The Indian Dharma

Dear Esteemed Readers,

With your constant support and enthusiasm, I’m happy and proud to announce that “The Indian Dharma” has crossed a viewership milestone of over 31,000 across 103 countries worldwide! This year alone we’ve crossed a staggering viewership of 3,200 within just 45 days from all across the globe! This in itself speaks volumes of the global reach that our “Sanaathana Dharma” possesses! Of course as I always keep saying, this has come primarily with the constant support and feedback from our esteemed readers from various parts of the globe. My humble gratitude to all of you!

As we completed the Valmiki Ramayana experience last year, we made a switch-over to the next important text of our Sanaathana Dharma literature – The Mahabharata. Of course we’re not witnessing the Mahabharata in its full entity as we did in the case of the Ramayana, we’re trying to take it part by part, given the enormous size and complexity of the text. In that way, we are currently discussing a section of it called the “Vidura Neeti” wherein Vidura is trying to provide key advice to King Dhirdiraashtra with respect to the various aspects of “Raaja Dharma”. This advice spans over innumerable slokas packed into various “Adhyaayas” under the “Prajaakara Paruva” of the Mahabharata text. We’ve done 306 episodes of the Vidura Neeti till now and we’re looking forward for more in the upcoming months of 2019!

As we move on, with the constant support and feedbacks from our esteemed readers, we would try and wrap up the Vidura Neeti as quickly as possible. I’m not setting a deadline for completion as I feel that there is a lot more to cover. However, we shall finish it as soon as we can and subsequently move on to the next mega-project. For the moment I’m keeping it as a suspense as I’m in the process of contemplating on many other areas for a fruitful discussion. I shall reveal details of our next mega-project at an appropriate time!

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another extension of the important point as to why should we take care of our near and dear ones properly. Here Vidura mentions that if for whatsoever reasons one of our brothers or sisters are relatively in a state of financial or any other distress, it is our prime duty to bring them out of their problem by supporting them. If we’re witnessing our brother or sister or any kith and kin suffering, we should never neglect them and if we do so, we are inviting the biggest sin on this earth! Hence the point here is that, we should give a helping hand to those near and dear ones who are in dire need of it.

As King Dhirdiraashtra was hearing this advice from Vidura, his mind started to search for the comfort zone, as he knew that Vidura was poking him indirectly for all the indifference he’s showing towards his brother’s sons (Paandavas). He thus asks a counter-question to Vidura that what could he do if his brother’s family is suffering. King Dhirdiraashtra asks Vidura as to why should that obligation fall on him to help the Paandavas come out of their suffering. His argument was that, if the Paandavas are suffering, it is not because of him, but was due to some other reasons. Here King Dhirdiraashtra clearly is underestimating the power of the Paandava brothers by saying thus, “Oh Vidura! If they’ve to come out of their current suffering, they should take an initiative for it! They should be willing to compromise on their stance! Why is that evreytime I should sacrifice my hard-earned property for them? Why is that I should give them something to make them satisfied? Why can’t they earn something on their own to sustain? Why should the Paandavas depend on me for everything?”

Vidura listens to all of King Dhirdiraashtra’s questions and now replies back thus. In fact, Vidura gives a befitting answer to all of King Dhirdiraashtra’s blemishes. He says, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Please think for a moment – Did I ever tell you that you should go out of your way to help the Paandavas? Did I ever say that you should write off your whole wealth and kingdom to them? Did I ever say that only Yudishtra is to rule the Hastinapura Kingdom and not Duryodhana? I never said that and please do not misunderstand and twist my words! All I’m saying is that, both Duryodhana and the Paandavas should be treated equally. I’m only asking you to give the Paandavas what they deserve. I’m not asking you to give them anything more! The problem with you is that, you’re trying to abduct what belongs to them with due diligence. This is where I’m saying that you’re not treating your brother’s sons and family in the way you’ve to treat them!”

Vidura continues further, “Oh King! You know very well that the Paandavas are without their father. This means that you should adopt them and treat them as your own sons. Instead, you’re doing just the opposite! You’re treating them like your slaves and you’re disrespecting them to the core. However that is not the case with Yudhsitra and Co. All the five Paandava brothers hail and respect you a lot and treat you as their own father. Is this the way you would reciprocate their respect and affection towards you? Is this the way you would ill treat them just because your son Duryodhana should gain? Why are you differentiating between your sons and them? This itself is wrong on your part as a righteous king! As per the “Raaja Dharma”, it is your duty to protect your brother’s children and family in his absence!”

