In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important point wherein Vidura stresses that we cannot brand someone as a “Mooda” (Fool) just because he has no formal education in this world. Similarly, a person cannot be branded as a “Panditha” (Scholar) just because he has a high educational qualification in his life. In the same lines, we’ve also seen that possessing huge amount of money will not make a person intelligent or smart as a leader. We witnessed an example to emphasize this point!
Highlighting this point thus, Vidura warns King Dhirdiraashtra, “Oh king! Please don’t ever be complacent and happy that you and your sons have all the wealth of this kingdom today and with this wealth, you can take the Paandavas for a ride! The Paandavas might be devoid of any sorts of wealth today, however there would surely be a time in the future when they would get to enjoy their due share of wealth and the kingdom too! Thus as a leader, please do not write off people just because they are devoid of money and luxuries today. Mostly importantly, the Paandavas are epitomes of knowledge and wisdom, which unfortunately your sons are lacking! Hence the day will not be far off, when you’ll be seeing that all this wealth and luxuries would go to the Paandavas and your sons would be destroyed completely of everything because of their ego and jealousy. Before your sons learn the lesson the hard way, please teach them and make them aware of this important fact!” From this accord, it is clear that we shouldn’t underestimate people with their presence or absence of wealth.
Now moving on further, Vidura highlights the next important point thus – If we maintain friendship and move with a person who tries to hide his mistakes and is only projecting the mistakes of others every time, it is like sleeping in a bed with a snake nearby! Vidura explains thus,
“Na cha raathrou sukham chete sa sarpa iva veshmani!
Yah kopayati nirdosham sa dosho vyantaram janam!!”
Here Vidura explains clearly that if we’ve to move with a person who always criticizing others for their mistakes, but never looks at his back to correct himself, it’s like sleeping on a bed with an extremely venomous snake! Will we ever do this? Don’t we know that if we’re near a poisonous snake our life could be in extreme danger? Hence Vidura advises King Dhirdiraashtra to refrain from friends and companions like these.
By saying so, Vidura is clearly taking the context of one person called “Sahuni” who is Duryodhana’s uncle and also a close aid of King Dhirdiraashtra. This Sahuni is known for plotting against the Paandavas at every instance with cruel intentions. All of us know what happened during the infamous game of gambling and it was this person Sahuni who was the mastermind behind this game that wrecked havoc within the entire Hastinapura kingdom. Thus Vidura is indirectly advising Duryodhana to cut down his companionship with such people who are like venomous snakes! These people only want to fulfill their own personal agenda by playing spoilsport to the larger welfare of the kingdom.
This is a very important sloka and contains a significant message – We should never fall into this category of people who are only interested in blaming others for not doing something that is expected out of us. If we’ve committed a mistake, it is always better to admit it and move on, rather than putting the blame on somebody else for what we’ve not done properly! This is an extremely bad habit and this is what we call in the modern day terminology as “passing the buck on to others”. As a leader, one should be extremely careful in this regard. If a leader tries to pass the buck on to others, or blames someone else unduly for something which the other person might not be responsible for, the “trust” factor in the organization or within the team goes for a toss. This is where the descent amongst team members start mounting and ultimately the team or the organization begins to crumble. Hence if the team or the organization has to be held intact together, the leader should maintain himself or herself in such a way that he/she doesn’t blame someone else unwantedly for any reason.
Moreover, if the mistake is from our side, why should we blame others for it? Why don’t we apologize and take corrective action to set things right? Many a times our ego wouldn’t allow us to do so but somehow we need to overcome the impact of our ego in this. The moment we apologize in front of people for our mistake, interestingly the trust factor amongst the team increases drastically. Rather, if we do not take the blame on ourselves and pass it on to others by blaming them for such similar mistakes, the purpose is not going to get served! The “blame-game” is only going to hurt egos of multiple people at the same time, which would never be useful to solve the problem in hand! Ultimately the problem would be intact and only the blaming would keep happening within each other!
Thus the message is loud and clear here – We should make sure that we do not indulge in a “blame-game” at critical situations. If we start blaming others for whatsoever reason, there is going to be no end for this. Rather, it would be more helpful if we can think of constructive solutions as a team, on how to set right the problem in hand. This would refrain from hurting the egos of multiple people working with us and also helps in improving our bonding with them! This is exactly what Vidura is advising here too – He says that neither we should involve ourself in “blame games” nor we should have companionship with people who are experts at this!
So for today let us ponder over this important point of Vidura and try to implement it in our daily routine. This phenomenon starts right from home, between the son/daughter and parents or between a husband and a wife, etc. If someone raises a problem or an issue, rather than jumping into passing the buck on to the other person, let us try to involve ourselves in “collective thinking”, so that we find a long-lasting solutions to the issue in hand. This is extremely important. We shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to witness Vidura’s next point. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 