The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion on the important sloka of Vidura, wherein he says that certain aspects in life can never be defeated or overcome by adopting certain means and ways. Vidura gives an accord of four such things thus: Sleep can never be overcome by extended sleeping. Similarly, the true love that has to blossom within a couple cannot be fully achieved only with physical enjoyment and pleasures. In the same way, a fire can never be extinguished with the help of firewood, which instead would only aggreviate the fire more and more. Finally Vidura says that if a person has to get rid of addiction towards alcoholism, it cannot be achieved by making him consume more of it, barring exceptional cases of course.
Thus in all of these, Vidura indirectly explains the fact of life that there are certain methodologies in life to tackle with different situations that we face every day. We should carefully analyze and use our decision-making capability to take the right decisions and hence the right approach towards any problem or situation.

This is primarily important for all of us, including King Dhirdiraashtra. By explaining things in an indirect manner, Vidura is hinting to King Dhirdiraashtra that it is about time that he mends his ways in the right direction towards “Dharma”. Especially while Vidura explains the point on how a fire cannot be dozed off with the wrong materials, Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra that he is underestimating a huge fire that is brewing up between the Kaurava and the Pandava camps and that, he is totally ignorant about it, just because of his excessive affection towards his crooked son Duryodhana.
Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra thus, “Oh King! As you might know, if you add more firewood to a raging fire, it is only going to increase it’s intensity and is clearly not the way to doze it down! Similarly, to a raging fire of tension between the Paandava and your Kaurava camp, you’re only taking steps to increase the fire and not worried about dozing it down! As a righteous king, your primary responsibility is not let such unwanted “fires” destroy the kingdom and its prosperity. But in your case, what are you doing? Just like adding pieces of firewood to a raging fire, you’re only adding to Duryodhana’s cause by letting him do whatever nonsense that it takes to infuriate the Paandavas and most importantly Bhagawan Krishna. All your actions till date are only like that piece of firewood, which helps in blowing up the fire with more and more intensity. Little have you done to rather doze it off at the right moment. As a father and as a king, if you would have been strict with Duryodhana and if you would have taken the stick when required, Duryodhana wouldn’t have become such a disgrace to humanity and to our Hastinapura kingdom!”
Vidura continues to slam King Dhirdiraashtra thus. “Oh King! You might negate my point, but please understand this – Just like a person who is addicted to alcoholism is a disgrace to the society, your son Duryodhana who is addicted to all aspects of “Adharma” is a pure disgrace to the Hastinapura Kingdom.I know I’m making a harsh statement against your son, but sadly that is the truth! Just like how a person who is addicted to alcohol can never be brought back by giving him more of alcohol, your son Duroydhana can never be corrected even if you give away the Hastinapura Kingdom in his hands, with its full entity! Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Just think for a moment – Do you think that Duryodhana would stop all his atrocities against the Paandavas if he gets the kingdom in his hand? I’m sure he wouldn’t! In fact, if the entire undivided Hastinapura kingdom goes into his hands, his atrocities towards the Paandavas will only increase further, just because there would literally be nobody to control and question him for anything whatever he does! This is like an alcohol addict, getting unlimited freedom to do whatever he wants in his life! What would such a person do? He would only drink more and more alcohol and ultimately die because of various physical complications! Similarly, if Duryodhana is given a free hand, eventually he would completely walk the path of “Adharma” and thus would pave the way for mass destruction, not only for himself but also for the whole Kaurava clan together! Hence King Dhirdiraashtra, it is upto you now! It’s now or never! Please wake up from this slumber and do the needful to stop the rampage of Duryodhana, before either he or you would feel sorry, later on!”
Saying thus, Vidura renders valuable advice to King Dhirdiraashtra on the current situation of the Hastinapura kingdom and the situation of war looming large. But does King Dhirdiraashtra listen to Vidura’s valuable words? Or, does Vidura relent in his advising to King Dhirdiraashtra, who has already turned deaf ears to “Dharma”? We shall find out in tomorrow’s and the upcoming few final episodes of the Vidura Neeti! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode we had commenced the next important discussion after the long one on companionship and it’s importance. Here Vidura explains as part of this discussion, four important aspects in life and how can we not win over them! For the convenience of our readers, let us have a glimpse of the sloka once more. Vidura explains thus:

“Na swapnena jayennidraan na kaamena jayeth striyaha!

Na indhanena jayeth agnim na paanena suraam jayeth!!”

In yesterday’s episode, we had witnessed the first two points thus, wherein Vidura explains that we can never win sleep with sleep! In simpler words, if we’ve to wake up early in the morning, the only way to achieve that is to defy our body from getting that luxury of being in the bed, beyond the stipulated time of waking up. Rather, if we start giving that “extra-bit-of-comfort” by sleeping for another 5-10 minutes more, this will never end and ultimately the purpose of getting up early gets defeated fully! Hence Vidura explained that we can never win over our sleep by sleeping more. Rather, the only way to overcome it is to deny that comfort for our body beyond that stipulated point.

