeasurable spiritual powers could foresee this illogical and foolish concept among this Brahmin society and thought of breaking this specific chain of thoughts and to make them believe that merit gained by offering to the Sangha is always same despite their age or seniority. Therefore he prepared four very young monks who has already attained the great Arahantship.
The day finally came and the Brahmins arrived at the temple to accompany the monks to their residence. Seeing the four very young monks, they were not of course happy but had to escort them however because they never knew those were four young Arahants. The alms were offered, but not the most precise ones. Finally the four monks after consuming the meal, turned to go. But they didn’t abide to the normal Buddhist custom of preaching Dhamma after an alms offering. Instead of that, one monk reached their destination by the sky through the ceiling, one through the earth and the other two through the walls displaying their highest spiritual endowments. Stunned by this extra ordinary phenomena, the Brahmin went to the Lord Buddha straight to inquire about this strange happening and also to know the reason for not preaching Dhamma.
Breaking all their observed norms and peculiar cultures, Buddha answered his questions by saying that if those monks preached Dhamma to them, their heads will instantly break into seven pieces as they sinfully disrespected four most venerable Arahants. Seeing that unfortunate consequence the young monks never wanted to see anyone in pain. That was the exact reason in which they returned without preaching the Dhamma to those skeptical Brahmins.
So what’s the moral of the story? That is to think before you judge someone. The Brahmins above belittled those four young Arahants without knowing anything about their great powers. Ain’t we too like that? Don’t we likely to come into conclusions about some people or it can even be a thing or an activity, without any research at all? Yes we do. That is being prejudgmental. That is prejudice. That is preconception. Which according to Google means, “A preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience”.
I think that each one of us has experience in this field of interest. We have encountered with so many people throughout our life where they’ve turned out to be a whole different person than we earlier assumed him to be like. Isn’t it? The thing is, this concept can happen vice versa. It means, that we might think so badly of a person who in reality is very pleasant and good and also so good of a person who in reality is so unpleasant and wicked. Well it has happened to me so often. There are some people who exist in this world wearing exactly a much celebrated, misguideful mask to the public where in private, their lives are the most corrupted while there are some people who never wants to show off another life to the public and to lead another life intuitionally such as Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr.Bingley in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen respectively. And on the other hand there is a saying which says that people who laugh most are the people who suffer the most. Therefore you cannot judge anyone merely on their behavior.
Turning to the subject again, prejudice can have a strong effect on someone’s behavior and levels of interactions with people. This concept of prejudice can be based on several factors when dealing with humans. They are most famously racism, sexism, classicism and these may finally result in grave conditions like discrimination and bullying. Thus be careful with first impressions and stereotypes dear reader because it can be dangerous.
This is related with the non-living too. But in different ways. For example, you might judge a certain food as tasteless without even tasting it. But in reality that might be the tastiest food that you would ever eat. And you might think deadly of a certain activity; a certain risky sport like bungee jumping or sky-diving, which in turn might become the most enjoyable activity that you’ve ever done in your lifetime.
So what should you do to overcome this character flaw? Few things. Just try to look at people and things and happenings in a more fair and a positive way. Try to look into matters through the other person’s perspective too while maintaining your self-esteem and most importantly don’t compare your life with the others because each person is unique. That way you will be able to overcome judgment and you too will not be judged by anyone.
