Wednesday, December 8, 2010

WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A WISE MAN AND A FOOLISH MAN?

WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A WISE MAN AND A FOOLISH MAN? (slokas 4 to 13)


  1. A wise man does not regret for what is lost. (A lump of earth, a stone or gold is but the same in the eyes of the wise. They are able to discriminate between ‘sat’ and ‘asat’, i.e., what is permanent and what is impermanent. They are unattached to anything in this world and the world itself. Suppose I am wearing a watch and I give it to you as a gift. After giving it to you, within ten minutes you happen to lose it. What will be my feeling about the loss? It does not affect me. As long as it remains as ‘my watch’, there is pain. A wise is above the feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine. He does not own anything in this world).
  2. A wise man does not need more time than required. He controls time and cost. (Lord says ‘yoga is skill in action, ‘Samatvam yoga uchyate’. Having the equanimity of mind, the wise man works with focus leaving the results in the hands of the Lord. Because there is no anxiety, the wise man completes the work at the given time. Guruji always gives talks in the time allotted to him and he never compromises on the strength of the message. What he accomplishes in 24 hours time, is unimaginable to us because we are scattered into many things and there is always anxiety to the results. No equanimity of mind…so there is no focus for us. Even though 72 in age, Guruji’s work is done like that of a young man, with lots of enthusiasm and energy. Lord says in Gita that if a person works selfless, He is their strength and buddhi. The wise are simple in their life. They never waste food or money in any way. Guruji wanted to paint an old school in Manipal. He took quotations from so many people and only then did he decide on the action. For them everything is lord…Be it time or money. They don’t kill time like us. Every second is used to the best of his abilities. We all plan and finally do not act on it saying ‘I didn’t find time’ whereas the wise man only acts).
  3. A wise man knows systems, procedures and means to carry out his will. (How true! Guruji’s distribution of Gita, workshops for school children and 100,000 sathsangs worldwide – the will of him is the will of the Lord, as many people are benefitted out of it. Beautifully designed actions!!!!!!!! Similarly, Ammas’ action of building houses to tsunami victims and helping the flood victims of Bihar, Srila Prabhupada’s Hare Krishna movement….we will not know what is there in their mind till the actions are completed and it is done without strain and with no big banners . Many of us are enjoying their efforts! )
  4. A wise man can foresee things. (purity of heart and the steady intellect, always in touch with the inner divinity. The water which is clear, with no disturbances shows what is there in the bottom. Similarly, the wise are silent, undisturbed which make them see everything clearly.)
  5. A wise man is a good conversationalist. To control speech is said to be the most difficult. It is not easy to hold a long conversation, speak words filled with meaning and at the same time delightful to the hearers. (We too hold long conversations at home or at a social place. Are they meaningful? Can they hear to us for more time? People are sometimes afraid of us because they are not sure when we will stop talking. But to the wise man’s speech we are like bees stuck to honey. Why? Their intentions are pure and they speak from divine inspiration. They touch our heart. Guruji used to say that any message can be effectively conveyed in just two minutes. Whether there are elders around them or children around them or people from other countries around them, they are always comfortable with the crowd. Their message is only love and nobody resists love.)
  6. A wise man is one who is contented. (Situations in life come and go like passing clouds. The wise man does not give importance to all that. He focuses on what is everlasting. He is happy with whatever he has. He does not put any effort to add further or to leave anything. The ocean does not add up to its level when a river merges or lowers its level when we take a bucket of water from it. That is the contentment of the yogi or wise. He is always full of knowledge. Our contentment is till the next desire sprouts in us).
  7. A king who does not know about his territory, gain, loss, treasury, population, punishment cannot retain his kingdom for long. He is wise who takes up action or resists it considering his own ability, the nature of act and the consequences of act. (We take up actions because of our Ahamkara. We have enthusiasm in the beginning and slowly it starts fading and find some reason or the other to leave it half way or we grieve not having thought about the consequences. Reiki says there are times in life where we have to say ‘no’ to things. If we know that, then we are wise).
  8. Poison kills but one man; so does a weapon. But wicked company can destroy an entire kingdom with kings and subjects. A wise company is always needed in a kingdom. The king becomes wise by doing two things, 1. Refraining from harsh speech and 2. Disregarding those who are wicked. (Even though Sanjaya advised Dhrithrashtra many times, he disregarded the advice of wise ministers and listened to Duryodhana, Sakuni, who are wicked.)
  9. The king who wishes to control his counselors before controlling his own self, or the king who wishes to subdue his adversaries before controlling his counselors, fights a losing battle, losing his strength. A wise king is one who has full control over his senses. (The senses are the five horses. If we aim for a pleasant and safe journey in life, the five horses need to be controlled. Otherwise it will drag us to the slushy roads of samsara. Our own actions are the examples to our children and people around us (yad yad aacharthi shreshta…3rd chapter of Gita). When we are unable to control ourselves how can we have a say on other’s control? Our guruji is always the first person to come to the sathsang on time. Seeing him come first, all of us used to rush to the venue. A well disciplined life bodily and mentally is the life of the wise, motivating us to emulate him in every way. An angry man cannot advise anyone to leave anger. A drunkard cannot ask another to give up drinking. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to advise someone to leave sweets. Even before advising, he practiced to live without sweets. Our practice will do more help to the world than we entering into the world in the name of service).
  10. A wise man respects elders and always put into practice what they advise. He is all the time learning good behavior, good words and good acts from every side. (If we read Mahabharatham, we see that the Lord of the universe, Krishna prostrating to elders. Krishna’s life is itself a message for us in every aspect of life. The Pandavas always followed the advice of their guru. Yudhistra remained always calm and at the same time very thoughtful even in difficult circumstances. The respect for the elders and the practice of the wise people’s advice has won their kingdom. The wise are open to all goodness).
Wise have high presence of mind. (High presence of mind is the gift of living in the present. They can quote relevant incidents, stories, scriptures which suits the topic of discussion. Any serious and difficult topics will be put in a simple and humorous way by the wise).

CONCLUSION:

KAMALA SUBRAMANIAM BEAUTIFULLY PUTS IT THAT “A WISE KING OR A WISE MAN SHOULD DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN THE 2 WITH THE HELP OF 1. HE MUST CONTROL 3 BY MEANS OF 4. HE HAS TO CONQUER 5, KNOW THE 6, ABSTAIN FROM 7 AND BE HAPPY”.


ONE – intellect

TWO – right and wrong

THREE – friend, stranger and enemy

FOUR – gift, conciliation, disunion and severity

FIVE – the senses

SIX – treaty, war, etc

SEVEN – women, dice, hunting, harshness of speech, drinking, severity of punishment and waste of wealth

All keys to become a wise man are given. It is up to us to retain what is good within us and replace all negative qualities with these positive qualities. We cannot wait for the right time to practice. We can do it right now. The Grihasthashrama is the best platform to develop many of the qualities given here. The happiness is here and now for us if we live wisely.

We will continue in the next week on Vidura’s explanations on who is foolish.

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