Four blind men and the elephant
We all know the story of the four blind men going on describing how an elephant is. With a sense of brevity let me put it here for the benefit of those who would have forgotten the story. To be honest to myself, I can only reproduce the story loosely here. Four visually disabled persons(being politically right would be prudent these days) feel elephant and describe thus. The first one feels the elephants ears and says, "it is very wide like a big leaf". The second one feels the tail and says, "it is think and short". The third one feels the trunk and says, "it is flexible, long and tube like". The fourth one feels one of the legs and says, "it is like a pillar". While all the descriptions are true, the bigger picture is missing here. Why I get reminded of this tale now! When I went through the Apex court judgement about the Khushboo's case, I was amused by the reasoning given in the text of the judgement. The revered bench said that while the court cannot do anything if two people have pre-marital sex or live-in relationship. Definitely true when a lot of cases are heard and seen theses days about these MTV generations, what made the honoured one to make comments in defense of the relationships is only amusing to me, to say the least. Too much of generalisation and free usage of references to the Hindu epics(don't brand me communal or fundamental or anti-secular so soon) is done these days by writers and judges. What is the competence of these learned men in commenting about the so-called "live-in" relationship of Lord Krishna and Radha when they are hardly relying upon the folk tales of the yore. Did anyone of these men would have atleast read some loose translation of the epic "Srimad Bhagavatam" written by Veda Vyasa? If not what was the necessity to refer this.
Moral policing has to be condemned by one and all equivocally. No doubt about this. But then, why should credence be given to anti-moral things which could have a bearing on the society, especially the vulnerable section, ie the youth. No proof is necessary to say that the youth would not be influenced by the prophecies of the so-called free thinking liberalists. You tell the nice things and good deeds, it might not have any influence. But then you tell something appealing to the baser insticts, that would be cherised by many. Take the cases of the famous plays in telugu, "Kanya Shulkam" written to protest the social evil prevailing at that time about the money paid to buy girls and "Chintamani"(not the ICICI character) written with a noble cause of the fight against prostitution. What was enjoyed even today by a vast majority of the public is the negative things in the plays. So let me not be judgemental. Otherwise why the I & B should serve a notice to the FTV broadcasters about the semi-nude scenes shown in the channel a few days back. It is a reality in many places and clubs in India that such a thing cannot be controlled by even the courts, leave alone the I & B ministry. So logic need not make sense all the time.
Let me clarify one thing from my understanding here. Srimad Bhagavatam does no mention of Radha. Please do not write me off saying I am talking nonsense. I was told(I did not read any of the epics myself, but rely mainly on the people who read the original epics in its entirety) that the mention of Radha & Krishna is available in the "Bhahma Vaivartha Purana", one of the eighteen epics written by Veda Vyasa. The reference there too was not that of a couple or live-in relationship or something of that sort. We are only limited by our imagination when it comes to the understanding of the epics. A lot of folktales are etched in our minds, a majority being distortions. Radha & Krishna are shown as Prakruti(nature) and Purushudu(man), Skakti & Shaktiman, etal. No baser meaning here please. I general parlance it has come to denote the embodiments of eternal and ethereal forms of pure love, while they are neither lovers nor any realtions, as per the epic. So the bench would have done a great service had they not mentioned the Radha Krishna affair in the judgement. Hope sanity prevails in the courthalls and media houses.
Moral policing has to be condemned by one and all equivocally. No doubt about this. But then, why should credence be given to anti-moral things which could have a bearing on the society, especially the vulnerable section, ie the youth. No proof is necessary to say that the youth would not be influenced by the prophecies of the so-called free thinking liberalists. You tell the nice things and good deeds, it might not have any influence. But then you tell something appealing to the baser insticts, that would be cherised by many. Take the cases of the famous plays in telugu, "Kanya Shulkam" written to protest the social evil prevailing at that time about the money paid to buy girls and "Chintamani"(not the ICICI character) written with a noble cause of the fight against prostitution. What was enjoyed even today by a vast majority of the public is the negative things in the plays. So let me not be judgemental. Otherwise why the I & B should serve a notice to the FTV broadcasters about the semi-nude scenes shown in the channel a few days back. It is a reality in many places and clubs in India that such a thing cannot be controlled by even the courts, leave alone the I & B ministry. So logic need not make sense all the time.
Let me clarify one thing from my understanding here. Srimad Bhagavatam does no mention of Radha. Please do not write me off saying I am talking nonsense. I was told(I did not read any of the epics myself, but rely mainly on the people who read the original epics in its entirety) that the mention of Radha & Krishna is available in the "Bhahma Vaivartha Purana", one of the eighteen epics written by Veda Vyasa. The reference there too was not that of a couple or live-in relationship or something of that sort. We are only limited by our imagination when it comes to the understanding of the epics. A lot of folktales are etched in our minds, a majority being distortions. Radha & Krishna are shown as Prakruti(nature) and Purushudu(man), Skakti & Shaktiman, etal. No baser meaning here please. I general parlance it has come to denote the embodiments of eternal and ethereal forms of pure love, while they are neither lovers nor any realtions, as per the epic. So the bench would have done a great service had they not mentioned the Radha Krishna affair in the judgement. Hope sanity prevails in the courthalls and media houses.
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