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FREEDOM FROM REACTION (2)
get easily excited or enraged. On the other hand, it would help a man maintain his equilibrium under all circumstances.
In a different context, a man condemns somebody. The person condemned is displeased. If there is praise, the man is pleased. Both pleasure and displeasure are reactions. And the mind is so conditioned as to react to pleasure and pain automatically. A little praise sets the face aglow; the slightest censure makes it crestfallen. Is it possible to avoid such extremes? Here is a beautiful maxim that can prove helpful:
No one becomes a thief is called so by another; no one becomes a saint if called so by another. One's conscience tells one whether one is a thief or a saint.
This is a good maxim and if only one can assimilate it thoroughly, one can be free from reaction.
Given self-confidence, confidence in one's own capacity and valour, another's opinion can do one no harm. People generally do not want a man to rise. Particularly the older people, one's own parents, stand in the way of the younger generation. They go on harping on the goodness of their own times, everlastingly decrying the succeeding generation, calling it feeble and worthless.
The conflict between the young and the old has been there from time immemorial. The older generation and ancient accomplishments command easy recognition; the younger persons and contemporary achievementshave to struggle for recognition. Man is not generous enough to grant recognition to another easily. The new generation is impatient to win recognition and the older one is full of pride, has its own standards, and is reluctant to accord recognition to the younger generation on the basis of newer values. This conflict is to be found in all fields -- literature, ayurved or religion. "Just because a thing is old, does not make it good" — the renowned poct Kalidas sounds here the characteristic note born of two gcncrations of conflict. The old scholars had treated his poetry and plays with slight respect, and the poet was obliged to observe that mere antiquity was no guarantee of excellence in literature; that contemporary poctry could not be said to be inferior just because it was now. A thoughtfulcritic would declare a poem to be good or bad only aller a thorough examination, whereas a foolish one would thoughtlessly continuc to sing praises of antiquity, discarding the ncw.
Acharya Vagbhatt wrote a book entitled Ashtanghriday, which thic Icading ayurvedic practitioners did not recognize. Even Vagbhatt was slighted by the older generation whose attitude made him pen the following lines: "For thc mitigation of wind takс oil, for gall use ghee, and for cough honcy is most wholesome. It does not matter
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