Saturday, May 07, 2011

it is in the eye of the beholder

जाढ्यं ह्रीमति गण्यते व्रतशुचौ दम्भः शुचौ कैतवं
शूरे निर्घृणता मुनौ विमतिता दैन्यं प्रियालोपिनि
तेजस्विन्न्यवलिप्तता मुखरता वक्तव्यवक्तिस्थिस्थिरे
तत् को नाम गुणो भवेत् स गुणिना यो दुर्ज्जनैर्नाङ्किता॥४३
भर्तृहरेर्नीतिशतकात्
jāḍhyaṁ hrīmati gaṇyate vrataśucau dambhaḥ śucau kaitavaṁ
śūre nirghṛṇatatā munau vimatitā dainyaṁ priyālopini
tejasvinnyavaliptatā mukharatā vaktavyavaktisthistire
tat ko nāma guṇo bhavet sa guṇinā yo durjjanairnāṅkitā||43
bhrtṛharernītiśatakāt

The evil people have the knack of making  a donkey out of a pedigree horse. If a gentleman is modest, they will call him a dumb idiot. If he is very sincere in his daily life and carriage, he will be called arrogant. If he spoke with people and carried himself in a friendly manner, he will be branded as a thief and timeserver. If he is ruthless in combating evil things in society, his will be called unscrupulous. If he is sincere and imparts valuable knowledge  to others with good speech, he will be termed as sick and even mad, with no other work to do. Is he is  having some sponatneous magnetic personality, which makes him distinguished from others,  then he will be deemed the epitome of  fraud, and lack of care and concern for others. If he is a good orator, his name would be a verbose fool.
So the evil and jealous public have their own stock thesaurus to define the actions of the leaders of the society.

True, skepticism at the appearance of new faces in our middle triggers suspicion but the society is expected to find the merits in people and give them a proper pride of place instead of being paranoid. about everything.

This is the view of Bharthruhari of about three hundred millenniums. It is for us to see the relevance of such dicta and follow them or rejects them in toto.

--
।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
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु।
lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu|

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