Saying thus, Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra’s wrong approach towards the Paandavas as he sidelines them from the Hastinapura kingdom, so as to favor Duryodhana. Thus the point emphasized by Vidura is that, if a situation arises wherein our brother or sister’s family is in deep suffering, we should always lend a helping hand and should never let them down at any moment! Through this reply, Vidura re-emphasizes this point and re-iterates his stance on this matter.

So for today, let us ponder over Vidura’s reply to King Dhirdiraashtra and we shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to witness the next point! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another extension to the important point of taking care of our near and dear ones at all times. Vidura is stressing and re-stressing this point time and again because of its enormous significance, which King Dhirdiraashtra, Duryodhana and even ourselves in today’s world are failing to realize. Many a times in the present day, we take people for granted, use them, abuse them and throw them out of our lives even for petty reasons. Little do we realize that at our difficult times, these would be the same people on which we would be banking on for help. If such a situation arises and if we’re not even in talking terms with our close people, how would we survive? Worst of all, what would happen if the same people whom we take for granted, turn into our biggest enemies? We should think about all this, and make sure that we maintain a good rapport with our near and dear ones. It is always easy to hate and abuse someone today. However it is very difficult to patch up with that person again and this would eventually lead us to unnecessary breaking up of relationships.

Moreover as Vidura talks about this, he also cautions us that just because we’re getting closer to someone, it doesn’t mean that we share anything and everything with that person. Whatever might be the level of closeness of the relationship, we should make sure that we maintain a minimal distance from that person. This is just to avoid problems later on if at all there is a fight with that person in future. There is always this risk that just because we are getting close to someone, we would start sharing certain personal details along the course of the conversation. But during rough times, these personal details of ours, which are supposed to be highly confidential, might be blurted out or misused by the other person for his/her personal gain. Hence we need to be very careful here. Vidura clearly explains here that we need to have a perfect balance. On one hand we need to make sure that we maintain amicable relationship with our close people, and on the other hand we also need to make sure that we share only what is to be shared with them.

Saying thus, Vidura highlights the significance of maintaining good and amicable relationships with people who are near and dear to us. Now moving on further, Vidura extends this point in yet another different dimension thus:

“Sreemantham nyaatimaasaadhya yonyaatimavaseedathe!!”

Here Vidura explains that if we have one or more brothers and if one of them is rich while the other is poor, the brother who is poor would always be fearing the one who is rich! Even in our families today we would be able to find this quite frequently. Amongst two brothers at home, one would be highly educated and brilliant, also working in a reputed organization, whereas the other one would for some reason be poor and might not have a good job to support himself financially. Unfortunately the world is not kind enough to everyone! Some people might be blessed to have a good stature in the society while many others are not! Normally if this is the case, many families encounter fights between these two brothers and eventually they split apart. This is the reason why the brother who is poor gets psychologically affected and starts to develop a fear for his other brother who is rich. Even if there might be no such fights within them, the poorer brother would automatically start fearing of what if such a fight happens in future! Here is where Vidura explains that if we have such people in our close circles, we should never let them starve and struggle. It is our duty to protect them.

Listening to this advice from Vidura, King Dhirdiraashtra poses a counter question thus, “Oh Vidura! I cannot see sense in what you’re saying here. If I’m rich and my brother or sister is poor, what can I do? Is it my fault that he/she is poor? What can I do if the situation demands it? Why should I help such people if they do not concern me? Just because they are poor, should I write off all of my wealth to them? Isn’t this unfair on me? I’ve worked hard to earn whatever I have today and how can I give away all of it to someone who hasn’t worked as hard as me and who doesn’t deserve it?”

It should be noted here that King Dhirdiraashtra asks this question, keeping in mind his stance that he is not going to encourage the Paandavas to take any portion of the Hastinapura kingdom. It should be noted here that even after such a lot of advicing, King Dhirdiraashtra is only trying to find his comfort zone from whatever Vidura is trying to tell him! So for today let us stop at this point and we shall witness Vidura’s response to King Dhirdiraashtra’s question in detail. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed the extension of Vidura’s point on unity amongst our close members of our family and friends! Vidura stresses on the point that if we take care of our near and dear ones today, they would take care of us tomorrow if there’s a dire need from our side. If we’ve to go through a tough situation in our life, we can always bank on the support of our near and dear ones during those times. Else on the contrary, there is always this possibility that they would turn out to be our worst enemies during our tough times.

