यौवनं धनसंपत्तिः प्रभुत्वं अविवेकिता

यौवनं धनसंपत्तिः प्रभुत्वं अविवेकिता।

एकैकमप्यनर्थाय किमु यत्र चतुष्टयम्॥

हितोपदेशे॥

yauvanaṁ dhanasaṁpattiḥ prabhutvaṁ avivekitā|

ekaikamapyanarthāya kimu yatra catuṣṭayam||

hitopadeśe||

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A quote from the classic Hitopadesham of Narayana Suri

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Young age,

affluence, possessing of immense wealth,

postion of authority

and

indiscretion, impulsiveness, as a trait,

each of these states in life can bring disastrous results even individually... (taken one at a time)

What could be the condition

if all these four things are present in a person at the same time?

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Maturity happens only with age.. A young person, however brilliant and learned he is, would lack experience especially when it comes to taking very serious decisions.. It is for this reason perhaps that some minimum age is prescribed for marriage etc.. A minimum age is prescribed as a qualification for holding high offices of the State too..

When one is rich, he can get almost everything done according to his whims and fancies.. There would be people thronging around him taking his orders and carrying them out.. So a rich man would be unaware of the stark realities of life.. To learn life, is nothing but to learn poverty..

When a person lands up in a position of authority, he is given pripority in many matters of importance.. His words are obeyed. He can make things happen through his writs or orders.. And when in power, he tends to forget what really can happen to people who are not powerful.. just through his words and actions

And people who are neither young, nor rich and not in power, can still be idiotically indiscreet.. They would act without thoughts about the consequences and land themselves and people around them too in troubles..

And if there is a grand symphony of combination of all the above four qualities, we can just think of the disastrous results.

Of course people with all the three advantages who can also check impultiveness can really achieve a lot..

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Analysis.

यौवनं, youth adolescenc

धनसंपत्तिः richness, affluence

प्रभुत्वं positons of authority

अविवेकिता propensity to be indiscreet, impulsiveness

एते एकैकं अपि these, even taken one at a time

अनर्थाय are harbingers of disaster.

यत्र where

चतुष्टयं the combination of the four

अस्ति किमु are present.. then what ?

Pranams

k v ananthanarayanan