Secondly, Vidura spoke about the relationship between the husband and a wife. The hearts of each other can be won, not only by physical pleasures, but only by the attitude, character and true love from the heart. Nowadays, it is an aweful thing to witness many youngsters running behind each other, only to satisfy their physical pleasures and maybe some other worldly affairs. A relationship that is built only upon physical need satisfaction and money, would never sustain beyond a point. It is only the true love, affection, understanding between the two people and their character that would take the relationship forward towards sustainability over a long period of time.

Now moving on to the third point, Vidura says, “Na indhanena jayeth agnim” – This means, if a fire has to be dozed off, can it be done by using firewood, or any kind of wooden items? No, it cannot! To doze off fire, the appropriate material like water, carbon dioxide gas, sand, etc. are required, depending upon the nature of the fire. This is why even in the present day, it is important for all of us to ascertain the nature and source of the fire, before planning to extinguish it. For instance, if the fire is caused because of the burning of some wood items or furniture, it can be dozed off by using heavy cannons of water. However, if the fire is caused due to an electrical short-circuit, water cannot be used to doze it off. If we rather use water for it, we would only be aggravating the fire more and more, rather than dozing it off! The best method to extinguish fire caused due to electrical short-circuit is to throw sand on it. Since sand is an insulator, it would cut off the oxygen supply to the fire and thus be extinguished. Thus, these are some basic things that all of us should know, although many of us might be aware already. Thus, Vidura’s point here is that in general, if a fire is raging, we cannot doze it off by using those materials that would kindle the fire to spread easily.

Finally Vidura explains “Na paanena suraam jayeth!” – If a person has consumed excessive liquor and has gone to a semi-conscious state, he cannot be brought back to normal by making him drink more of alcohol! This is also a foolish act, isn’t it? Thus, rather than making the person repeat the same mistake over and over again, there should be a different approach to bring out the person from alcoholism. Of course, there are few cases wherein people who are addicted to alcoholic drinks are treated a bit differently. For instance, if the addiction has gone beyond a certain point to such a state wherein this person’s fingers would start shivering if he doesn’t have a bottle of alcohol in his hand, such cases should be treated a bit differently. Rather than completely stopping and denying alcoholic drinks to such people, it is better to reduce the consumption step by step.

This might be in a bit of a contradiction to Vidura’s point, but readers should understand that these are extreme cases. What Vidura explains, might hold good for normal people like us. If the level of addiction is less, then the approach might be that we totally take a pledge to avoid alcoholic drinks altogether from this day onwards. However, if the level of addiction increases and if it reaches the highest level, the only way to bring such people out of alcoholism is to reduce the alcohol consumption step after step, rather than doing it all at one go! This is done because, if the person is denied the alcoholic drink all of a sudden completely, the nervous problem would increase multi-fold and chances are high that this person would have a complete nervous breakdown, which would eventually lead to the death of the person. Whereas, if the reduction is adopted in a stepwise manner, this person would slowly start getting accustomed to the reduced intake, thus, atleast in the near to long term, there is a possibility that he would be able to quit drinking completely.

Thus, the message from today’s episode is that, if it is a fire, it cannot be dozed down by using those materials that would kindle the fire more, and similarly, if we’ve to bring out a person from alcoholism, it can’t be done by making him consume more of it. There is an important hidden message that Vidura is trying to convey through this sloka, wherein we’ve just witnessed the outward meaning till now. We shall wait till the next episode to witness and understand that hidden important message. Stay tuned! 😊

The previous episode too saw an extension on the important discussion on the significance of good companionship. We witnessed yesterday how Duryodhana was a big victim of bad companionship, especially in the hands of his vicious uncle Sahuni. In fact, Sahuni was so venomous in nature that he used Duryodhana’s desperation to his fullest advantage. By pulling Duryodhana into his hands during the infamous gambling game, Sahuni eventually started to dictate terms in the Hastinapura kingdom in such a way that even King Dhirdirashtra couldn’t control beyond a point. This eventually made Duryodhana dance to the tunes of his wretched uncle Sahuni and eventually brought about his downfall.

Such is the effect of bad companionship in life. If we’re falling into this trap of bad companionship with people whom we should not mingle, it simply implies that we’re digging our own grave in the graveyard. Thus Vidura advises us to be very careful here. We’ve to indeed think twice or thrice before letting ourselves into the close quarters of someone. We’ve to do a credibility check thoroughly before choosing our close friends. This is extremely important in the modern-day world, especially due to the current challenging situations we keep facing everyday.

Now moving on further, Vidura now explains the next point wherein he says that we can never win over certain things in life by adopting certain means. This has lot of significance to us and let us witness this point in detail. Vidura explains thus:

“Na swapnena jayennidraan na kaamena jayeth striyaha!

Na indhanena jayeth agnim na paanena suraam jayeth!!”

