कः कालः कानि मित्राणि को देशः कौ व्ययाऽगमौ |
कश्चाहं का च मे शक्तिरिति चिन्त्यं मुहुर्मुहुः ||
कश्चाहं का च मे शक्तिरिति चिन्त्यं मुहुर्मुहुः ||
Ka-ha kaala-ha kaani mitraaNi ko desha-ha kau vyayaa-aagamau
kashchaaham kaa cha me shakti-riti chintyam muhur-muhu-hu
Meaning:
What are (my) circumstances (kaala),
who are (my) friends (mitra),
where am I (ko desha),
what are (my) income (aagamau) and expenses (vyayaa),
who am I,
and what are my strengths
—these should be thought over, again and again.
These are some questions which we should always be alert for. Usually what happens is that we keep storing information about different aspects of our life as & when incidents happen. And then we always evaluate ourselves according to those stored memories or information. But over time, our circumstances change, and yet we still base our decisions on our preset self-evaluated data. And that leads us to not realizing our full potential.
The classic example is that of a baby elephant who is tied to trees by rope in his childhood. It tries very hard to break free from the rope but is not strong enough at that time. After a point the baby elephant stops trying to break it. Even after growing up to be the strong animal that it becomes, a domesticated elephant never tries to break the rope. Based on its childhood memories, it presumes that it is incapable of breaking the rope while in fact, now it has the strength to tear down the whole tree. Sometimes the mahout doesn't even tie the rope to the tree, but the elephant never tries. This is exactly the point that our subhaashitkaar is trying to make here.
Our circumstances constantly change, yet we fail to take notice; even if we notice, we sometimes fail to adapt to them, or don't even try to. We may fail an exam and never take it again. We may fail in some business, never to venture in to any other business again. If there is a quarrel in a friendship, we never think of trying to forge it again. If there is a strong friendship, we might assume it to be always good while in reality, it may be fading out. Our expenses usually keep increasing slowly with incomes remaining the same, and if we do not notice it, there is trouble ahead. A famous quote: "There is only one thing in this world which is constant, and that is change."
We need to constantly keep re-evaluating our circumstances, our friends, our finances, our overall strengths—in fact, on a philosophical plane, we should constantly check our internal self, or the changes in the nature of our internal character, the changes in our attitude towards life. We should check whether we are progressing in life or not, not just financially but in all the sectors of life. We should check every day whether we became a better human being than we were yesterday.
The poet or the subhaashitkaar is not only telling us the significance of alert observation & regular introspection but also giving us a direction to that mental activity.
kashchaaham kaa cha me shakti-riti chintyam muhur-muhu-hu
Meaning:
What are (my) circumstances (kaala),
who are (my) friends (mitra),
where am I (ko desha),
what are (my) income (aagamau) and expenses (vyayaa),
who am I,
and what are my strengths
—these should be thought over, again and again.
These are some questions which we should always be alert for. Usually what happens is that we keep storing information about different aspects of our life as & when incidents happen. And then we always evaluate ourselves according to those stored memories or information. But over time, our circumstances change, and yet we still base our decisions on our preset self-evaluated data. And that leads us to not realizing our full potential.
The classic example is that of a baby elephant who is tied to trees by rope in his childhood. It tries very hard to break free from the rope but is not strong enough at that time. After a point the baby elephant stops trying to break it. Even after growing up to be the strong animal that it becomes, a domesticated elephant never tries to break the rope. Based on its childhood memories, it presumes that it is incapable of breaking the rope while in fact, now it has the strength to tear down the whole tree. Sometimes the mahout doesn't even tie the rope to the tree, but the elephant never tries. This is exactly the point that our subhaashitkaar is trying to make here.
Our circumstances constantly change, yet we fail to take notice; even if we notice, we sometimes fail to adapt to them, or don't even try to. We may fail an exam and never take it again. We may fail in some business, never to venture in to any other business again. If there is a quarrel in a friendship, we never think of trying to forge it again. If there is a strong friendship, we might assume it to be always good while in reality, it may be fading out. Our expenses usually keep increasing slowly with incomes remaining the same, and if we do not notice it, there is trouble ahead. A famous quote: "There is only one thing in this world which is constant, and that is change."
We need to constantly keep re-evaluating our circumstances, our friends, our finances, our overall strengths—in fact, on a philosophical plane, we should constantly check our internal self, or the changes in the nature of our internal character, the changes in our attitude towards life. We should check whether we are progressing in life or not, not just financially but in all the sectors of life. We should check every day whether we became a better human being than we were yesterday.
The poet or the subhaashitkaar is not only telling us the significance of alert observation & regular introspection but also giving us a direction to that mental activity.
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