More on the subject of my french book

Myfrench book just published last week is a translation and anexplanation of a book done by my indian philosophy teacher :Satyanarayana das.

The title : Conte de l'Inde ancienne

For those who do not read french I will copy here parts of his articles on this subject.
I copy thm here in case you cannot see it on his web site : http://www.jiva.com/
(the original article was at this location: you can also see other articles there)

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Best of Hitopadesha—Part - III
Good Company and Bad Company
by Dr Satya Narayana Dasa

The Backdrop
About 1,500 years ago the King of Iran got hold of a book that contained the secret of how to raise the dead by means of rasayana, an elixir of life. The book explained the procedure to extract the elixir from herbs and trees growing on the high mountains of India. Eager to sample this elixir, the King sent his chief minister on a quest for the prescribed herbs and trees.

In India, the minister was well-received and aided by the sages. He scoured the mountains for the herbs and trees to make the elixir. No mixture he made, however, could bring the dead back to life. Finally, the disappointed minister concluded that the information was false.

Greatly distressed about returning empty-handed and disappointing his king, the minister asked his hosts what to do. They led him to a famous philosopher, who once searched in vain for the same elixir, and in the end discovered that the elixir was actually a book.

The philosopher explained that the story about the elixir was allegorical. The high mountains in the story represented the wise and learned men of lofty intellect; the trees and herbs, which are the products of the mountains, indicated the various writings of those sages; the elixir itself denoted the wisdom extracted from the sages’ writings, which revived the dead intelligence and buried thoughts of ignorant materialistic men.

Relieved and elated, the minister begged a copy of the book from the philosopher, translated it, and returned to his king. That book we know today is a variant of the book of Hitopadesha.

The origins of this book are a little less known. Study of old hand-written manuscripts, however, reveals that Narayana Pandit, who lived in the fourteenth century Bengal province of India, wrote the book on the request of King Dhavalchandra. Traditionally, it was taught to the initiated students in gurukula (ancient Hindu residential school in India).

Hitopadesha, or “Good Instructions”, is famous for its wisdom and is one of the most popular books on ethics and polity. It uses the story-within-a-story format, with animals as the main characters. It is popular with children because of the fables, in which characters of animals are used to personify certain traits found in humans. I am happy to have been able to translate this book from its original Sanskrit couplets. This will surely expand the reach of Hitopadesha and help children and grown-ups alike by being a tool while taking decisions. It will also inspire them to overcome their daily problems.

Below is an extract taken from the first chapter of Hitopadesha. I have selected the forty-first couplet from this chapter. This is the third write-up of a series of total three articles that have been published in series.

“One’s intelligence is degraded by associating with uneducated people, remains the same by associating with equals, and is improved by associating with superiors.”

An Elucidation
Before I delve into the essence of the above statement let me throw some light on education. In the above statement ‘uneducated people’ do not necessarily mean people with low formal education. The meaning of the term ‘education’ has been used in its broader perspective. By ‘educated’ we mean people who are characterised by rich experience, unsurpassed learning and sublime culture. They are those people who live for fulfilling the five goals of life as discussed in my previous article (“The Four Goals of Life”, The Jiva Newsletter, Vol. 1, Issue 5, Sep. 2008). So, ‘uneducated people’ are those who do not exhibit any or all of the above qualities.

Mirror as a Metaphor for Man
A person’s mind reflects influence of people around it just like a mirror does nearby objects. A mirror, however, does not acquire the qualities of the objects it reflects; whereas the mind is influenced by the characteristics of persons with whom we associate. It is said, therefore, that a man is known by the company he keeps.

There is no denying the fact that man is indeed influenced by his company—be he a saint, a sinner, an ascetic or a thief. A man is like a cloth which
absorbs the dye it is soaked in.

In the epic Ramayana, Dvivida was a devotee of Lord Rama who fought against demon king Ravana’s army, yet later himself developed demoniac qualities due to the association of another demon Narakasura. As a result, in the other epic Mahabharata, Dvivida was killed by Lord Balarama for his abominable behaviour. In contrast, Narada was the son of a maidservant who became a great sage by holy association.

The mirror as a metaphor for the mind indicates that the effect of association is instantaneous, but people generally find it difficult to believe the almost instantaneous effect of association on the mind of another. Contemporary students of human nature are aware, however, that there is no exaggeration at all. For example, after studying human nature for more than fifty years, humanistic philosopher Erich Fromm made this observation about bad company:

“Bad company, on the other hand, is not only the company of merely trivial people but of evil, sadistic, destructive life-hostile people. But why, one might ask, is there danger in the company of bad people, unless they try to harm one in one form or another?

In order to answer this question it is necessary to recognise a law in human relations: There is no contact between human beings that does not affect both of them. No meeting between two people, no conversation between them, except perhaps the most casual one, leaves either one of them unchanged—even though the change may be too minimal to be recognisable except by its cumulative effect when such meetings are frequent.”

The Exception
The book Hitopadesha itself is a collection good instructions given by the learned man Narayana Pandit to the dull sons of King Dhavalchandra to turn them worthy of ruling the empire when they grew up. The king exhibited wisdom, therefore, in arranging Narayana Pandit for his dullards to have good association. One may argue that the boys’ association would negatively affect the learned brahmana (person with highest intelligence). While it is generally true that association influences both parties, there is no mutual exchange of influence in the case of one who is not weak-willed, but mentally strong and fixed in his own values. Otherwise ascetic saints would never grant their association to materialistic people. It is to be understood, therefore, that the learned brahmana would uplift the ignorant princes, while their company will have no ill effect on him.