Here, Vidura commences this sloka with the phrase “Na swapnena jayennidraan” – Here Vidura explains that we can never win over sleep, by thinking that we can still continue dreaming while sleeping more! Some people have this habit today – If we’re trying to wake up early in the morning and if we’re unable to get up from bed, we enter into this mindset of sleeping for 5-10 more minutes, and by doing so, we can get up fresh! This is a wrong mindset that many of us have! If we’re going to sleep for that 5-10 minutes extra, just because of that desire to sleep more, we’re never going to get up on time! It is because, these 5-10 minutes would again extend to another 15 minutes. This 15 would again keep extending further and further, thus ultimately, the very purpose of getting up early gets defeated! This is exactly what Vidura explains here – He says that we can never win over sleep by sleeping more or dreaming more! Sometimes in the morning, we might be amidst a dream while we wake up and when the alarm bell goes off, we might feel reluctant to get up, owing to the enjoyment that we get from the dream! Thus the only way to overcome sleep and get up on time is to forcefully deny our body the comfort that we would gain by sleeping a bit more. The moment we start giving that “extra bit of comfort” for our body, we would start becoming lazy! Thus it is important that we can never overcome sleep with “extra sleep” and we should realize it.

Next, Vidura says, “Kaamena jayeth striyaha” – This means that a man or a woman can never win each other’s love and heart only by indulging in physical pleasures. Of course, that is also required, but higher than just the physical satisfaction, true love can reign between the husband and the wife only with respect to each other’s character and the right attitude towards life. This is the reason why we give importance to the episode of the “Sita-Rama-wedding” as part of the Valmiki Ramayana. We had witnessed this famous sloka in our previous Ramayana project, wherein King Janaka says to Rama thus,

“Iyam sitaa mama suthaa saha dharma chareetava!”

This clearly signifies that King Janaka assures Bhagawan Rama that his daughter Sita is an epitome of Dharma and that, she would follow the Dharma meticulously all through the married life with Bhagawan Rama, till the end. This shows that a marriage between a couple is performed to initiate both of them together towards the pursuit of “Dharma”. Thus, the amount of mutual respect between the husband and the wife and their character, coupled with their attitude are the ones that would really make true love to prosper within them. Hence we should realize that, more than the physical aspect of love, the character and attitude aspects of love are of prime importance to sustain the relationship.

So for today, let us ponder over these two important points explained by Vidura. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the next two points as explained in this sloka. Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another extension of Vidura’s point on good companionship. We continued the discussion further to establish the unfortunate fact of the modern day that in some way or the other we keep following people blindly for the purpose of attaining a social status and in some cases, name, fame and wealth. This is where we need to realize that we should follow those people who are more spiritually developed than us, and should keep a check on our following of those people who are financially and socially developed than us! If we go behind people of the latter category, all we’ll end up in is, wastage of our precious time, which could have been used effectively to develop ourselves, creating jealousy within ourselves, which is again unwarranted and ultimately culminating in loosing our peace of mind.

In fact, if we’ve to look at this from a different angle, this is one of the main reasons why many people land up in mental depression. The moment we see people who are financially and socially of a higher level than us, we immediately start craving for more and more money and other luxuries, just to prove a point to the other person that we are no less than him or her. As a result, we try to resort to any and every possible way to make money – be it legal or illegal. This means that, we’re slowly starting to move away from the path of “Dharma” and are getting prepared to make money by hook or crook! As this mentality kicks in, we start getting desperate in what we do and our craving towards money and materialistic achievements commence. This craving for money is never going to end, even if we’re able to make truckloads of money more than the other person. However, little do we realize that the more and more money we accumulate, is only going to make us more and more sleepless every night! Especially if we’ve made money through the illegal route, we would always have that innate fear within us as to what if someone would find out, and what if we go to jail because of our mistakes! This ultimately kills our peace of mind and thus we see many people today, although they might have all the riches possible under their possession, are having zero peace of mind and thus land up in depression. Thus it is very clearly mentioned by Vidura through this point that, the more and more wealth that we accumulate, is only going to reduce our peace of mind in that same proportion.

This is exactly where King Dhirdiraashtra is entangled here and Vidura tries to make him understand this folly of his through various means. The moment King Dhirdiraashtra and his son Duryodhana started craving for the Hastinapura kingdom (undivided), all hell broke lose for them! Now if we can relate the above explanation in the case of Duryodhana, we can witness exactly the same set of events that took place in the Mahabharata story. All of us know how Duryodhana, right from his childhood was against the Paandava brothers in anything and everything. As his craving for the kingdom increased with his age, Duryodhana started entering into bad companionship in the likes of his uncle Sahuni and the others. Because of this, he started to take the wrong route of “Adharma” to somehow deny the Paandavas their due share of the kingdom. In fact, he went to the extent to even kill the Paandavas, despite the fact that they were his own cousin brothers! This is what would happen if we enter bad companionship. At some point, we would get so carried away that we would forget what we’re doing and to whom we’re behaving in what ways! And of course, all of us know what happened during the infamous game of gambling and the Paandava brothers finally being sentenced to a harsh exile! All these things were motivated by Sahuni, the wrong companion whom Duryodhana was dancing to the tunes of!

