Transcript for:
Session on Vidura Neeti - Session 1

[Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] everybody welcome to this session on vidura neeti this is going to be a series of several sessions so this will be the first session as you all know in our sanatana dharma or hinduism as it is called we have abundant sources of knowledge and and wisdom these were all propagated since thousands of years ago by your great maharishi's one of the fundamental scriptures that we have which is acceptable to all sections of hindus is what is called vedas veda comes from the sanskrit root with which means to know vedas they form a storehouse of knowledge and this knowledge when it is applied in various situations becomes wisdom so fundamentally we have two sets of scripture i'd like to show you a slide on this as you all see here it is with already the setup lessons being taught so our holy scriptures as i was mentioning are divided into two sections the vedas which are called sriti because these are these were heard by the maharishi's there is no author known so they called aporus without any human order these were heard and that's why they constructed what is heard and this is with us which are divided into four parts here right and then they are supplemented with several other scriptures what are called secondary scriptures which include the puranas in the etihasas the vedangas they pick form part of the etihasa and etihasa literally means so it was as it really happened i say hua in hindi as they call it so they said the ramayana and mahabharata they're all stories and these stories they actually transmit the knowledge through very interesting episodes to make people understand what is their mom what is the right course of action [Music] ramayana for example demonstrates how dharma should be followed by the part of dharma as you saw and rama himself demonstrates this path of dharma in ramayana most popular epic all over the world the second it has mahabharata tells you what happens when dharma is not followed the impact of other monk in other words ramayana itself is a very large hassa and mahabharata is at least four times bigger which about hundred thousand verses so we can imagine how much of content these two ethicals contain most popular epics which are globally known to people so these scriptures they provide abundant sources from which we can learn to improve our own life so having said that there was a person named veda vyasa you might have heard of him this maharishi veda vyasa at the end of vapor yuga the previous one when the disappearance of the yuga was imminent people got worrying what is going to happen to the vedas they asked krishna krishna said there will be somebody born with my name in the next yoga yoga and then he will establish many things including compiling the vedas and making sure that people have something to follow to follow dharma so rightfully vedavasa was born as krishna by paella same name as krishna he was also black so it was called krishna and since he was born in an island he was called dwight maynard krishna and since he compiled the four vedas he was also called veda vyasa so where the vyasa he is given the credit of compiling the vedas the four vedas and he wasn't happy even after doing that so he is credited with authoring the mahabharata which is a great epic and the 18 puranas ancient stories so he was such a great person that we in fact we celebrate his birthday every year once guru purnima and he's considered maharishi veda vyasa the compiler with us the author of mahabharata and the 18 quran i'm giving you this background so that you have a better appreciation of what has happened and how the whether a neeti came about so several questions may arise in your mind and these questions could be who was with wrong what is do you find it in what context it is given and what is its content so i am going to explain to you each one of these and then introduce the vitara neethi in a manner you can follow the subsequent lessons much easier so the question first comes who was ridirol itself means intelligent skilled or wise and he was one of the central characters in mahabharata she was actually a step brother of dirza rashtra and pandu many of you know the epic of mahabharata so i don't think i need to explain more as to who is the restaurant who is pandu now as you all know there was a play between the kawarawas ours and you just tried vegeta lost and he was asked to go on exile and after coming back he was to get back his kingdom but when he came back thuryodhana refused to give him the kingdom so the matter had to be resolved and vidura was her minister the prime minister for the rashtra the prime adviser to him because he was very intelligent advice when there was a step-brother so videra was considered to be a person who would always be kept in confidence with rashtra after all you need to have someone with whom you can talk freely and whether i was one such person to drastically who was blind so vidura was an intelligent minister to driver russia so what is viduranithi is a term which is used to mean a moral code prudence a matter of conduct in wisdom it's a very popular term in marathi also and even in hindi so it refers to also management behavior and social ethics so vide is a set of lessons on what is really a code of good contact and how can people really follow that so it was an advice given by vidura to the it's like bhagavad-gita where lord krishna taught arjuna where is this found with reneki now it is found in mahabharata is actually in a chapter called yoga it's covered in eight chapters of the now in what context this video has come in much before the vidura mahabharata discussed and made the royal family the kawarawas award of the repercussions of the fallout between the kauravas and the pandavas so they knew very well what might happen the setting of the teaching of was in the palace of durhashtra the blind king when the kawarwas are about to engage in a war with their cousins the pandavas for the kingdom now sanjaya who was a charity the driver for driving rashtra he had brought a message from yunji straw in the pandavas entreating a reconciliation and not to have a fight but then come to an understanding properly the pandavas were willing to negotiate they didn't want all five kingdoms but then they thought even a smaller portion five villages or even five homes would be good enough this message was brought to the rashtra he was blind he couldn't read it but sanjaya said it's quite late so i will address the code tomorrow to present this report or message and then we can go further after hearing this rashtra could not sleep so that is the context in which vidura was called by the rashtra he says i am not able to sleep so let me call vidura ask his advice what is to be done so video is an intelligent minister so he stands for vidura late in the night and vidura comes to meet him and tells him the situation the distress that he's going through and asks his advice so the advice given by vidura to drastically the form of a series of questions and answers is what is it's pretty long i said set eight chapters it covers so by reading these and then listening to what do we get as i said our scriptures are sources of