In the previous episode, we had witnessed the commencement of the “Vidura Neethi” – An interesting dialogue between Vidura and King Dhritarashtra. We’ve witnessed that King Dhritarashtra is spending a sleepless night and Vidura comes to render some useful words of wisdom to King Dhritarashtra. In this way, we’ve witnessed Vidura talking in detail about those categories of people who are deprived of sleep. Vidura mentions about eight such categories, all of which are applicable to King Dhritarashtra either directly or indirectly. To add to this further, Vidura lists down the characteristics of a “Panditha” (Learned Scholar) and those of a “Mooda” (Fool). We’ve witnessed the characteristics of a “Panditha” in the previous episode, and upon King Dhritarashtra’s request, in this episode, Vidura is going to list down the important characteristics of a “Mooda” (Fool) and of course, Vidura is not going to let King Dhritarashtra go just like that, without some pokes here and there! This is going to be a very interesting accord and let us continue witnessing further!
Now who is a fool as per Vidura? The first characteristic is “Ashrutasya”, which means, a person who has never acquired the essence of his / her education and has no expertise in it. Second category of people being fools – “Samunnaddaha”. This means, even though people might have been highly educated, he / she doesn’t use it in the right direction. In other words, people develop jealousy and greed with education and are not down to earth in any way. Third category of people being fools – “Daridrashca”. This is very simple. Those people who have completely forgotten whatever they’ve learnt. Now this is what is directly applicable to King Dhritarashtra here. As we’ve seen earlier itself, King Dhritarashtra is an extremely scholarly person, however, due to various other reasons, he seems to have completely forgotten whatever he had learnt during the past! Even for us, this is very important. When it comes to learning, putting that effort to learn things thoroughly and passing the exam with flying colours, all of us will do it and score high marks! However, when it comes to recollection of whatever we’ve learnt and retaining the subject in our mind, this is where we falter, isn’t it?
Thus, explaining all these, Vidura concludes that those people who are epitomes of the above-mentioned characteristics, are considered to be the greatest “Moodas” (Fools) in this world! Vidura again pokes King Dhritarashtra thus, “Oh King Dhritarashtra! I hope you do not fall under any of these characteristics! Do you?” As Vidura asks thus, King Dhritarashtra thinks within himself thus, “Oh wow! I fall under all these categories which Vidura mentioned just now! :)” Moreover, Vidura continues to explain further thus, “Oh King Dhritarashtra! Please understand one thing very clearly here – If a person commits a sinful act, the entire family has to experience the repercussions of it! Hence, we’ve to be extremely careful while committing our actions every passing day. We’ve to understand that our actions are going to have reactions not only for us, but also for our entire family as well! Hence, as a learned person, I hope you will realize this in whatever actions you perform!”
Now this is another poke from Vidura. As this is an introductory note, Vidura is not directly telling anything to King Dhritarashtra. He is very careful in the usage of his words. However, these words are good enough to poke King Dhritarashtra in the way it should not! This is because, King Dhritarashtra’s case is open and shut here – The greatest sin that he has committed through Duryodhana to Draupati in the public courtroom starts to haunt King Dhritarashtra once again as Vidura is explaining the characteristics of a “Mooda”! So now what is King Dhritarashtra going to ask Vidura as a follow-up question? Is he getting angry or is he getting thoughtful about what has happened earlier? Let us wait till the next episode to find out! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 