In fact, if we witness the Mahabharata story carefully in depth, Sahuni, being the uncle of Duryodhana had a clear personal agenda for himself, being in the Hastinapura palace! He was a person who wanted to take vengeance on King Dhiridraashtra for a disastrous past incident that happened between both of them! Sahuni was a clever and a smart person and he “used” Duryodhana as the perfect victim to push forward his agenda of dethroning King Dhirdiraashtra! Seeing that Duryodhana is desperate to capture the kingdom from his father and the Paandavas, Sahuni played the “cunning intermediary” role for Duryodhana to perfection, wherein he befooled Duryodhana to be his “well-wisher”, but he was actually not! Sahuni ultimately wanted Hastinapura kingdom to be doomed, and he used Duryodhana to achieve what he wanted to! Sadly enough, Duryodhana failed to realize this fact, and thus fell into the wretched trap laid by Sahuni perfectly, thus spelling his and his father’s doom! Such is the effect of bad companionship!

Rather, if we look at the side of the Paandavas, they were the epitomes of good companionship and thereby following the path of “Dharma” in whatever they did. At all good and bad times of their lives, they had one of the best companions ever, in the form of Bhagawan Krishna himself! What more can one ask for? If Bhagawan is there with them all the time, what more good company can we ever ask for in life? 😊 Thus we can see, at every instance of their life, Bhagawan Krishna renders them with impeccable advice pertaining to the “Dharma” and the Paandava brothers meticulously followed all of them without any blemish. Such was the effect of good companionship and ultimately, the Paandava brothers, although they had to undergo innumerable trials and tribulations, were able to emerge victorious and to protect “Dharma” in this world.

So the message from today’s episode is also pretty much the same as yesterday’s and day before’s – We’re witnessing the greatness of good companionship and the repercussions of bad companionship. From all these descriptions, we should be able to take a firm stance in our life with regards to the people whom we move with every passing day. We should always remember that good companionship would lead us towards the path of “Dharma” and spiritual development and we should get into the “Satsang” of good people who are ardent devotees of Bhagawan without any blemish. We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s next important point of discussion! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion on the point on companionship. Vidura had slammed King Dhirdiraashtra for his ignorance in selecting his right companions, which means that he had invited trouble to enter his life through them. This is a big warning to all of us too – If we’re entering into a bad companionship, we can be rest assured that we’re going to face doom very shortly in life! This is why it is always better to think twice before choosing our close companions and aides. It’s easy to get carried away by juicy words and praises from others and little we might know that these same people are those who are going to be instrumental in pulling us down! In the present day we need to be even more careful because of the advent of technology and the virtual social media. If some strangers are befriending us on social media or chat websites, it is always advisable to trod carefully along that path. Of course I’m not generalizing the argument by saying that the usage of social media is bad and not advisable. All what I’m trying to emphasize here is that, we should be extra careful while using the social media in today’s world as it has now become one of the important hubs for many criminal activities. When we’re meeting some new and unknown people in the virtual world, it is always better not to trust them blindly in the initial conversation itself. How many instances are we seeing today that people get entangled into unwanted crimes via the social media and by befriending strangers whom they don’t even know! Hence it is always better to be a bit more careful while we’re engaged in social media conversations. If we somehow slip into a wrong companionship, we should always remember what would be the repercussions of it. This is a very important point that we have to note as we move on in our regular life.

In fact, there is a popular saying in Sanskrit to highlight this point:

“Uparyupari pashyantaha sarvayeva dharidhrathi!”

This means, if we’ve to raise up our standard in life in terms of moral values, spirituality, etc. we should always look at those people who are at a level higher than us and move with them. Only then we would be able to raise up our bar, on par with them. If we’re rather moving with those people who are inferior to us in these regards, we would only go spiraling down! Unfortunately in today’s world, what are we doing? We’re following the above sloka correctly, but for the wrong reasons! We’re only interested in looking up at people who are superior to us in terms of wealth and luxuries, and are going behind them blindly.

This is why we see people blindly going behind so-called “celebrities” like movie stars, politicians, etc. who are only interested in making money and luxuries out of these innocent peoples’ lives and time! The sad thing is that, many of us do not realize this and we still go blindly behind these so called “stars” and “celebrities”. Rather than going behind such people, why don’t we strive hard and become one such person in our lives? This is what we need to think! If we’re blindly going behind them for the want of name, fame, luxuries, wealth, etc. where is our individuality? Where is our zeal to perform and give our best? Where is our effort to identify our talent and convert it into performance? We should spare a thought on this important sub-point of what Vidura is explaining here.