Hence we should be very careful here. Just because we are of a good social and a personal stature, we should never talk ill or behave in a rude manner towards others. In other words, we should never underestimate others by abusing them or taking them for granted, just because we are in a position today to dictate terms. We should always remember that life cannot be taken as a permanent entity. We are always undergoing some change or the other every passing day and suddenly there can be a phenomenal change in our life situation wherein the other person might take up complete control over us in the near future! If that is going to happen, we should realize that we are going to be taken to task heavily without mercy! This is exactly what is happening to King Dhirdiraashtra and his son Duryodhana. They fail to realize that life is susceptible to changes and are not aware of the dire consequences of their arrogant behavior towards the Paandavas. This is where Vidura is trying to step in every time and create this awareness in the mind of King Dhirdiraashtra.

Now moving on further, Vidura highlights this point in an even better way, but in a different context. He now says that even while we have good relationships with our near and dear ones or with our partners in business, we need to draw the limit in terms of sharing some critical things with them. For instance we would see sometimes that even within the family, we might share a close relationship with few people and eventually we would tend to share close and intimate happenings of our life with them. However tomorrow if by any chance, there is a slight misunderstanding or a miscommunication between our close family members, what would happen? They might use this misunderstanding as an opportunity to blurt out all our intimate secrets that we had shared with them previously in public and eventually it would damage our reputation as a human being amidst the society!

Hence we should be double careful at this point. Of course we need to take care of our near and dear ones, but to what extent? This is an important question that needs to be addressed by all of us in our daily life. Just because someone is getting close to us, it doesn’t mean that we should get carried away! We should be able to draw the line and share only whatever is needed to be shared with them. If we happen to cross the line, we should be prepared to get insulted when the going is not good with that person. In some cases there might be a possibility of blackmailing too! For instance if we’re getting closer to some third party and we’re sharing our secret business deals or money matters with that person, there is always this probability that this person might use all this information to blackmail us and extract all our money to his advantage! This is happening quite frequently nowadays and we should be extremely careful in sharing any sorts of information with anyone.

Thus through this point, Vidura tries to convey the message that it is important for us to establish a good relationship with our near and dear ones and take care of them, but only to the extent of its feasibility. We should be very careful not to get carried away with the relationship too much as it might backfire at any point in the near future. Especially if the relationship is business or money oriented, we need to be extremely careful about what we communicate to the other person! Thus it is important that we care for our near and dear ones, but we should be careful with our dealings with them on a day to day basis. We should ensure that they are in good terms with us at every time.

So for today let us ponder over this important advice from Vidura and we shall wait till the next episode to witness the next point! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s repeated assertion of the point of taking care of our near and dear ones meticulously come what may! In the last episode we gave a different dimension to it by asserting that if we take care of them well today, they would be of great help tomorrow when we might face a catastrophic situation in our life! However if we ignore their welfare today, they would turn out to be enemies when the going gets tough for us in future. This is exactly where King Dhirdiraashtra and Co. are losing the plot and Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra that he doesn’t need any enemy from outside because he’s grooming his own enemies due to his sheer ignorance and selfish motives. Just because his son Duryodhana should bear all the fruits of the Hastinapura kingdom, King Dhirdiraashtra is hell-bent that the Paandava brothers (sons of his own brother Paandu) should suffer distress. This is ultimately going to result in a fully blown family war and there is going to be an existential crisis looming large for Duryodhana owing to his “Adharmic” actions and thoughts. Vidura thus repeatedly warns King Dhirdiraashtra of this threat looming large and urges him to take corrective action immediately to prevent this from escalating further.

We should realize here that it was not only King Dhirdiraashtra who was plagued with this issue, but also all of us in the modern day too! When the going is easy today for us, we tend to scold and abuse our near and dear ones, just because we have the power and money in hand! Little do we realize that this same power and money could go into the hands of other people tomorrow and once that happens, we would be in a complete soup! This is the problem within many families, many corporate companies, etc. that exist today. Within the family we see innumerable fights between brothers and sisters, between parents and children, etc. for the want of property. We are in today’s world prepared to go to any extent to obtain that property from our parents, isn’t it? How many families are we witnessing today wherein there are no contacts in between brothers or sisters at all! How many families are we witnessing today wherein the parents and children are not on talking terms at all, because of property and other issues! Little do we realize the dangerous repercussions behind all these!

