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Human Behavior and Proverbs

If we look at life, from a little distance, like looks so interesting. Looking at any frame from outside the frame is so interesting. In fact, the meaning of all the proverbs becomes so clear. Sometimes we try to explain some very basic thing and that person refuses to understand that. The more we try and the more we get frustrated until we realize that it's like 'भैंस के आगे बीन बजाना' and the moment we realize that we become full of gratitude towards the people who invented these proverbs to express the deepest truths of life and the human psyche in so simple words.

Sometimes we see that few people are assigned a task that is beyond their capacity and they try to make all types of stupid endeavours to do that. The more they try the more stupid they look. Yet, they are fixated on the positions and glory of the assignment and do not get rid of these. Out of an inferiority complex, they become speechless due to fear in front of their superiors and become quite aggressive in front of their subordinates. These insecurities increase day by day and their behaviour becomes more and more inauthentic. Facing these people is one of the most frustrating experiences but if we look at that from a little distance, we recall the proverb "बंदर के गले में मोतियों का हार". A monkey having a necklace of diamonds on his neck does not know the value of the same and plays with that stupidly so that all the diamonds get scattered and he loses the precious stones.

Sometimes we do wonderful work and take it to our elders. Since the elders or superiors have their own fixed mindset, they do not realize the efforts and the pain behind the ideas. It becomes quite painful to make them realize the amount of effort that has been put in. We try to explain any which way but finally we have to tell ourselves 'बंदर क्या जाने अदरक का स्वाद'.

It so happens that we talk to so many people. In the process, we keep giving advice to many people around us with a genuine intention of helping them. We have passed through an experience in life and learned from our mistakes. When we see our friends passing through the same phase, out of a natural concern and compassion, words of advice come naturally. However, many people get offended and feel that we are unnecessarily interfering in their matters. Unnecessarily relations get spoiled. That time we do remember 'कुआं प्यासे के पास नहीं जाता, प्यासा कुएं के पास आता' and we do realize that it is useless to waste time in giving free advices to people. When they feel thirsty and are in pain they will search for the right advice and till then it is a waste of time and energy.

Sometimes in different social gatherings and meetings, we see that everybody is talking differently and none is making sense. There is no coherence of thoughts and people are fixed in their own frames. Not only they are fixed in their frames, but also they have lost the capacity to appreciate that there can exist something beyond their frames. we recall that everybody is beating his own drum and there is noise all around "अपनी-अपनी डफली, अपना-अपना राग".

In this world of social media and projection, we see people in every organization and at every place who are just busy projecting their image. They lack substance and are hardly capable of doing the work but when it comes to presenting a PPT, they will take the front seat and since it is impossible for the top people in the organization to look at the hard work being done at the ground, these people are appreciated. People who actually put in hard work sometimes get frustrated looking at these people for two reasons: First in a system where merit is not rewarded is bound to fail sooner or later because the best of the workforce will leave such organizations and the average quality of manpower will therefore decline over a period of time. Second, working under people who do not appreciate quality work is quite difficult because the entire system becomes quite chaotic. In such organizations, people occupy fancy positions and actually do not deliver any work befitting the names of their positions. While looking at these people occupying the fancy positions, we recall आंख के अंधे नाम नयनसुख.

While living in society, we meet people of different stature. Sometimes it also happens that we get to know different people talking on the same topic or working on the same assignment. When we see that there is a lot of difference in the capacity of two people, we naturally recall "कहाँ राजा भोज कहाँ गंगू तेली" 

Sometimes we come across situations where people come for spiritual advancement and keep wasting time in debates over something that they have read in different books. आए थे हरि भजन को ओटन लगे कपास’. The entire effort in spiritual pursuit is to realize the limitations of different frames we live in and we identify with whatever we have read in different books or whatever beliefs we hold that we refuse to acknowledge the ideas and opinions that contradict our limited frame. Not only in the spiritual pursuit, we end up doing the same with almost every of aspect of life. Money is just a facilitator for quality life but slowly money becomes the sum and substance of life and everything else becomes secondary. At a tourist station, the number of spots to be covered becomes the main object, and relaxation becomes secondary. Marriage becomes slavery rather than companionship to help each other explore life. Committees and meetings become ways and means to pass the buck rather than finding solutions. We recall that we came to this world to explore and got busy with self-created fear and insecurities. आए थे हरि भजन को ओटन लगे कपास’. I feel grateful to the wise experienced people who have given us all these proverbs to make us realize that there is no reason to be frustrated and human beings for ages have been behaving like that. 


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