Thus the important message from today’s episode is that, we should go behind people for the right reasons – Adopting moral and ethical values, follow their path and guidance on spiritual growth and development, education, etc. For instance, if someone is highly educated in a particular domain, we should take this person as a role model for our life and should try and follow their footsteps. This is why we see many talented and focused youngsters in India have a role model as our great ex. President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. His hard work, dedication, sincerity, confidence, straightforwardness in whatever he did, are all inspirations for the modern-day youngsters! Moreover, when Dr. Kalam was alive, he was very interested in interacting with the younger generation, so that they can take cues from his life experiences and use them to come out with flying colors! Thus, it is always good to have the company of such excellent people and interact with them often and this would pave the way for our future success in whatever we do. This is what Vidura explains here too – When he says “good companionship”, he means exactly this! If our companions are good and of a higher level than us, it opens up opportunities for us to raise up to that level. If it is vice versa, we’ve to be ready to spell doom to our lives!

Hence for today, let us continue to ponder over this very important point for our life, and we shall wait till the next episode to take Vidura’s next point of discussion forward! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode, Vidura highlighted the importance of our companionship during our daily life. The more impure our companionship becomes, the more we get impure by heart too. To illustrate this in a nice way, Vidura took an analogy on how gold starts getting impure as more and more silver gets added to it. The number of “carats” starts coming down as silver is added and thus, the metal gets diluted. Finally as more and more such “impurities” are added, this gold finally becomes brass and eventually gets to a situation wherein it becomes completely useless! Similarly in our life too, as our bad companions grow in size and intensity, our pure heart starts getting diluted and finally we also become one amongst the bad people of this world.

By explaining this point, Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Right from your early days when Duryodhana was a child, you had been associating yourself and him amidst all sorts of people who have their own selfish personal motives! By that, you have gradually developed the hatred towards Paandavas and the Dharma, both within yourself and within your son Duryodhana! As time has passed by, this hatred has only increased and you’ve been fueling it with more and more of it! Isn’t it your duty as a father to doze off any kind of strain in the relationship between the two sets of brothers? What wrong did the Paandavas do to experience such a lot of suffering from your son, just because he hates them? Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Let me tell you one thing very clear – The companionship in which Duryodhana is amidst currently, especially in the likes of Sahuni, is only pushing him to the drain and not in any way aiding his development. Even during that dreadful day of gambling, it was only on the behest of Sahuni, the entire game was skewed in the favor of Duryodhana and it was a well-planned event. Sahuni had planned that event in such a way that he would be an instrument to demean and insult the Paandavas in every way possible amidst the public courtroom. And of course, none in your courtroom had the guts to stand up and question your crooked son Ducchaashana when he publicly insulted a woman by stripping her off her saree! This means that all of them in your courtroom encouraged Adharma to happen, which in turn means that they form a cartel of bad companions of yours! In other words, they just try to fulfill their personal agenda and selfish needs, and are ready to go to any extent to promote “Adharma” in your kingdom, and here is King Dhirdiraashtra, not realizing anything of it and still believes that all of them are good! It’s really a shame that we have such bad still being part of your group of ministers!”

Slamming King Dhirdiraashtra left, right and center, Vidura drives home the important point that if we fall into a bad company of people, it is the start point of our downfall in life. This is exactly what happened to Karna as well – Although he was a kind person by heart, he was ultimately killed during the Kurukshetra battle just because he fell into a wrong companionship of Duryodhana.

All these illustrations from the scriptures point out the important point that we would get doomed if we’re amidst bad companionship. Hence it becomes extremely important for us to constantly check out for ourselves whether we’re amidst the right frame of people. This is why our elders insist that we make ourselves part of “Satsanga” and “Saadhu-Samaagama”, which means that we should always be amidst those people who are directly in service to Bhagawan through some way or the other. We should always be present amidst those people who talk about Bhagawan, sing his names and stories, etc. This would automatically cleanse our mind and heart and enhance our purity, which in turn would lead us to spiritual development. The better our companions are, the better we become in life, and the world would look up to us in a good way.

So for today, let us ponder over this important point and let us take a conscious call within ourselves to check out our companionship from time to time. It is very easy to slip into bad companionship and we should be extremely careful about it! How many instances are we seeing today, wherein so-called good people struggle to prove themselves, when they get entangled amidst a bad company of people and get into allegations of some wrongdoings? These instances should teach us a lesson about good companionship and its significance in the present-day scenario. We shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to enter into Vidura’s next point of discussion! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had concluded the important discussion on how do we handle different types of people in our life. In that way, we witnessed significantly that those people who keep peddling lies for anything and everything, can be effectively countered with the truth and authentic proof behind all what they say! Ultimately all of us should always remember from this point that truth would triumph at any situation and hence we shouldn’t feel scared or worries that those people who peddle lies would win. This will never happen and we shall feel confident about it.