If we’re going to keep fighting lie this within our close family members, not only is the relationship factor going to be cut off, but also is a threat that is looming large from members outside our family to loot away all our wealth! This is exactly what happened to our “Bhaarata Desha” centuries ago – Kings within the country were not united amongst each other, which led to foreigners invading India and capture all our wealth and prosperity!

Thus the message here is very important – If we’re unable to put up unity amongst our near and dear ones, two things might happen – Firstly, our so called relatives would themselves turn to be our biggest enemies in life, owing to our arrogance and misbehavior towards them. However if that is not happening, secondly, there is always a threat that outsiders might be waiting to grab an opportunity to claim possessions of whatever property we have. This is even a bigger threat than the first one – We should always be extremely careful here, not to disclose our property possessions to any third party at any cost! If we do so, we would be facing an eminent danger of the third party plotting something against us at some point in time!

So for today, let us ponder over this extremely important point of putting up a united face as a family or as a company, mainly to avoid external threats that always keep looming large. Of course, if we do not maintain a good relationship within our family, we would always risk ourselves for a backlash from our own family members at some point in time. We shall wait till the next episode to move into Vidura’s next point of discussion! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura slamming King Dhirdiraashtra that his actions are not matured as they should be for his age and experience. He criticizes King Dhirdiraashtra’s excessive “Putra Vatsalya” towards his son Duryodhana, who is an embodiment of all sorts of Adharma. The main problem is that, King Dhirdiraashtra is approving all sorts of “Adharmic” actions and decisions that his son takes, and eventually he becomes a spineless king, just as a mute spectator to what is happening in the Hastinaapura kingdom. It is here where Vidura makes an important caution to him that King Dhirdiraashtra should have some sort of a maturity to keep a line of control for Duryodhana’s actions. He cannot simply keep approving whatever nonsense Duryodhana is doing! He needs to have a check on Duryodhana at every point. This is what is failing to happen!

This situation is not only for King Dhirdiraashtra but also for all of us – We’ve witnessed yesterday as to how we get carried away by “easily implementable” “Adharmic” ways of doing things, and at the end, act foolishly to spoil the entire purpose of our life. This is exactly what Bhagawan Krishna points our in his Bhagawad Gita – If we’re foolishly getting carried away by the worldly pleasures around us, we’re going to lose focus on our ultimate aim of reaching Bhagawan’s feet (“Moksha” or Salvation). As a spiritual aspirant, we should develop that maturity to draw a line between our worldly and spiritual activities.

Of course I’m not saying that we should stop working, stop earning money, stop taking care of our family, etc. All I’m saying here is that, we should be able to draw that line between all these worldly activities and our spiritual intents. At no point in time should our worldly activities overtake our spiritual pursuit. This would become dangerous and would ultimately lose that concentration towards Bhagawan. So the message from this point to all of us is that, we should thread very carefully along the path of our worldly pursuits and should develop that maturity to focus equally on both professional commitments and our spiritual progress. We shouldn’t get carried away by anything worldly – just like how King Dhirdiraashtra is now getting carried away here by his excessive attachment towards his son! We should develop that maturity in such a way that we should be able to keep everything aside that is personal in nature, when it comes to decision making and our spiritual progress. Let us consciously try to implement this from today!

Now moving on further, Vidura explains the next point that is again connected to this loop of discussion. Here Vidura cautions King Dhirdiraashtra that these are the same near and dear ones of yours, who might come to the rescue when you’re in trouble, and at the same time, they can dig your grave too! Vidura explains thus:

“Nyaatayastaarahantheeha nyaatayo majjahanthicha!!”

This is an important warning from Vidura here – If we’re taking care of our near and dear ones in the way Vidura is advising us to do, they would take care of us when we are in a catastrophic situation. They would give us a helping hand at that critical time of ours. Whereas if we are failing to take care of these people at their critical times, we need to understand that it is this same set of people who will dig our grave and bury us completely when we face critical times in our life. Hence we should be careful here!

