Sunday, December 26, 2010

Re: whom not to follow

My dear Avinas,the scenario and the bckground of the viduraniiti yakshaprsna etc were discussed on  earlier occasions when the epoch was first introduced.  In fact if you go back to some earlier slokas you would see it. and the whole thing is published in my blogspot  kanfusion.blogspot.com    and as and when I complete about 50 despatched I prepare a sort of  compendium and I have till now forwarded to all at least 4 volumes.
  Vidura niiti discourses occurred in Mahabharatham when  Dhritharastra the king was in absolute dilemma.  His eldest son along with his 99 brothers was doing injustice to his cousins Pandavas.. Dhristarashtra is torn between blind ( literally) love for Duryodhana which made his support him but the sense of propriety and a tormenting conscience  made him uneasy and sleepless . It was in this background that the Kings halfbrother and one of the most learned political scientists of the period vidura was summoned and asked to give his advice on what was right , what was wrong, what was expedient, what are the dos and donts for  a righteous regime etc. Viduras treatise encompasses and covers indivdulal virtues and vices and proceeds to expound the rajadharam.   In fact  the doubts on the dharmic queries are not entirely cleared by vidura  and next comes theSanal sujaatheeyam, where the great saint of name sanalsujatha is invited to render advise to Dhritaraastra.  These two treatises and Anugeetha which is a discussion between the blessed Lord and Arjuna at a later period from the war, which is a recap of the Celebrated Bhagavat Gita  and the Gita itself are considered to  be the expostulation of human wisdom and the essence of sanity and probity  passed on to generations to come.  Many works of Chanakya, Bharthruhari  Manu, ...the list is long  are all based on the incomparable framework provided by Mahabharatham.

2010/12/25 Avinash Kashyap <avi.kash@gmail.com>
Hi Uncle,

For some of these nithis, especially from the Mahabharata, it would be nice if you could include the context also. i.e. When, where and why did Vidura give this piece of wisdom. That will be an interesting piece of information.

Thanks
Avinash

2010/12/22 Ananthanarayanan Vaidyanathan <kvananthanarayanan@gmail.com>

अशिक्ष्यं शास्ति यो राजन् यश्च शून्यमुपासते।
कदर्यं भजते यश्च तमाहुर्मूढचेतसं॥
विदुरनीति  महभारते उद्योगपर्वणि प्रजागरण पर्वनि  अद्या--३३ श्लो--३८
aśikṣyaṁ śāsti yo rājan yaśca śūnyamupāsate|
kadaryaṁ bhajathe yasca tamāhurmūḍhacetasaṁ||
viduranīti  mahabhārathe udyogaparvaṇi prajāgaraṇa parvani  adyā--33 ślo--38

Vidura's another gem of advice to the King...
He is an idiot of the first order,
                                                                who
(1) tries to punish someone who does not deserve punishment,  (2) who pays obeisance to an even greater idiot,
                   (3)  who waits on the doors of a miser of the class of  shylock or scrooge,                                                 waiting for financial favours.

വിദുരനീതിയില്‍ പറയുന്നു-   ശിക്ഷാര്‍ഹാനല്ലാത്തവനെ  ശിക്ഷിക്കുന്നവരും,  മണ്ടശിരോമണികളെ ആദരിക്കുന്നവരും  പിശുക്കന്റെ  മുന്നില്‍ യാചിക്കുന്നവരും  വിഡ്ഢികളിലും വച്ചു  ഏറ്റം വിഡ്ഢികളാണ്

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