Saturday, May 21, 2011

concept of relativity

परिक्षीणः कश्चित् स्पृहयति यवानां प्रसृतये
स पश्चात्संपूर्णः कलयति धरित्रीं तृणसमां।
अतश्चानैकान्ता गुरुलघुतयार्त्थेषु धनिनां
अवस्था वस्तूनि प्रथयति च सङ्कोचयति च॥३६
भर्त्तृहरेः नीतिशतकात्
parikṣīṇaḥ kaścit spṛhayati yavānāṁ prasṛtaye
sa paścātsaṁpūrṇaḥ kalayati dharitrīṁ tṛasamāṁ|
ataścānaikāntā gurulaghutayārttheṣu dhanināṁ
avasthā vastūni prathayati ca saṅkocayati ca||36
bharttṛhareḥ nītiśatakāt


Yet another nugget from Bharthruhari.
A person when he is very poor and is running helter-skelter for livelihood, feels himself very fortunate and is happy like the richest man in the world when he comes by a handful of barley to prepare the days gruel.. However when he becomes richer by stages and when his barn is overflowing with grains, he starts to look down upon his landholdings and starts to yearn for diversions in life..the bliss of small possessions is lost on him now.  This is human nature.  The  sense importance of something which is so close him varies in invesrse proportions with acquisition of wealth.  The state of a thing either magnifies or expands it or shrinks the same.
Here the poet talks about affluence or lack of it.  But the perception of importance of relations, friendship and many other factors in life also undrgo sea change with changing age, status and other factors.  For a newborn baby, its whole world is its mother. Till a person is able to make a firm step on terra firma, the parents and elder relatives are important. Once he gets a young wife (or she gets a husband)  the world again goes topsy turvy.. As one gets older, the children get priority over spouses.  As status changes old friends often become embarrassment..
A very realistic evaluation of human mind in its paradigm shift vis-a-vis changing environs.

Sometimes poetic words assume prophetic dimensions.  Bharthruhari says that a thing expands or shrinks according to its state.  This is what exactly Einstein propounded in his special theory of relativity.  His idea is also that when an object accelerates(gains speed) it has to shrink since the velocity of light is a constant.

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