Monday, March 21, 2011

modesty is apealing even if it for convenience or even pretended

सखीनिव प्रीतियुजोऽनुजीविनः समानमानान्सुहृदश्च बन्धुभिः।
स सन्ततं दर्शयते गतस्मयः कृताधिपत्यामिव साधु बन्धुतां॥
भारवेः किरातार्जुनीये महाकाव्ये  १-----१०
sakhīniva prītiyujo'nujīvinaḥ samānamānānsuhṛdaśca bandhubhiḥ|
sa santataṁ darśayate gatasmayaḥ kṛtādhipatyāmiva sādhu bandhutāṁ||
bhāraveḥ kirātārjunīye mahākāvye  1-----10

This is from the first chapter of Kirtaarjuneeyam the magnum opus of poet Bharavi.. and acclaimed as one of the five of the greatest Kavyams in Sanskrit literature.

The storyline is from the epic Mahabharatam. The Pandavas were defeated in a game of dice by their Cousing Duryodhana and their kingdom was confiscated as wager and they were sent on exile.. The soujourn in wilderness was  for thirteen years.. The eldest Pandava and the King Yudhistira had not given up his hopes that he would return to his people in good time.. 
He had sent a hunter as a spy to observe and report how Duryodhana was ruling the usurped kingdom..
The above is from a report by that spy to the king in exile.. Yudhishtira.

In an all out to bid to keep people around him absolutely faithful in spite of the fact that Duryodhana was rather an impostor to the kingdom which rightly belonged to his cousin Dharmaputra, the former has embarked himself on a course of unabashed appeasement and show of excessive love and affection towards  all around him.

" He is treating mere acquaintanaces who were marginally favourable to him as if they were his bosom friends. 

 Friends were close relatives to him in his perception under the changed circumstances.  
And  apparently bereft of all arrogance, his ostensible attitude towards his relatives , was that such people  were his lords and masters."

Showing of excessive cordiality attracts all people towards the ruler.  
We have heard vultures of politicians address their voters as 
" my uternine brothers, sharing my own blood" etc., 
but it would only reinforce the ageold dictum, 

" vachane kaa daridrataa....

why should one be miserly when dishing out mere words?". 
 The trait exhibited by Duryodhana would be found in everyone who is not sure of himself and the legitimacy of his position. 
 He is always governed by the fear that what he has acquired by foul means would be challenged by the support group and close cronies, 
and in his bid to keep them in good humour,
 he is showing excessive magnanimity and geniality to them. 
 It is a sort of clowning engaged in by  any ruler who has many skeletons in his cupboard. 
 But when the going is fairly good, the recipients of the favours would pretend to believe in the bounty and cordiality as genuine .. 

They have nothing to lose. 
But when the opposition to the tyrant gets crystallized, the bluff will be called and the goody goody atmosphere will vanish into thin air.

However, it has to be remarked by way of an ad lib that if an affectionate and able ruler can develop this attitude towards his fellow beings and subjects, he could gain immortality..
But Mahatmas are too rare in the real world.

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