This is where King Dhirdiraashtra is also losing the plot – To appease his sons, he’s not willing to take care of his brother Paandu’s sons (Paandavas). He’s trying to ditch them completely just because his sons should gain the most. However, little does he realize that the Paandavas are going to be his worst enemies in the near future. Vidura is thus trying to educate King Dhirdiraashtra and to make him aware of what is happening. Vidura is cautioning King Dhirdiraasthra that he is indirectly “creating” his own enemies rather than enemies coming from outside the kingdom. He is trying to warn King Dhirdiraashtra that rather than breeding enemies within the kingdom, he should immediately take steps to address this problem by making peace and friendship with his brother’s sons. If this is not going to happen soon, Hastinapura kingdom is going to be in a huge mess!

So for today, let us start thinking about this important point and we shall take this discussion forward in tomorrow’s episode! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another continued point on why should we treat all our near and dear ones with equal love and care. Here Vidura makes an emotional appeal to King Dhirdiraashtra that the Paandavas are none other than his own brother’s children and it is his fundamental duty to take care of them properly. Instead, King Dhirdiraashtra is allowing his sons to inflict the maximum amount of torture and unease to the Paandavas, finally culminating in their exile for so many years. Still Duryodhana is not satisfied and his selfish attitude is leading the family to a fully blown crisis of all sorts! It is all because of King Dhirdiraashtra’s step-motherly treatment towards the Paandavas and denying them their fundamental rights in the Hastinapura kingdom.

This kind of a phenomenon is not only restricted to the Mahabharata, but is also applicable to many of today’s families too. The problem starts when people start having the notion that we need to be happy somehow by hook or crook, by destroying the happiness of others around us. This is where we start ditching others, playing mind-games with them so as to demoralize people, etc. By doing all this, we should remember always that the happiness we derive from this is going to be short-lived. There might always be a situation in the future that we would be a target for others whom we had pulled down earlier. Hence we should always make sure that we do not try pulling down others for our success in life and this section of the Vidura Neeti explains this message very clearly.

Now moving on further, Vidura is poking King Dhirdiraashtra further with a new dimension called “Age”. He says to King Dhirdiraashtra that his behavior, attitude and actions are not behest of his age. Vidura says thus:

“Evam lokhe yashah praaptham bhavishasi naraadipa!

Vriddhena hithvayaa kaaryam putraanaam taatha shaasanam!!”

Here Vidura laments and blasts King Dhirdiraashtra together by saying thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! You’re an aged and an experience person. Don’t you know that you need to act according to your age? For this age, you should clearly know which is good and which is bad and act accordingly! But what are you doing here? Your actions show that you’re such an immature person with zero knowledge on “Dharma”. Apart from me, you’ve listened to the advice of Sanjaya, Bhagawan Krishna himself, Bhishma, etc. Inspite of listening to all these people and if your “Puthra Vaatsalya” is going to blind your eyes completely, then what is the point in listening to all of us? It just simply means that you’re not matured for your age! Hence King Dhirdiraashtra! Please realize your immaturity and do the needful. The entire kingdom is looking upon you as its mascot, and in return to this respect, what are you doing here? You’re just trying to ambitiously push Duryodhana as your successor, although knowing that he is an embodiment of all “Adharmas” put together. If such is the case, how do you expect your kingdom and your people to prosper tomorrow? Isn’t it a great injustice you’re doing to your kingdom? Isn’t this a clear-cut case of lack of maturity for your age? Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Please think about this seriously!”

Saying thus, Vidura lambasts King Dhirdiraashtra for his sheer lack of maturity in taking the right decisions at the right time and to back up the right people at the right time. This is the problem with us too, many a times. Due to lack of maturity for our age, we land up into hell lot of problems with our foolish actions. Starting from our family life, we tend to shout over our husband or wife for small things in life, and little do we know and understand that this shouting and passing bad remarks about the other person only ruins the relationship and subsequently ends in separation or divorce. This is the problem today in many households. Just because one has to establish his/her superiority over the other, we go to any extent to doubt the other person’s actions, words, etc. constantly keep finding faults in whatever they do every day, blowing these small shortcomings into huge issues and finally abuse the other person with whatever words that come in our mouth! For all those readers who are reading today’s episode, I place a humble request in front of all of you – Please try and introspect as to why do we face so many problems in today’s life. If we do this conscious analysis within ourselves, majority of those problems would be because of our immaturity and foolishness at some points in time! Hence the message from today’s episode is that, we should slowly try to cut down our foolish activities by using our discriminatory power to lend a thought before doing any action or before talking anything to anyone. Once we make this sincere effort, I’m sure we would be able to find solutions to most of our problems that we face today.

