In the previous episode, we had witnessed how apt communication is crucial while we ask something to anyone including Bhagawan Himself. We’ve witnessed in the case of Draupati as to how she wanted to ask something to Bhagawan Shiva and how she ended up asking it five times! With this, Bhagawan Shiva blessed her with five husbands, hearing which, the little girl was shell-shocked! However, once asked, is asked forever! Bhagawan Shiva had no option but to grant what she had asked for! With this, the little girl took a re-birth from King Drupada’s “Yagnya” as Draupati or Yaagnyaseni or Paanchaali or Krishnaa. It is for this Draupati (commonly referred name) is King Drupada arranging the “Svayamvara” event and the Paandavas are making their way to the Drupada Kingdom. However, the agenda of the Paandavas was never to participate in the Svayamvara event. They wanted to meet King Drupada as “disguised Brahmin sages” and seek his help to get a good place for them to stay.
As Sage Vyaasa narrates this background story to the Paandavas, he just limited his words by saying that Draupati is about to marry five people. He stopped just short of mentioning that it is the five Paandava brothers who are going to marry her. It should be remembered here that great Maharishis would tell what is required, but not even a single word beyond that. This is the significance of being a great sage. Thus, here too we’re witnessing that Sage Vyaasa was exactly telling what was required by the Paandavas to know at that point in time, but not a single word beyond that. He explained Draupati’s background story completely, but did not mention to the Paandavas that it was they who are going to marry them. So what is the lesson that we can learn from this characteristic of Maharishis? We should talk only what is required to! If someone is asking us something, we should keep our reply only to the apt answer for the asked question. We should not talk beyond what is asked. If we do so, we would only get into unwanted traps and finally we would end up getting caught for talking about some unwanted stuff.
This is applicable not only in our personal space, but also in our professional space as well. If we’re going to attend some recruitment interviews or if we’re part of some important corporate meetings, we should know exactly what we’re talking about and we should keep a complete check on the context and the words that we employ. Especially while attending recruitment interviews, it is extremely important that we maintain our answers crisp and to the point. We shouldn’t use unnecessary words to keep “beating around the bush”. Moreover, it is always better not to go beyond what is asked. We should always limit our answer to what the interviewer wants to know. If we go overboard out of excitement, chances are very high that we might get into some traps of the interviewer. Many a time, the interviewer might frame subsequent questions from the answer(s) that we give. Hence, it is always preferable to be precise with our answers that we give. However, having said that, whatever has to be said, has to be said. We should not mince our words. We should be open and transparent with our answers to the extent of what is being asked for. This is also important. Thus, giving limited answers doesn’t mean that we either fudge our answers or not answer any question that is asked. We should be able to strike a balance between the two here – We should make sure that we answer all the questions without blemish, but at the same time, we should know what we’re answering. We should be precise and to the point.
This is something that we can learn from this accord of Sage Veda-Vyaasa here. Of course, Sage Vyaasa is a “Maha-Gnyaani” and with his “Tapo-Bhala”, he knows exactly what is in store in the future! However, great Mahatmas like Sage Vyaasa wouldn’t reveal what is going to happen in the future! They might give some hints in the form of some valuable advice, but wouldn’t explicitly say that this is what is going to happen in the future. Moving on thus, as the Paandavas get this message from Sage Vyaasa about the Svayamvara, it is at this same point that Arjuna and Chitra-Rasa enter into the fight and Chitra Rasa was defeated by the “Aagneya-Asthra” of Arjuna. We’ve witnessed this story in our earlier episodes as well. As Chitra-Rasa understands who Arjuna was, he was very happy and wanted to gift something to Arjuna. He thus gave the “Chaakshusi” Mantra to Arjuna, who in turn gave the “Aagnyeya-Asthra” to Chitra-Rasa. As the Paandavas are about to board the raft along with Sage Dhoumya to cross over the River Ganges, Chitra-Rasa tells the Paandavas an important story! So for today, let us understand until this point and in the next episode we shall witness the story that Chitra-Rasa narrated to the Paandavas! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 