abundant knowledge and wisdom and by learning from whether needy we have many benefits now everybody is wanting success in life everybody is working hard towards happiness so there are many methods of how one should prepare to achieve success in life in fact there is a saying in english preparation is the key to success so this really prepares you to achieve success in life secondly many people get distressed somebody has to really inspire them when they get motivated by an external source they act but there are many leaders you see who do not require an external source they are self-motivated they charge their batteries on their own the spiritual batteries the metal batteries they get charged like solar energy you get them from somewhere and they charge it themselves they don't need something to plug on so whether it tells you how to be a self motivator thirdly a lot of people work hard may not really work smart because they get distracted their mind goes elsewhere they are not able to focus so we learn how to concentrate on work and continue then there are many things in life which you should do there are also many things in life which you should not do in other words what are the do's and don'ts in life that is also learned how to develop self-confidence you know there are people with extremely good knowledge but they are not very confident about themselves they are meek they are mild they are not able to accept themselves so you need to develop self-confidence and determination go after your goal first of all you set a goal so how to develop self-confidence determination is another thing we can learn and today especially in times of pandemic people have to think innovatively now you see many examples in in various parts of the world where people are very innovative like online education now where schools are closed and people are learning even children are learning from the computer online that is an innovative way of learning so many people work from home so that is a necessity is a matter of invention as they call it how to be creative in thinking so these are all great things to learn from video nidhi and there are many more as you go on you will learn as to what these are all about okay now what are the contents of this video uh very quickly i will go through what each content is that in each chapter the first chapter is talking about how to really spot an educated or an uneducated person what are the qualities of a wise person or educated person and the second chapter deals with what are the qualities of a king or a leader as the saying goes so the king or the leader has to set an example if he wants the citizens to be so what are these qualities expected from the king here later the traits which are essential the third chapter is about all the good qualities that a person should possess and how you should behave in himself in presence of a society after all we are all living in societies and communities the fourth chapter deals with a very important quality what is called tolerance you know you got to tolerate descent there are people who oppose you there are people who agree with you but sometimes people get really hot when somebody differs in the opinion and they express something else now how to tolerate it is a big thing now you have to cultivate that quality of tolerance for others and that is covered in the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter tells us what we should do and what we should not do as i mentioned the do's and don'ts in life and in fact gives examples of several people who do the wrong things so this sixth chapter is a very important one how to treat everyone with respect this is important it starts even within a family the family members who treat each other with respect so it goes on to a community to a country and so on how to treat everyone with respect is also covered sixth chapter and seventh chapter tells what habits should be really given up you know there are habits are always something which developed over time but there are certain habits which are not good like getting up very late in the morning no that's not a healthy habit but then there are such way habits which should be given up drinking liquor smoking and so on how to make friends with the right people and how to deal also with bad people so that is covered in the seventh chapter and the eighth chapter talks about the eventual goal for everybody how to acquire happiness and also fame people my mother used to tell me don't be like a lamb licked in a pot if it is lit in the pot the light will not be visible outside it will be only inside but this will be a lamp which throws a light all over so you should also share many things and how to attain happiness and fame within a short frame of time and ultimately how to develop those virtues of detachment and go on the path to salvation so that is how the viderani is set up in eight eight chapters so let's start now with the chapter one now i have to tell you that has more than 450 slokas so it is not possible to cover all these slokas i am going to give you just the highlights the most important ones so we may cover it maybe in three or four sessions or could be a little longer i don't know but uh the essence of pitturniti is what will be covered in our sessions so we will set the ball rolling now and i am going to tell you the very first chapter where vidura comes and meets this rashtra so [Music] devanagari they can follow the english ones said he is addressing he is going to tell about the yustra's message in the court sabaa we have lok sabhara these are all parliaments so this is the house which is the royal court so the says sanjay is going to tell this neutral images [Music] i do not know what the message is the message which has come from yeshua i don't know no because of that reason tahati means body my body is burning because of that because i don't know what he's going to talk about [Music] being awake being alert even in hindi you have the same word even marathi i think you have the same words being awake being alert right so here he says i am in the state of alertness or awake being awake without sleep the hermanas have sleep and burning and you you're well-versed you know we have four stages in life each following a particular artha or the pursuit that martha karma moksham as they call it dharma is code of ethics code of behavior which is the essential thing for any hindu that's why it's called sanatana my eternal dharma eternal code of contact eternal code of behavior so that is number one dharma partha is the second stage pursuit of a career after all be able to leave also not enough to be following dharma but people have to make a living a career so that is our pursuit of him kaaba is decides you have to fulfill desires also vedas are not against it please have desires you have to fulfill those desires in the rightful way and ultimately its moksha are salvation so these are the four stages so here actually is praising whether or not today you are well west in both up so you please tell me what is the remedy for somebody who is not sleeping and whose body is burning so this is a question asked by this rashtra now answers but he's a very very skillful person he's sugar coating his answer in a