It is also important that whenever we talk with others, we need to deploy certain amount of maturity. We should know exactly how to talk with whom! This awareness is extremely important and we need to watch our words very carefully. If we’re using some harmful words while talking, it can really affect the other person very badly and the entire conversation and relationship goes into a mess! Most importantly if we’re using abusive language towards someone, it clearly shows our immaturity and inability to handle things in our life. Thus we should be extremely careful with our words and language that we use while talking with people.

So for today, let us ponder over these important points and we shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to witness the next important point. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed the continuation of the important point being stressed by Vidura to King Dhirdiraashtra that we have to take care of our near and dear ones in whatever ways possible. In fact as we see, Vidura had dedicated a slew of slokas to bring out this point and we’re witnessing them episode after episode for the past 4-5 days now. He began by saying that we should never be selfish enough to ditch others and rise up in our stature and such a act is quite dangerous. Subsequently he went on to stress that we should take care of our near and dear ones carefully and ensure that they’re happy by all means. This is where we discussed the current day phenomenon of how nuclear families are killing relationships within families and how isolated are we becoming in this world gradually day by day! He then stresses the allied point that if we’re having a comfortable and a wealthy lifestyle, we should also make sure that our near and dear ones are taken care of, in the same kind of stature of us.

Ultimately through all these allied and interlinked points, Vidura is lamenting over the fact that King Dhirdiraashtra and Duryodhana are trying to exploit the Paandavas as much as possible and are just sucking their blood out at every given occasion! Vidura has been fighting against it for a long time now and it seems that he’s fed up with what’s happening! So he slams King Dhirdiraashtra with all the above points put together thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! For the past 13-14 years now you’ve been torturing the Paandavas and showing them Hell on earth! Your son started with the insult and humiliation, sent them to a wax palace with the intention of burning them down, pulling them into the infamous gambling game and publicly insulted them, sent them on a heinous exile for a long period of time, etc. Now what more does your son want? Why don’t you put yourself into the shoes of the Paandavas and think for a moment? They are like orphans! They do not have a father to protect them! Just because they are father-less, you’re trying to take full advantage of it and exploiting them to the core! Is it Dharma? Afterall they’re your own brothers’ children. They have so much of respect for you. They love you so much. They treat you like their own father. In spite of all this, how do you have the heart to treat them like third-rated criminals? What wrong did they do so as to experience a terrible period of exile like this? As a king, you have utterly shown disrespect to those who follow Dharma! This is the greatest mistake you’ve ever done! When your son was doing all these filthy things, what were you doing sitting on the throne? If you’re a king, it doesn’t mean that you and your sons can dictate terms in the kingdom. This is totally against “Raaja Dharma”. You and your sons are going to pay heavily for all what you’ve done to the Paandavas! If you do not mend your ways now, it’s going to be too late very soon!”

Such was the blasting that Vidura gives King Dhirdiraashtra! Even in our modern day family life, we should always remember this point – If unfortunately our brother or sister passes away at an early age, leaving behind their children, it becomes our fundamental duty to take care of those children as our own children and bring them up in their lives. If we fail to do so, Bhagawan’s heart is going to fume with anger and we’re going to face the most intense punishment ever! If we ever think that our brother’s or sister’s children are just a burden to us, it is totally against “Dharma”. We should never desert our close people ever in our life. This is why we always emphasize the point that it is not possible for just one person in this world to enjoy all the happiness and luxuries of life. It is only if all of us join hands together, we shall enjoy the real happiness in life.

Thus Vidura re-iterates this point to King Dhirdiraashtra by saying thus, “Oh King! Thus please do not think that your children alone should experience happiness and luxuries in life. Please let the Paandavas experience the same amount of happiness too, as they are your own brother’s children!”

So for today let us ponder over this important point and let us wait for the next episode to witness Vidura’s next point of discussion. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed an important point made my Vidura on our fundamental duty of protecting our near and dear ones at all times. It might be our close family members like our parents, in-laws, etc. or our close friends who have a major role to play in our everyday life. Such people should never be deserted at any cost or situation. In due course of discussion yesterday, we had witnessed how we’ve transformed from the lifestyle of a “joint family” system to that of a “nuclear family” system. In due course of time we have completely isolated ourselves from the world and our prime focus is only on our immediate family. It has also become a trend nowadays that owing to “privacy”, we never even share our problems or concerns to anybody outside our shell! This is quite dangerous moving forward and we’re failing to take cues from the experience of our elders to come out of our problems. Such practices only deteriorates our situation further, which might have disastrous consequences on both professional and our personal livelihood.