Now moving on further, Vidura explains a very important point through an interesting analogy. He says that our character would be known to the world by looking and analyzing the friends with whom we move with every day. Here Vidura picks up a beautiful analogy of comparing gold with our character. He says, just how pure gold gets impure when added with more and more silver and dirt, our pure heart also starts getting impure by moving with more and more wrong companions.

Vidura says, “Suvarnasya malam hoobyam”, which means, gold starts getting impure when we start adding silver to it. If we visit any jewellery shop, we would be able to witness different categories of gold for making ornaments. Some varieties would be of 24 carat, some of 22 carat, and some below that. The pricing of the gold would start decreasing as the number of carats start decreasing. This means that, the lesser the number of carats, the more impure the gold starts becoming. As per the science of chemistry, gold can be made “impure” by adding silver to it. This is how fundamentally the number of carats of gold are decided and I’m sure many of us would be aware of this. This is exactly what Vidura is also pointing out with the above phrase.

Next, he says, “Hoobyasyaapi malam thrabhu”, which means that this diluted or “impure” gold can further be made impure into brass. This is perhaps one of the most impure form of gold. Of course, brass has lot of usage in our daily life, but still, it is considered to be impure gold. Subsequently Vidura says, “Nyeeyam tharmalam seesam”, which means that if there is more dirt or filth that accumulates on this brass, it becomes even worse that at a stage it becomes totally useless to be employed for anything in the world.

Thus Vidura talks here about the ways in which pure gold is brought down level after level to a stage wherein it becomes totally useless. As mentioned above, Vidura employs this beautiful analogy to warn King Dhirdiraashtra that he is moving around everyday with so many people who are “impure” by heart. The more “impurities” with whom King Dhirdiraashtra is going to interact with, the more quickly he and his entire clan is going to be destroyed. Hence it is important for all of us to realize that the company that we get associated with in our life, is extremely important and if this company is only adding more impurities to us, we would also become as rotten as brass with dirt, which would be completely deemed unusable by the world! Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra through this analogy that he is going to be known for all the wrong reasons and for all his wrong companions that he has encouraged all through his life. He warns King Dhirdiraashtra that all those people whom he sees around him are not trustable and good. Rather, these same people are going to be the ones who are responsible for all the mess that has happened in the Hastinapura kingdom so far. Even in the future, these are the very people who are going to be solely responsible for the downfall of the kingdom and its king together.

So for today, let us begin to ponder over this important point that Vidura stresses upon. We shall take this discussion forward in the next episode and subsequently will move on to Vidura’s next point of discussion! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

In the previous episode we had commenced to witness a deeper discussion on Vidura’s four categories of people and how best to handle each of them. For the convenience of our readers, we shall have a look at the sloka again as we proceed forward. This is a very important sloka and we’ve to derive due understanding from it.

“Ahkrodhena jayeth krodham asaadhum saadhunaa jayeth!

Jayeth kadhariyam daanena jayeth satyena cha anritham!!”

In yesterday’s episode, we had discussed the first point with sufficient elaboration – “Ahkrodhena jayeth krodham”, wherein, Vidura explains that anger can be effectively countered by a calm and composed behavior. Of course, there might be situations in life wherein, we need to get angry to counter “Adharma”, but “controlled aggression” is what is advisable, rather than going all out into a different unwanted level. We took up the example of our great Mahatma Gandhi to highlight this point, and eventually we witnessed why we Indians, as ardent followers of “Sanaathana Dharma” are revered highly intelligent and calm by the world.

As we now move to the second point, Vidura says “Asaadhum saadhunaa jayeth”, which means that a person who is dumb-headed and doesn’t know how to respect others in the apt way, can be handled by respecting him / her in the highest possible way and with the usage of good and pleasing language. In other words, a person who doesn’t want to listen to anything of “Dharma” and who is meticulously following only “Adharma” in all ways, can be handled effectively by educating and making him / her aware of the “Dharma” in the nicest way possible. This is exactly what Vidura is trying to do to King Dhirdiraashtra here. He’s explaining all the “Dharma” possible in the most beautiful way ever! However yet, King Dhirdiraashtra is unable to implement any of what Vidura is explaining. If he is unable to follow what Vidura is saying even in the nicest way possible, we shall imagine what would have been the condition if Vidura would have adopted a hostile approach towards King Dhridiraashtra. By explaining all the “Dharma”, Vidura is insisting that King Dhirdiraashtra follows this nice approach towards his son Duryodhana to slowly educate him and bring him out of the “Adharma” that he is committing, right in front of Bhagawan Krishna’s eyes!

Thus the point here is that, it becomes irrelevant to some people, if we explain the “Dharma” to them in a hostile way! The usage of language and the way in which we communicate is extremely important for our valid points to be fully heard by others. Hence communication is of prime importance here. This is what our present-day professional world demands too! In fact, one of the important criteria for recruiting new people has become “communication”. From this we should understand the importance that today’s world is giving to the way in which we communicate to others.

