Once there lived a saint in an ashram on Himalayas. He was very intelligent and knowledgeable. Due to this, he was very popular and people from distant places started coming to ask solutions of their problems. One day, a woman came near to him and said, "Respected Saint! My husband works in army. He used to love me a lot earlier. But, since he has returned from last battle, he gets very angry now and then, even without any reason. Because of this, I have also started getting a lot more angry than before. I have heard a lot about you. I have come with many hopes that you will provide some herbal medicines to control the anger."
The saint replied, "O Lady! This generally happens when a person sees a lot of killings of humans in a war. But after sometime, the mind of your husband will settle down and he will become normal." But the woman insisted to provide her the medicine of anger. The saint then said, "If you really want to have the medicine, I can provide you. But for the preparation, I would require a single hair of a living tiger's mustache. If you can get the hair, then only the medicine could be prepared." The lady agreed and started searching for a tiger in the forests.
After searching for few hours, she found a tiger. She became very happy. Then, as she went closer to tiger, the tiger saw the woman and roared loudly in anger. The lady, scared by the roar, ran from there. The next day, she again tried to go near the tiger and the tiger again roared. This kept on happening for several days and the lady was not even able to go anywhere closer to the tiger.
One day, when she was trying to go closer, the tiger did not roar. The tiger must have got used to see the woman everyday, and felt no danger of her. The woman, finally managed to get too close to the tiger. Now, everyday the woman used to go near the tiger. She also started taking meat and fish for that tiger. The tiger had also become quite friendly with the woman and both of them now became comfortable with each other's company. Ultimately, on one day, the woman plucked the hair of the tiger's mustache and tiger did not say anything. The tiger kept on eating the fish, without reacting.
The woman became very happy. Finally, she got the hair and now the saint can prepare the medicine for controlling anger. Without any delay, she went near the saint and gave him the hair and said, "Respectable saint! See I got the hair. Now, you can prepare the medicine." The saint took the hair and said, "Great, it is actually the hair of an alive tiger." After saying this, he threw the hair in the bonfire. Seeing this the woman became extremely disappointed. She said, "O great saint!! I tried so hard to get this hair of tiger's mustache and you simply threw it in the fire. Why you did so? How will you now prepare the medicine!?"
The saint said, "Lady! You do not need any medicine to control anger. Try to realize this. When you can control such an aggressive animal as tiger through your dedication and practice, can't you control your own and your husband's anger by just practicing, which is much lesser than tiger's anger. Think about it. You and he are humans, and not aggressive and violent tigers."
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