Hence the point here is that, we need to make sure that we maintain a good and a positive relationship with our near and dear ones and also the ones who are close friends to us. Of course I’m not saying that we need to take care of anyone and everyone who go on the road, but the immediate concern is mainly for our parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, etc. who form the close circle of our family. If this circle is taken care of, it is more than enough! Hence let us do the needful!

Now moving on further, Vidura explains that if we’ve to have a sustainable flow of wealth of income, we need to ensure that people around us are also ensured with the same. Vidura explains thus:

“Kulavriddhim nyaatayaha vardhaneeyaaha thairya icchantyaathmanashubham!

                        Kula vriddhim cha raajendra tasmaath sadhu samaachara!!”

Here Vidura explains categorically that if we need to maintain our happiness with the riches that we’ve got, we need to make sure that our close circle of people should not be made to suffer for the want of money or any kind of wealth. If we have the opportunity to possess what they don’t have, it would be of great help to provide them with what we have and thus making them happy. For instance in today’s scenario, there might be families wherein there are two brothers – One brother might have been highly educated and working with a reputed organization, thus earning considerably well. While the other brother might not be as educated as the other one, and might be facing a struggle to make the ends of his life meet. In this scenario, the former should not shy away from helping the latter with the required amount of money to sustain. Whatever maybe the reason, the person who earns more in the family, should try and support the other person who earns a bit lesser.

The problem that might occur in the modern day is that, many of us have ego problems! We might start thinking, “If I help my brother today, what would he do to me in return tomorrow?” This is the most common question that we keep asking! Struggling to find answers for this above question, we ourselves start asking the subsequent series of questions thus, “What if my brother cheats me tomorrow if he sets to gain more money than me? On account of his so-called lesser income, what if my brother takes away all the ancestral property of my parents and deny me my share of it?” This is where all problems start in many families! This burst of ego triggers an internal war between the two brothers and this escalates to the parents, wherein both would start accusing their parents that they show partial treatment to only one of them! Such fights can be seen quite often in today’s families and sadly the situation is becoming worse day by day! This finally results in the breaking of relationships between the brothers and also between the son and parents. Thus in today’s scenario we might see in almost every family that somewhere somebody would be waging internal wars with each other for the want of property, money, etc. We should always remember that such things are only detrimental to our family and by doing all such things, we’re only sending a wrong message to the younger generation to fall in line with fights!

Thus the important point that Vidura is stressing here is that, such things are a disgrace to the well-being of our family and should not happen at any cost! Such unnecessary fights would only lead us to disintegration of our family value system and we should never go down such a path. Thus the key message here is that, if there are family members (might be anyone – brothers, sisters, etc.) who are in want of wealth, we should be ready to offer them without any prejudice. If we’re trying to take this step, there would be no space for unwanted ego and negative thoughts about anyone. We should always remember that happiness and peace of mind would reign only if we’re ready to let go of certain things. If we’re trying to hold on to our stand too much on anything, it is never going to work! We should be ready to part our wealth or property that we have with others, so that all of us can live in peace and harmony!

This is what is missing here too – Vidura laments in frustration that Duryodhana is extremely selfish and he is trying to inflict all kinds of problems on his Paandava brothers so that he maintains all the riches and luxuries within himself. If he had a small iota of thought of sharing his wealth with the Paandava brothers, all these infighting and the crisis of a fully-blown family war would have been averted! Hence the message to King Dhirdiraashtra and to all of us is very clear! For today let us ponder over this important point and let’s wait for tomorrow’s episode to witness Vidura’s next point! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important point stressed by Vidura to King Dhirdiraashtra wherein he says that , we should ensure the happiness of our near and dear ones in such a way that they would be of help for us at a later stage. Just like an ideal case wherein Duryodhana and Yudishtra would be amicable people, both the Paandavas and Kauravas can complement each other in ruling the kingdom efficiently. It is not that Vidura is trying to snatch away the kingdom from Duryodhana’s hands and give it to the Paandavas. All what he’s trying to say is that both the Paandavas and Kauravas should become united and share the responsibility equally amongst each other to make it a successful kingdom. This is what is being misunderstood by Duryodhana and Co. in the entire Mahabharata and this is what led to his destruction! All of us have seen how much of torture Duryodhana has tried to inflict upon Yudishtra and his Paandava brothers and Vidura is extremely pained with the pathetic series of happenings. Inspite of providing timely warnings and advises at all the critical times, King Dhirdiraashtra has right royally ignored them for his own convenience. Now when the going gets tough for King Dhirdiraashtra, he’s approaching Vidura for advice!

