SHUBHASHITANI..
अर्थागमो नित्यमरोगिता च
प्रिया च भार्या प्रियबादिनी च
वश्यश्च पुत्रोर्थकरी च विद्या
षड्जीलोकस्य सुखानि राजन्...
The whole world is after two things...One wealth so that the next and so called ultimate, the Peace can be attained. The general tenet is to live a peaceful life. For it, earlier, people were trying to learn things and acquire knowledge which was the head and the wealth was the follower. But, since the advent of western civilisation of core consumerist ideology in recent centuries, the term happiness has been re-defined... Any way, we will discuss, today, the thinking process at Mahabharata era and will be astonished how perfectly scientific they were in understanding of happiness.
It was Vidura ji, the learned minister of the king Dhrutarashtra, who was explaining the real happiness in material world of that day...Even though, it is more appropriate in these days also when the rotten system is teaching its the most eligible children how to cheat and how to destroy the soft fiber of social harmony by corruption..By deceit..To establish that the end justifies the means.. to close the eyes for earning maximum profit to dreamer companies.. Maximum profit in short time..
Happiness is considered on different platforms like the present life and the life after ...The next birth..The happiness drawn from material world is not the same everywhere. A king or a rich person enjoys the material world with great enjoyment or happiness. The period after this life is poor for him. A sanyasi who forsakes the material world leaves a poor life in search of truth. His life here is full of miseries, but the period after this life is assured with full peace. But a poor man who is deprived of wealth and is not after knowledge, has both the epoch pitiable. Some kings are careful not to indulge in material follies and do their allotted duty perfectly. For them both the world are noble. Thus consumerism with restrain and conscious dealing is the best thing... Even better than ascetism..
Let's see the verse.
Six things are called happiness in this living world. Of course, this is material parameter necessary for a king and his subjects.
1. Arthagamo nityam.. regular incoming of wealth. To live happily with all the better way of life living, one must have money in his pocket. Whatever means it may be, but you must be assured of whatever amount of ready cash you need.
2. Arogitaa ..Sound health.. wealth is best enjoyed when one is in full health..Mentally as well as physically. The taste of the pudding is in eating.. a simple diabetes is sufficient to splash water on the heat.
3. Priyaa cha bharya... The better half must be dear to the heart. Like health, the wife, who comes as a stake holder in all the niceties of life on advantage youth must be dearer to the heart..She must be the Monalisa..
4. Priyabadini ... The entire human life centers on the pivot of a single person called wife...The better half...She comes at the best time of the life to accompany till the funeral pyre in Hindu way of life. She is bound to one's life. The second most attribute on her is her style of communication. If she is well mannered in speech, then the happiness is assured to a man and vice versa.
5. Bashya ch putra.. the next relative to a man after wife is his son or daughter. Son stands for daughter also. Offspring is treated as the only thing that both the man and woman in union as own. They spend their whole life to make this relative happy. This son must be obedient. An obedient child is the fifth source of absolute happiness.
6. Arthakari cha vidya..The education one gets must be income oriented. If somebody gets a certificate of excellence in a field which has no demand in the society, it can't fetch money and thus fails him in the material world. Study in madrasas is the brightest example of the day.
Basically, happiness is a state of mind. It is never absolute. But here, the great thinkers have pinpointed as material happiness.
Friends, it is your time now to ascertain the applicability of a verse in Mahabharata age in present day. In a few words what a great thought !
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