Manoj

Tag: life

  • Thoughts on friendship

    “I’ll get by with a little help from my friends” Pensive, withdrawn, lonely. The life of the world can be teeming around us, the high decibel sounds can be dinning in our ears and still we can be lonely. It is possible to be lonely in a crowd. Loneliness haunts the places where crowds gather.…

  • Sensual desires

    “… sensual desire is never quenched by indulgence any more than fire is by pouring ghee in it. No object of desire – corn, gold, cattle or women – nothing can ever satisfy the desire of man. (…) We can reach peace only by a mental poise beyond likes and dislikes.” Yayati explains this to…

  • Keeping good company

    “… it is not proper to live with persons who have no sense of decency or decorum. The wise will not keep company with those who speak ill of their family.” Devayani speaks about the behaviour of Sarmishta the daughter of king Vrishaparva who by her rude actions had disrespected her father Sukracharya. (Mahabharata by…

  • More so now than ever

    “You are enchanting – more so now than ever, flushed as you are with anger.” Kacha says this to Devayani while declining her proposal for marriage, for he believes that by bringing him back to life, Sukracharya is now his parent and it is against nature for a brother to wed his own sister. (Mahabharata…

  • Of wine and virtue

    “Virtue will desert the man who through lack of wisdom drinks wine. He will be an object of scorn to all. This is my message to humanity, which should be regarded as an imperative scriptural injunction.” The Asuras would have killed Sukracharya’s disciple Kacha, burnt his body and mixed his ashes in wine and offered…