Such is the state of us too in today’s world. At critical times when our elders provide us with valuable advice, we tend to ignore it and move ahead just for satisfying our own personal agenda. However when the going gets tough we realize that we’ve made a big blunder of ignoring the advice of our elders and we regret our failure at that point of time when it is too late! Hence we should make it a point that when there is an opportunity to read/listen to some valuable advice from our elders and ancestors, we should make use of it and try to mend our ways in the positive direction towards “Dharma”. If we’re losing this opportunity that comes by our way, there is no point in regretting in the future when it becomes too late for any sort of corrective action.

Now moving on further, Vidura continues to give more explanations to this above-discussed point that if we’ve to be happy and peaceful in our life, we need to take others too along with us in the same path of ours. We cannot ditch others and be happy! This is never possible in one’s life. Highlighting this point thus, Vidura explains,

“Nyaatayaha vardhaneeyaaha taitya icchan aathmanasshubham!”

Here when Vidura says that we should take others along our path of happiness and peace, he covers two important segments of people in our life – Family members and our close friends. In today’s world if we think how are we taking care of our family members, it becomes a “billion dollar” question in itself! 🙂 This is because of the fact that our lifestyles have started changing. We’ve started stressing on a “nuclear family” wherein we tend to keep all our other family members (including our parents) at a certain distance! In olden days we had the concept of a “joint family” wherein all of us were living under one roof. Thus the love and affection towards all our family members were high and if our relatives were in some distress, we were able to help them out of it. Now that all of us are at a certain distance from each other, even if our own brother or sister is in trouble, we’re unable to lend a helping hand for them.

Moreover in the present day we’ve also started a new culture – Wherein, if we have a problem we don’t even want to share it with anybody else apart from our wife or husband! The logic behind this being, if we have to share our problems with someone else, we would end up “disturbing them” or we would end up losing our “privacy”! If such is the mindset of the modern day generation of people, we should literally forget helping our family members at the time of need!

If we look at the marriage system today, many people are demanding that the newly married couple would live alone on their own, and the time has come in such a way that their own parents and in-laws are treated as a “burden” for their newly married life! If at all there is someone who is voluntarily willing to take care of their parents or in-laws in today’s world, I would really be surprised and I would salute them with respect! This is because, how many people are really wanting to protect their aged parents after marriage? Even if the husband wants to undertake the responsibility what would happen if the wife stands against it? Or, the vice-versa can happen too!

Hence these are all some challenges that we’ve started to face in the modern day lifestyle and this is becoming a dangerous trend for the future! This is exactly where Vidura explains that we should at any cost, protect our near and dear ones if we’ve to be happy and contented life. Nowadays there is also a new trend – Since many of us are working and we do not have time to take care of our parents, we decide to put them in an “old-age home” and pay some money to them! Let me ask a simple question here – Can money equalize real love and affection from a child for a parent? What if our parents would have put us in a common “crèche” when we were children and what if they would have paid lump-some of money and kept quiet with it? Would we be what we are today if that would have happened to us? If our parents have invested their time by engaging us in the right way, what reciprocal are we going to do for them when they get aged? We should always remember one thing very clearly – One day we would also become aged and if we’re not doing the needful for our parents to keep them happy, our children are going to inflict the same kind of treatment to us tomorrow! By being selfish, we are trying to send a wrong message to our younger generation that we can take our parents for granted! Hence we should be extremely careful about what we’re doing!

So for today let us ponder over this important message from Vidura that whatever may be the situation in life, we should always try to take care of our near and dear people, especially parents and make them happy. Ultimately we need their blessings for a happy life, isn’t it? Hence let us strive this way to receive their blessings and thus lead a peaceful life! We shall wait till the next episode to take this point even further for discussion and thus move on to the next! Stay tuned! 🙂