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There are three ways in which a good task may be accomplished. The first
is by issuing an order or a command backed by the authority of the
government. This is called"prabhusammita". A rich or powerful man
orders his servant to do some work: it is also "prabhusammita". Whether
or not the servant likes the work, he is compelled to obey the order for
fear of punishment. Without occupying any seat of authority a friend
asks
us to do something and we do it- not out of fear but out of affection. A
friend who is well disposed towards us is a "suhrd". His order given as
a
companion, as a sakha, is "suhrd-sammita". If there is any means by
which you will do a work more willingly than in this manner, it is the
loving words of your wife. The job your employer asks you to do is felt
to
be a burden, but the same is made lighter if it is a friend who asks you
to
do it. But if it is the wife who asks you to do the same it will be
still
lighter. This is "kantasammita".
The injunctions of the Vedas are "prabhusammita", the teachings of the
Puranas are "suhrd-sammita" and the works of poets are
"kantasammita".
Yadvedat prabhusammitadadhigatam sabdapramanacchiram
Yaccharthapravanat-Puranavacanadistam suhrdsammitad
Kantasammitaya yaya sarasatamapadyakavyasriya
Kartavye kutuki budho viracitas-tasyai sprham kurmahe
-Prataparudriyam, stanza 8
The Vedas ask you to "do like this" or "do like that". They do not
say why.
To question them, it is believed, is to dishonour them. The Puranas,
however, tell you in a friendly manner:"If you do like this you will
benefit
in such and such a manner. If you do the same in some other way you will
suffer. . . "Such lessons are driven home to people through stories.
Yes,
the special feature of the Puranas is that they not only tell you why
you
should do a work, they also state the reason for the same through
absorbing stories. "Hariscandra acted like this. Nala did like that.
That is
why they were happy in the end though they had in between to suffer
much. Besides, they earned such fame for their virtuous life and noble
character that they will be remembered for all time. "The moral derived
from the stories of Hiranyakasipu, Ravana, Duryodhana and so on are the
opposite. They occupied high positions and wallowed in pleasure but in
the end they were ruined and are remembered today for their
wickedness and the evil they did. Such stories are a source of
inspiration
as well as a warning for us: they encourage us to do good and pull us
back
from evil. The Puranas tell us true stories. A suhrd, a sincere friend,
will
not tell us false tales. He will speak to us only the truth and what is
good
for us in a persuasive manner.
What about poetry? What does the poet do? He mixes fact with fancy
and invents stories with his power of imagination, exaggerating one
thing,
playing down another and repeating a third. He has the licence to do all
this. The function of the poet is to invest reality with the imaginary
or the
fanciful so as to make his narrative compelling. The friend is unlike
the
wife. In trying to impress upon you your duty, he is persuasive but does
not go beyond stating the facts. The wife is different. She is anxious
to
correct her husband and take him to the right path. She exaggerates a
fact or plays down another, she adds and subtracts. By being "nice" to
her
husband she will somehow make him do the right thing. So goes at least
the legend. Poetry, in the place of the wife; the Vedas, in the place of
superior authority; and the Puranas, in between, in the place of a
friend:
the three teach us dharma in different ways. |
