The Wisdom of Life

The Wisdom of Life What is your advice to parents of young children? T he advice is that you should not favour your children at all. They should be given a chance of self-development. If they fall, let them fall and get back on their feet. I had met a Parsi in Pune about whom I learnt that he once made his child stand on the table and asked him to come. When the child leaped towards his father, he moved behind and the child fell down. Then he said to his son, ‘Do not trust anyone; not even your father. Trust your own abilities.’ This is a realistic approach to parenthood. Why is it so difficult to accept defeat? I t is difficult because people are not ready to accept the role of the law of nature in deciding a result, be it success or failure. Man is often governed by his ego and whims, which makes him a case of failure. The logo of The Times of India bears the following inscription, ‘Let truth prevail’. On the same lines I would say in real life, the principle to be followed is: ‘Let the law of nature prevail’. If, however, we desire that our ego prevails, it would be hard for us to accept failure and draw a positive lesson from it. On the contrary, if we accept our shortcomings, not only are we able to accept failure but also work towards self-improvement. If someone misuses freedom beyond a limit, we must react, else we would be taken for granted. Reaction checks the continued misuse of freedom — what is your opinion on this? T he misunderstanding here is that reaction ‘checks’ the misuse of freedom, whereas in reality, reaction only aggravates the situation and this leads to the development of a chain reaction. In the tribal age, a vicious cycle of revenge used to get created and a chain reaction used to continue for hundreds of years leading to bloodshed and in-fighting. We should think of what options we have and should unilaterally exercise patience. I once met a person who paid me a visit from Basti, UP. He had obtained a license and bought a lorry. The minister of his area saw that it was very useful and parked the lorry in his own house as the