Thursday, March 31, 2011

eternal vow of silence.

मूर्खेषु विवादो न कर्तव्यः 
चाणक्यसूत्रं॥२३०॥
mūrkheṣu vivādo na kartavyaḥ 
cāṇakyasūtraṁ ||230||

the terse aphorism of chanakya, though simple is full to the brim with meaning.
So let me leave long winded sentences in Sanskrit for the day and settle for this.


Chankya simply says... "It is futile to argue with and arrogant and idiotic person".

For the great political scientist this  is the essence of his experience of a lifetime. 
It is dangerous to engage in a conversation  even of friendly nature with an idiot. 
 He will talk back garbage to you an your day will be ruined. 
 If this conversation is by way of advice backed by reasoning and rhetoric you are sure to face  serious backlash. 
There will be verbal insult, physical attack and enmity lasting for a lifetime or even more. 
The age old dictum that "silence is golden"  should guide us especially while dealing with idiots. 
True, this action of avoiding controversy becomes very difficult when we are at the receiving end of some trouble.


We may then follow the path of another age old master....
this action is attributed to tenali rama,
Some say it was thiruvaazhithaan  
 Once our hero was going along the street.
The son of the local village chief threw a small stone at him.
The throw  hit him on the back and it was indeed very painful.
 But the hero could not show his anger or retaliate.
He knew that if he scolded they boy, the arrogant father would come to the boy's rescue and our poor man did not have the capacity to react and  survive. 
So with a lot of show affection he called the boy and congratulated him on the accuracy of the throw and also presented with him a dampidi....(the smallest coin available at that time).
 The boy was wonder-struck and asked if he could get money for pelting stones at others.
 Our man  replied that the stone was small and he himself was very poor.
 This was the reason for the frugal presentation in acknowledgement .
 He advised the boy to select a huge man with strong body and ensure that he used a bigger stone which would hit at least the back of the victim's head.
 The naughty boy followed the advice to the last word and the results were to the entire satisfaction of the man who gave the advise..
The little imp got a thrashing which would haunt his memory for a lifetime.
Indeed it is a difficult proposition not to argue with idiots when the surface of earth is too richly populated  with men (women too) of idiotic dimensions.
For the wise Mouna Vrat.. eternal vow of silence might be the only choice


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