Saturday, August 21, 2010

young or old, lion is lion

क्षुत् क्षामोऽपि जराकृशोपि शिथिलप्रायोऽपि कष्टां दशां।
आपन्नोऽपि विपन्नदीधितिरपि प्राणेषु नश्यत्स्वपि॥
मत्तेभेन्द्रविभिन्नकुंभपिशितग्रासैकबद्ध स्पृहः।
किं जीर्णं तृणमत्ति मानमहतामग्रेसरः केसरी॥
kṣut kṣāmo'pi jarākṛśopi śithilaprāyo'pi kaṣṭāṁ daśāṁ|
āpanno'pi vipannadīdhitirapi prāṇeṣu naśyatsvapi||
mattebheendravibhinnakuṁbhapiśitagrāsaikabaddha spṛhaḥ|
kiṁ jīrṇaṁ tṛṇamatti mānamahatāmagresaraḥ kesarī||

भर्त्तृहरि  नीतिशतकं   २१
bharttṛhari  nītiśatakaṁ   21
Will the lion eat the sun dried grass in the forest, even if he is emaciated with hunger, even if he is dogged by old age, even if he is facing very difficult times, even if he  has lost all his  vigour and ebullience of his prime youth, what to say, even if he  is facing a real threat of losing his own life? 
The food for the king of the forest  can be only the hard pieces of flesh he has extracted from the forehead of a rowdy elephant by splitting it with his powerful hits.  The lion is very proud of his eminence and valour and his own life is not very important to it in comparison.

The master poet is explaining how a person with true self respect should behave.  Bad times, poverty, ill health, and even the possibility of imminent death should not deter him from his upright and bold attitude, because death overtakes everyone one day or the other, but the really great people outlive the death of the physical body.

--
।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan
(kanfusion)
blog   http://kanfusion.blogspot.com/
त्यजन्तु बान्धवाः सर्वे निन्दन्तु गुरवो जनाःI
तदापि परमानन्दो गोविन्दो मम जीवनंII
let all my relatives abandon me, let the great people insult me, still I am in supreme bliss since my life  is GOVINDA alone.
Iकृष्णात् परं किमपि तत्वं अहं न जाने"I

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