Chaddi Baniyan

In the Hindu Scriptures, I, Yama, lay out how one can live according to Dharma. One of the best ways to teach Dharma is to show how some fail to live by it. One evening, I was watching over a small city in India. Two men lived their lives as criminals; they took from others and disrupted the innocent. One day, they finally received the proper consequences:

"Everything is in place," whispered Rakesh. He turned his head slightly to face the other man behind him. They were all dressed in black from head-to-toe and were wearing underclothes to show their loyalty to their gang. It is a tradition of the Chaddi Baniyan to wear certain undergarments in order to detect other members in India.

These men called themselves proud members of the Chaddi Baniyan Gang. This was one of the largest forms of organized crime in India, and Rakesh wanted secretly to become the ruler over it.

Raj, the gang leader and mastermind of the crimes, cracked a small smile. The two criminals slowly walked into a local jewelry store. Raj, being only thirty years old at the time, was extremely power-hungry. Although he was the leader of the Chaddi Baniyan, he still did not trust any of the other gang members. He wanted the others to fear him and not challenge his position as leader.

As the sun set and the night sky appeared, all the shopkeepers in the city began closing the doors and tending to their final customers. Because both were armed with semi-automatic weapons, Raj and Rakesh barged through the front door and waved them at the people inside. Two customers, a couple shopping for engagement rings, and a salesman both immediately screamed and hit the floor.

I watched this event occur and remember it very vividly, and I immediately knew how the story was going to unfold. Fortunately, the owner of the jewelry store is a devout Hindu man and lived a very righteous life, so I decided to protect his life due to his honoring of Dharma.

Raj demanded the jewelry out of the cases while Rakesh guarded the door. The two robbers, although no one perished, did shoot the salesman in the shoulder. Raj and Rakesh fled the scene after stealing over seven million rupees in diamonds before the police arrived.

Over the course of two months, Raj and Rakesh began their life of luxury, and hiding, with their new fortune. They bought a new house, new cars, and so many other material things. The Chaddi Baniya began recruiting other men who wanted to share in the power; Raj had become one of the most respected and infamous gang leaders in India. However, it did not occur to them that the gods have direct sight of them and that their actions will be followed by massive consequences.

While the investigation was underway at the Haryana Police Department, the criminals were hiding away and enjoying their new life. As time went on, even though the investigation continued, Raj and Rakesh began to feel invincible.

"I think since they haven't found us yet, then they never will," Rakesh said with a laugh.

"Yeah! Maybe we can start spending our money in public. The women and attention we would get would make this even better," Raj replied.

Little did they know, Officer Thachil, the chief of the Haryana PD, was hot on their trail. He found the stolen jewelry at a local shop and traced the purchase back to their accounts. Because the detectives are very skilled in this kind of search, they set up a "bait" tactic to catch Raj and Rakesh. Two undercover agents, disguised as businessmen, were scheduled to enter the popular Bollywood celebrity dance club on a Saturday night. Because Raj was always searching for new members to the Chaddi Baniyan, the two agents planned to approach him about it.

Just as Officer Thachil suspected, the two criminals arrived with girls on each arm, and the lustful eyes of the two criminals were immediately interested in these two potential new recruits. When everything was in place, the detectives tackled Raj and Rakesh and immediately arrested them for theft and armed robbery.

The criminals were caught when they got too confident and wanted to boast with their new riches, so this is a great example of how Dharma becomes out-of-balance when arrogance gets in the way. Dear readers, learn from their failures so you can live an honorable and prosperous life.

Author's Note: The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls

This story was based on the Jataka of the Foolish Girl Monkey: A lady went for a swim and took off her jewelry and placed it into a box. She placed her string of pearls in a box and told her servant to watch the box while they were swimming. A girl monkey was watching the lady put the pearls inside the box from a tree above. The servant fell asleep after a while of watching the box, so the monkey came down and stole the pearls from the box. When the servant awoke, she began frantically searching for the pearls and told the chief guard they were missing. The guard reported this to the king, and they found that it was impossible for any person to steal this, so the guard set a trap to see if the guilty party was a monkey. He set lots of glass beads in the bushes, and all the monkeys grabbed the beads, except for the girl monkey. She was content with her pearls. She boasted to the others about how her pearls were better than their glass beads, and the chief caught her because she did not go get beads like all the others

I changed this story to be about a robbery, and I made a robbery story and the investigators find out the robber by him boasting or something like that. I could show Dharma by showing that boasting always leads to bad consequences. Just as the girl monkey boasted to the others about her shimmering pearls, Rakesh and Raj did the same with their accomplishments.

Bibliography:

“Gangs in India,” Wikipedia Chaddi Baniyan

“More Jataka Tales,” Ellen C. Babbitt. Main Lesson

Image: Diamonds