Friday, July 25, 2014

constraints of time

अनेकशास्त्रं बहुवेदितव्यं अल्पश्च कालो बहवश्च विघ्नाः।
यत् सारभूतं तदुपासितव्यं हंसो यथा क्षीरमिवाम्बुमध्यात्॥
॥सुभाषितम्॥
anekaśāstraṁ bahuveditavyaṁ alpaśca kālo bahavaśca vighnāḥ|
yat sārabhūtaṁ tadupāsitavyaṁ haṁso yathā kṣīramivāmbumadhyāt||
||subhāṣitam||
There are many sciences to be learned, too many sources of knowledge to be tapped, and the time available for us is too small, and we face so many impediments in the pursuit of even in our small ways. Therefore, we have to learn the essence of such knowledge without any delay, just like the swan eating milk alone from huge quantities of water.
True, the capacity to select what we have to learn is far more important that the learning process itself..Knowledge, the product of the toil of human intellect over innumerable years, is stacked like a mountain.. and the girth of the mass of knowledge is swelling beyond imagination as we progress from exchange of information by word of mouth through manuscripts, printed volumes and the present electronic storage of data in verbal and visual forms..
We cannot try to read even a small portion of it even if we spent our whole lifetime just for that..So wisdom lies in selecting our favourite fields and focussing on the essentials.. because time is never a luxury.Sage Bharadwaja was obsessed with learning and when he was about to die, He begged Indra to extent his lifetime by one span so that he could complet his studies..Indra granted the extension once, then the second time, and also the third time... The studies were inconclusive..
When a petition for the fouth extension came, the Lord of Gods told the elderly sage, "Look sir, Are you not seeing those huge mountains? The knowledge to be gained is huge like them.. Now please see the four tiny heaps of sand before you.. These would be the knowledge you have gained till now, in comparison.. So even if I grant you innumerable extensions, your education will never be complete.. So let us stop it at this point."
"Miles to go before I sleep"

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