Point of indecision

In Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, there is an interesting story as part of the conversasion between Bhisma, the aged Kuru warrior who is on his deathbed, and Yudhisthira, his grandson, the Pandava king,who belongs to the opposite camp and whose army just won the war against the Kauravas or the Kuru clan. In response to the questions asked by Yudhisthira, Bhisma is explaining to him the duties of a king, of a householder, of an ascetic, the path of righteousness and virtue and the ways of dealing with people, as well as the paths of attaining the highest knowledge. In the process we come across several stories and parables – one of them illustrates how diverse interest groups instigates persons to behave in a certain way and how people should be wary of the motives behind what seems like innocent advices.


A Brahmin who lost his only son went to creamte him along with his village men. Since it was already evening they decided to stay for the night and cremate the child in the morning. A vulture, who was sitting atop a tree, saw their proceedings and told them, “Why do you plan to spend the night here? The boy is indeed dead and he will not return, so whats the point in waiting in this dreadful place? Go home and take rest and come back in the morning.” The villagers almost bought its advice and began returning when suddenly there appeared a jackal. It said, “ Wait, you guys are leaving that poor child behind, what kind of dreadful parents are you? As long as the child was alive you could’nt live without him and now that he is dead you are abandoning him? Be with him. Who knows, he may come back to life as well.”

At this the villagers were ashamed of themselves and came back. The vulture then said, “You would like to spend night in such a dreadful place. Do you know that this place is infested with ghosts, ghouls and other such spirits at night? Why do you want to risk your life for a vein hope? Can’t you see that the child is quite dead?”

The villagers were now in a real dilemma. The jackal further said, “Remember, if you abandon him now you also forsake him, for who knows what fate awaits him in this dreadful place. If you stay back together no harm should befall you. Whereas if you leave, you will be deemed as cowards. Stay back, hope is always there and you may get back your son because there are so many holy men around this place, one of them may have pity on you and give back his life.”

The poor villagers could not decide what to do and whom to trust. This discussion in Mahabharata dragged on for sometime before the villagers decided to stay back and pray to the Lord Shiva (and it was a wise decision that they took, for Shiva, who wanders in cremation ground, came and gave back the boy his life).

This is quite often the situation in which we also find ourselves. There are conflicting advices by people who appear to us as well wishers, but neverthless those advices have an important bearing on important decisions in our lives, say marriage, education, job, travels and so on. We find ourselves in similar dilemma, what to do?

Under all circumstances we should keep it in mind that however “wellwisher” one may appear, one always has some hidden motive or agenda in giving an advice to us, even if they may not be aware of the same. This holds true for everybody – friends, spouses, family members, relatives, neighbours, colleagues etc. There is nobody who is giving an advice from a perfectly neutral standpoint. For instance, a parent advicing you on education may have your best interest in mind, but also has her agenda – of getting the chance of being proud of your achievment at the best, or taking the financial conditions in consideration at worst. So your decision cannot solely depend on their advices. You should be aware of the motive, of the interests and then take a decision based on the best possible outcome that you can envisage. That does not mean that you should be selfish, but act according to “dharmic” principles, do not fall prey to selfish interests of others.

Coming back to the story, what do you think were the motives of those two advisors? The vulture had one object in mind, to eat the flesh of the boy when his relatives had been sent away. The jackal was also not altruistic. His simple objective was to eat the remants of the boy himself, after the vulture would be dissuaded and perhaps would fly away in disappointment and when the villagers would take some rest at night. So none of them were really wellwishers, even if by their talks they sounded like one.

You are responsible for the outcome of your decision, listen to the advices but also try to understand the hidden agenda. Do what you think is right, let not the others do the thinking for you.