In this blog I am going to present some Chanakya niti and I was thinking about explaining them. Then I thought who could be a better person to explain than Srila Prabhupada. So I searched for Srila Prabhupada’s explanations of Chanakya niti. There are many wonderful explanations of Srila Prabhupada in his lectures and books. I chose one such to present in this blog. When you hear the explanations from Srila Prabhupada they are very very sweet; giving his own personal experiences into it. We will be able to appreciate the subject in a much better way. I am going to present one sloka of Chanakya niti quoted by Srila Prabhupada which I really laughed to myself when I read the explanation of Prabhupada on it.
rsi sraddha aja yuddhe
prabhate megha garjane
dampatya kalahe caiva
bahvarambhe laghu kriya
TRANSLATION
“The funeral ceremony of a sage who died in the forest, a fight between two goats, a thunder clap in the morning, a quarrel between husband and wife-all begin in grand style but the outcome is insignificant.”
Below is an excerpt from a lecture transcript of Srila Prabhupada. I am highlighting those sentences which are the “Prabhupada touch”.
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What is the use of keeping big, big paraphernalia? bahvarambhe laghu kriya. Arambha, arrangement is very big, but work is no, no work. What is the use of keeping useless machine? So that is going on. In the material world, everything is bahvarambhe laghu kriya. That has been spoken by Chanakya Pandita. Aja yuddhe muni sraddhe. Ajah means goats. You have seen goat fighting? As if, though, two big, big heroes are fighting. But as soon as somebody comes: "Hut!" they'll go away. Have you seen, experienced? Goats and lambs, they'll fight: (makes sound:) "Onh, onnh." Like this. But, as soon somebody comes: "Hut!" So this is one of the example of bahvarambhe laghu kriya.
Arambha, as if something very serious is going to happen. But actually it is non-significant. Aja yuddhe muni shraddhe. In the forest, there are munis. So they are arranging for some festivals to offer oblations to the forefathers, shraddha. So what they have got? They have got some fruits and leaves. That's all. So the arrangement may be that "Tomorrow, we are going to have this festival." But the festival means some leaves and some water. That's all. No utensils, no gold, no jewels, nothing of the sort. So this is another bahvarambhe laghu kriya. Arrangement is very big, but fact is nothing.
And dampatya kalahe caiva. And fight between or quarrel between husband and wife. In India, there is no question of divorce. So nobody takes very serious care when there is fight between husband and wife. So there also: "I'm going to immediately leave you, going to kill you..." and so many things. But after an hour, everything is finished. No more quarrel. prabhate megha-garjane. And in the morning, if you see big cloud assembly and thundering sound, but you rest assured. There will be no rain in the morning. So these things are bahvarambhe laghu kriya. Arambha, beginning is very gorgeous. But end is nothing.
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Srila Prabhupada says at another place that whenever there is a fight between husband and wife it should be neglected. If you understand that in front of the door two goats are fighting, you don’t care for it. And muni is performing the sraddha ceremony of his dead father in the forest. The expenditure is nothing. Just some flowers and fruits and in the forest you haven’t got to pay anything for flowers and fruits. It is not to be taken seriously. And in the morning if there is a thundering sound in the cloud you should know it will not rain. That means you can neglect it.
Similarly, whenever there is fight between husband and wife, you should take like that. Don't take it seriously. Let them fight for some time. They will stop it automatically. But in the modern civilization, the husband and wife quarrel is taken so seriously that immediately they go to the court and there is filing of divorce, and the combination, the married life, dissolved, and both are unhappy. And the lawyers give encouragement. “Yes, let us go to the divorce court.” This is going on.
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