Moving further, Vidura explains “Jayeth kadhariyam daanena” – This means, by giving “Dhaanam” to the needy people, their hearts can be won! This is probably a well-known fact by all of us and I don’t think this would warrant much of an explanation. If we’ve to win the hearts of people who are needy and poor, the only way to do so is to satisfy them with their basic needs, which probably they might lack – For instance, food, water, shelter, etc. The moment we are able to take care of their basic needs of sustaining their everyday life, they would start becoming loyal and true to us, which in turn means that we’re winning their hearts!

Finally, Vidura explains “Jayeth satyena cha anritham” – This means that a lie can be won over by truth! This is an extremely important point that Vidura is trying to highlight here. Even a thousand lies that are peddled against someone or something, can be neutralized by one truth behind all of it! As we have the popular saying “Sathyameva Jayathe!”, which translates into “Truth alone triumphs”, we should always realize that peddling lies may only give us short-term name and fame.

In the present-day scenario, it is unfortunate to see many of us getting carried away by this short-term name and fame in whatever we do. We can have innumerable instances wherein people from many walks of life get into this trap, only to get caught and to repent for their foolish behavior at a later stage! Especially in politics, as India is fast-approaching towards its general elections, it has become a fashion nowadays for leaders of some opposition party to throw barbs and lies about various issues pertaining to the country’s security and still get away! All they aim for are power, fame, political mileage, etc. Unfortunately, they fail to realize that they are being exposed then and there for all the lies they keep peddling day in and day out! For instance, when the issue on the “Surgical strike” against our “most incompatible” neighbouring country is taken up, many of us might have witnessed that all our opposition party leaders ganging up against the Government of India, thus indirectly supporting the cause of our hostile neighbor! In the process, they keep peddling lies after lies to justify their wrong narrative! However, when adequate proof keeps coming from the Government and the Army, these people stand exposed and vindicated! This is the power of truth! Hence it is upto us as citizens of this great country called “Bhaarata Desha” to take a conscious decision to exercise our franchising rights to select the right people for the upcoming new government. If we’re going to elect those who try to peddle lies for gaining  cheap political mileage, we should realize what would be the status of our India in the future to come!

Thus the point that Vidura is trying to explain here is that, a lie can be easily won over by truth and this is the order of the entire world! So for today, let us ponder over these important points and try to implement them in our lives as much as possible. We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s next important point! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed four important points explained by Vidura as we are amidst the transition to the last “Adhyaaya” of the Vidura Neeti. In the sloka that we had witnessed yesterday, we had seen four different strategies to win over four different categories of people. We’ve witnessed the outline and overview of it yesterday and in today’s episode we shall enter into a deeper insight of the same.

As we move on, let us witness the sloka once more, so that we shall get a bit more clarity on what we’re going to discuss

“Ahkrodhena jayeth krodham asaadhum saadhunaa jayeth!

Jayeth kadhariyam daanena jayeth satyena cha anritham!!”

Readers should note one thing very carefully here – If we say “win over” someone in this context, it doesn’t mean that we should be winning over someone due to enemity alone. It simply means how to “handle” different types or categories of people differently. Hence readers shouldn’t mistake the usage of the phrase “win over”. As we take up the first point, Vidura explains “Ahkrodhena jayeth krodham” – This means that if an angry person has to be won over, we should adopt the strategy of “angerless behavior”. This is an extremely important point that Vidura is stressing and in fact, he is reminding King Dhirdiraashtra that the Paandavas are an epitome of this particular point. It should be remembered that whenever the Paandavas were insulted by Duryodhana, they never resorted to angry or aggressive behavior towards him and rather, they were taking all the tantrums in a quiet manner without any hiccups. This is where Vidura points out that this behavior of the Paandavas only shows their magnanimity and respect towards King Dhiridraashtra, and not their inability to fight back against Duryodhana. Vidura time and again reminds King Dhirdiraashtra that he and his son should never commit the mistake of underestimating the valor and ability of the Paandava brothers. It is only because the Paandavas respect King Dhirdiraashtra as their own father, things are not backfiring at the moment. But this is not going to last for long. Vidura urges King Dhiridraashtra that before such a backlash comes through, he should get his acts together and prevent it from happening.

This point is of course not just applicable to King Dhirdiraashtra, but to all of us in the modern day as well. As Vidura says, anger can be countered by love and affection, we’ve been witnessing many testimonies to validate this point in the present-day world. Right from the days of our freedom struggle with the British, India and particularly Mahatma Gandhiji is known for his “Ahimsa” or “non-violence”. What better example do we need to highlight this point? As arrogance was building up towards India, there was this one person who tried to counter this arrogance through peace and tranquility. When violence and clashes began to erupt in many parts of the country, this non-violence movement saw tremendous response from many quarters of people and finally after a long struggle, India achieved what it has to achieve! Thus, if an entire country can attain independence with this one point of countering anger with love and affection, we can understand the significance here.

