VrukSha (tree)

छायाम् अन्यस्य कुर्वन्ति तिष्ठन्ति स्वयम् आतपे |
फलन्त्यपि परार्थाय वृक्षा: सत्पुरुषा इव ||
 
Chhaayaam anyasya kurvanti tiShThanti svayam aatape
phalantyapi paraarthaaya vrukshaa-haa sat-puruShaa iva

Meaning: (They) give shade (chhaayaa) to others (anya), while standing (tiShThanti) in the heat (sun) themselves. They bear fruits (phala) for the benefit of others (paraarthaaya),—trees are like (iva) the virtuous (sat-puruSha).

There are very, very few in this world who work like this. They work hard, day and night, every second of their life, just for the benefit of others. They take all the brunt on to their bodies, their minds, their hearts, but make sure that others around them are happy. Unmindful of any pains or troubles they have to bear, they work hard to make sure that we grow & we develop.

They provide shade & fruits even to those who throw stones at them. This is their greatness.

And all this time when they are taking all the heat and providing us shade, they are almost invisible. They make themselves unnoticeable. Even if noticed, they do not let themselves be acknowledged or thanked... passing on all the gratitude, fame and  attention to their higher authority.

Trees take nothing from men... only a little water from the ground and sunlight from the sun. Similarly, the virtuous (sat-purusha) take nothing from society, but derive their strength from the higher powers. And they grow strong, very strong... strong enough to bear the weight of fruits to provide for the people around them. They live only to give, and they strengthen themselves only to provide for others. Their only object in life is the growth and nourishment of others—others whom they know or do not know, others who behave well or otherwise, others who worship them or throw stones. They personify pure, unexpectational & unconditional love towards every creation of God. That is true virtue.

Some of us may have been fortunate to have heard about or seen such a vruksha in their lifetime, some even more fortunate may have met such a vruKsha, and some of us might have the good fortune of having such vrukShas around us even now. 

Let their untiring efforts, their unshakable strength and their loving shade, be an inspiration to us to become such a sat-purusha ourselves.

Best place to live

असारे खलु संसारे सारं श्वशुरमन्दिरम् ।

हरो हिमालये शेते हरिः शेते महोदधौ ॥

Asaare khalu saunsaare saaram shvashura-mandiram
Haro himaalaye shete hari-hi shete mahodadhau

Meaning: In this meaningless (asaare) world (samsaare), only one place is worth living in! And that place is the abode of father-in-law (shvashur-mandir) !
And therefore Lord Shankar stays in the Himalayas and Lord Vishnu stays in the Ocean !!

Himalaya is the father of mother Paarvati. And the Ocean is considered as the father of Goddess Lakshmi since she was born from the samudra-manthana.

I guess, the subhaashitkaar was in a very humorous mood whenever he wrote this; or he probably had recently visited his wife's parents. The father-in-law is always the object of so many jokes all around the world. Even the gods are not spared.

In general, men never can stay more than a few hours/days at their in-laws. Staying more than that is a feat that's rarely achievable by mortals. If these 2 can stay permanently at their father-in-laws' abodes, and stay comfortably, then they have to be Gods.

Enemies

अग्निः शेषं  ऋणः शेषं  शत्रुः शेषं तथैव च |
पुनः पुनः प्रवर्धेत तस्मात् शेषं न कारयेत् ||

Agni-hi sheSham RuNa-ha sheSham shatru-hu sheSham tathaiva cha
Puna-ha puna-ha pravardheta tasmaat sheSham na kaarayet

Meaning: Fire (agni), debt (ruNa) and enemy (shatru) —if they remain even in small traces, they will grow again (pravardhet), so finish them off completely.

All three of these have the potential to completely destroy us, if we allow them to exist. And they have the ability to grow back to enormous proportions if not contained at the bud. Whenever we douse a fire, there are always embers still burning beneath. We have to make sure, the fire's completely out.

As far as debt is concerned, I guess this saying seems pretty impractical in today's world. Credit is the order of the day & we just can not survive without debt, unless we are living off in a faraway island with no connection to the modern world. But the saying still holds true. Credit and debt is one of the biggest causes of economic crises, not just of individuals & corporations, but of powerful nations as well.

This holds true for enemies too. No trace of the enemy should be left, if we want to remove the threat from an enemy. On the face, it may seem to be in the violent sense of destroying an enemy, but there's a deeper meaning therein. It means that we have to destroy the enemy-ness or should I say, enmity from the enemy, not destroy the person. The person himself is not the real enemy. It is the enmity within that is the real enemy, irrespective of the reason for the enmity. When the enmity or the hate is destroyed, the person no longer remains an enemy—the enemy is thus destroyed.
Love so much so as to suffocate the hate to death. That is the only permanent solution!

Vidyaa (knowledge)

पठन्ति चतुरो वेदान् धर्मशास्त्राण्यनेकशः |
आत्मानं नैव जानन्ति दर्वी पाकरसं यथा ||

PaThanti chaturo vedaan dharma-shaastraaNyanekasha-ha
Aatmaanan naiva jaananti darvee paakarasam yathaa

Meaning: The clever (chatur) read (paThanti) all the Vedas and the scriptures, but they still do not know the soul (aatmaa), just as a ladle or spoon doesn't know the taste/flavor of the food.

Day in and day out, at every meal, the spoon is constantly in contact with food. But it has absolutely no idea about how the food tastes. Our  subhaashitkaar has used this analogy to explain the meaning of true education & true knowledge. Knowledge or vidyaa is a virtue of the inner self. Today we consider knowledge that, which we read, remember, memorize and to some extent, understand through the faculties of our brain. That will definitely fill up the infinite space in our brains but it doesn't bring happiness. Just as the spoon doesn't know what sweet means, we will not be able to relish the knowledge if we are simply using our brain to accumulate knowledge.


True knowledge is that which applies to our life. In fact, in Sanskrit, the word Vidyaa is derived from the root 'vid' which means "to know". Vid is the also the root verb for Veda. Many other languages have inherited this root; for e.g. English wit, witness, wizard (one who knows), German wissen (to know, knowledge), Swedish veta (to know), Latin video (I see), Dutch weten (to know), Czech veda (knowledge) etc etc. While all these talk about 'knowing', the Sanskrit vidyaa connotes 'knowledge of life'.

The knowledge of life is not meant to be collected and hoarded in the safe deposit boxes of our brains. Such knowledge can only be understood, realized and applied in our life. Vidyaa is not memorizing the books but knowing the heart of the literature and more importantly, applying it to our lives. Only then can we relish the knowledge!

But how can we know whether we are acquiring true knowledge or not? The test is that, true vidyaa brings about a change in our life. True vidyaa positively affects our personality, our character. If we can feel a progressive change coming over ourselves, then we are in the right direction. True vidyaa brings happiness in our life; it brings sweetness into our life. And that would happen only if we apply to our lives what we churn our minds on.

Let's stop being spoons and start relishing the taste of life!