subtle way he's being sarcastic he's pointing out to the architect is your own making by asking certain questions the answers are hinted [Music] [Music] sleeplessness how is it cost you know you've seen people rich businessman going without sleep you see a poor person i've often seen it in mumbai and other places when i used to live there the poor people after doing a hard day's work they sleep on the roadside perfectly sound sleep there will be so much of noises going on mosquitoes biting but unmindful of all that they will sleep on the other hand you will find many rich people in air conditioned comfort on a foamy mattress with all kinds of comforts around unable to sleep you all know it right this is actually life how is it that somebody who has no money who doesn't know where the next wheel is going to come is able to sleep while one who is rolling in wealth is unable to sleep there are people who intentionally don't cannot sleep who have to be like propers and thieves their work starts in the night bad guys so sleeplessness in hindi one who has lost his wealth one who has failed to achieve success one who is rustful kaminam kama itself is desire one is after something which is not desirable he goes after them and if he doesn't get it he will not sleep until he gets it there also people who are very weak physically and mentally they'll keep on worrying my boss is going to fire me or something like that unnecessarily they'll start worrying they are weak by themselves he says lords are weak and they're also people who are attacked by a strong person it could be on a road on a pile in where robber or somebody wants to pick his pocket attacks him it is also possible that you are in a crowd and you are always afraid of someone that i was a kid going to school in pune there used to be a tough fellow what do you call gundam right she used to harass all the school boys on the way and i used to feel scared of him so night time sometimes you get nightmares of such people so you cannot sleep so when you are attacked by a strong person you are also getting scared because you feel somebody is going to attack you you cannot sleep so these are different instances when one is not able to sleep so driver ashrae is watching with rav asked me o king are you affected by any of these calamities you know very subtle way of asking because the rashtra is actually not wanting to give the kingdom even though his own brother's sons are there he is supporting his son and he knows it is wrong but still he's supporting him therefore he's guilty conscious makes him get worried as to what is going to be the consequence of this are my children going to get killed in the war worry so vedira has asked him he has any of these grave calamities are you worried about that naradipa o king i hope you are not worried about any of this you are not really concerned about robbing the wealth of somebody else or coveting the wealth of others i hope you are not affected by this very subtly and sarcastically is asking so going further the rashtra ice doesn't answer directly [Music] what are the benefits and higher virtues in life means superlative the [Music] you know is also part of the royal family so he says you are you are you are alone you alone is regarded as the wisest as the most intelligent amongst the royal rishis raja rishibam say so he's praising graduation he's praising vadura that you are regardless the wisest among royal rushes so please tell me what is beneficial to me and how to deal with higher virtues i want to hear that so you get a reply from vidura with watcher what are the signs they call it you know raksha means indications when you talk to someone you get indications of what type of person he is is he really knowledgeable or he's just telling something you know hindi so it is possible to know whether a person is really talking sense or just nonsense there are certain lakshanams or signs so is indicating that by this says what are the signs of the wise person what are the signs of pundit as they call it the one you can see he's always performing those kind of work that the deals which are lauded by others people claim a good job done and consistently differently so you find in some schools you'll find a student always stopping the list he comes number one in the class then going further also he continues consistently performs well so when i study in school we used to have a quarterly exam a halfway exam and an annual exam the performance has to be consistent so the one who performs consistently praiseworthy deeds and at the same time he rejects all the nintendo those which are censorable he he rejects them he doesn't follow them [Music] in this case you can say any scripture and being generous are the signs of the voice so this is the indication going further who is a pundit defines him does not affect there are some people who are always cool cool as the cucumber as they call it whatever happens they don't get angry there are individuals like that there are also people who get ignited no time they flash up so the pandita is one whom neither anger anger at the same time even joy when they get million dollars or million rupees in the lottery also they don't show anything special joy and they are not proud they have modesty vinaya as it called him in sanskrit students are supposed to be having that community they don't have pride and they don't show off so i'll put that false modesty in our vanity now they don't show any of these neither anger nor joy nor pride or false modesty or vanity so they can draw away from these to pursue the four legitimate goals of life what are called us which i mentioned before martha kawa motion such a person is considered as a pundit very very crisp definition because it talks more but today we have covered the initial part of widurniti where i had given you the background starting right from the source of knowledge and wisdom from the vedas then the puranas and then how maharashi veda vyasa he's the compiler of the four vedas and the author of mahabharata and a background introduction of withdrawal with reniti who's bizarre in what context with the renegade comes what do we gain out of it a summary of the eight chapters that cover the entire vitara niti a piece of excellent advice and what we can benefit by following this and i have opened the first session by starting on the conversation between rashtra and vidura his minister so third russia is asking question as a sleepless person and vidhira answers his question and he also adds further on what are the election or signs of a wise person and who is considered as a pundit so we will stop now at this first session and we'll continue this in our second session my request to you all is go through these listen to this please share it if you like with others and if you don't like it do tell me or you would like to make some changes in it because i could respond to the way you provide me the feedback and maybe change the presentation or highlight certain things which you really want so that way we can establish a better contact and be able to develop these future lessons in a manner which most of you will like and appreciate so today let me conclude this thank you very much namaste you all have a wonderful day