There can be innumerable such examples wherein this holds true and we as ardent followers of “Sanaathana Dharma” should realize that our Bhaarata Desha (India) is known to the outside world for its love and affection. Why are Indians being regarded as highly intelligent people across the world? It is only because we know how to control our mind and practice peace and harmony. In fact, our entire “Sanaathana Dharma” revolves around this one point – How to control our mind and how do we attain the ultimate peace of mind within us, which sadly other religions across the world do not really teach. This is the reason why Hinduism is rated as one of the best religions in the world and this is why people across the globe flock towards India in search of peace of mind.

While we feel proud of this fact about our mother India, we should also take it as an important learning that violence and anger cannot solve any problem. It would only aggravate the problem beyond a permissible limit and ultimately, we would fall into a mess. Hence, as far as possible we should try our best not to counter anger with equal anger and violence. Of course, there might be few situations wherein this might not work. There are few situations wherein, exhibiting anger and aggressiveness becomes compulsory, but even in those situations, we should make sure that we exhibit “controlled aggression” and not too much of it.

So for today, let us ponder over this important point of Vidura and let us try to implement this point meticulously in whatever we do and whomever we interact with in our daily life. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the remaining three points of the sloka in detail. Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode we had witnessed the concluding remark of Vidura to King Dhirdiraashtra as part of the penultimate “Adhyaaya” getting over. We had witnessed Vidura emphasizing the point that if we look at others suffering the same way that we might have suffered in the past, we should never sit and laugh over their suffering. Rather, we should take the initiative to go forward and render corrective advice to them, so as to bring them out of the problem that they’re facing. This is one of our primary duties as ardent followers of our “Sanaathana Dharma” and at any cost, we should stick to it.

As a corollary to the above point, we also witnessed that it is our duty to listen to the words of elders and experienced people. This should be a two-way traffic here – If the situation demands, we should always take a step forward to advice people, and on the contrary, if there is a situation wherein we are in a problem, we should be ready to listen to the words of advice from those experienced people. Thus it should happen both ways. I’m not saying that we should only keep advising others! We should also have the courtesy to listen to others as well.

This is where King Dhiridraashtra is losing out heavily, along with his son. In fact, King Dhirdiraashtra is a step better, because he’s atleast having the patience to listen to whatever Vidura has to say to him, irrespective of whether he likes it or not. Of course, as mentioned in the earlier episodes of the Vidura Neeti, Vidura never talks pleasingly just because he has to obtain some recognition or brownie points from his leader. Vidura’s talk will only be focused on the “Dharma” and nothing else. So even if it is not pleasing to listen for King Dhirdiraashtra, Vidura did not shy away from telling the hard truth in the hardest way possible. We’ve of course witnessed many instances wherein Vidura has slammed King Dhirdiraashtra left, right and center for all his foolish activities that he has committed so far. Thus we can see here that King Dhirdiraashtra atleast had the patience to listen to Vidura, however, Duryodhana did not have even that as well! If anyone has to talk to Duryodhana about the “Dharma” and has to criticize what he is doing, he / she has to really have the guts to do it! If even his own father wasn’t able to, then who else is going to daringly take up this challenge? Hence, such was the case here with both the father and son and thereby they are going to be heavy losers in the vital game of life!

We had witnessed in the Ramayana too, how Ravana had to perish because of his sheer ignorance towards all those people who tried to educate him the “Dharma”, including the likes of his own brother Vibhishana himself. Hanuman tried his best, but since Ravana insulted Hanuman in public, all of us know what Hanuman did to Lanka! Even then, Ravana did not realize his folly and thus finally he had to meet a ghastly end to his life under the hands of Bhagawan Rama.

So the point here is that, we should be ready to advice people on the “Dharma” as well as to listen to people pertaining to the “Dharma”. Thus it is important for us to have both these qualities in us. So with this, we come to the end of the penultimate “Adhyaaya” of Vidura Neeti and now we shall move on to the final “Adhyaaya” thus.

“Ahkrodhena jayeth krodham asaadhum saadhunaa jayeth!

Jayeth kadhariyam daanena jayeth satyena cha anritham!!”

Here Vidura explains four important points to start with. He explains four different strategoies to win over four different categories of people. For today, we shall just witness the four categories and we shall have an elaborate discussion in tomorrow’s episode.

Firstly, Vidura explains that if an angry person has to be defeated, we should adopt the strategy of “angerless behavior”. That is, if we keep ourselves calm and composed in front of an angry or a short-tempered person, it is possible for us to win over that person and get our things done through them. Secondly, a person who is dumb-headed can be won over by employing sweet and kind words. Thirdly, a poor or a needy person can be won over by giving him “Dhaanam” or donating some useful things for him. Finally, Vidura explains that a lie can be won over by truth.

So for today, let us start pondering over these four extremely important points of Vidura. There’s an elaborate discussion coming your way in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