Whose Advice Shapes Your Decision

1:49·1080p·Hindi audio, English subtitles

“In other words, before accepting anyone's suggestion or advice, is it not first necessary to establish Dharma within one's own heart?”

Krishna, in this teaching

About this teaching

Drawn from the teaching's own words — auto-transcribed and translated. The full transcript is further down.

The questions this teaching puts

So then, is our future the fruit of another's advice, another's suggestion?
Is our whole life the result of another's intellect?
Have we ever considered this?

Asked in the teaching itself, in its own words — not a summary.

Chapter 9 — Whose Advice Shapes Your Decision

Chapter 9 of 35 — a single teaching, 2 min in total.

Whose counsel you take, and what it makes of you.

Dhritarashtra is the epic's standing example. He has Vidura beside him — a counsellor of unusual clarity, and one who is never wrong about Duryodhana — and he has Shakuni, who tells him what he already wants. He listens to Shakuni. The blindness the story gives him is physical, and every reader is invited to notice it is not only that.

The Mahabharat is unusually interested in the fact that advice is chosen. Nobody in it lacks a wise voice within earshot; what separates its ruined characters from its surviving ones is which voice they let themselves be persuaded by.

What the Mahabharat counsels

On this theme in general — not a summary of this clip.

✓Notice when you are shopping for agreement rather than for counsel.
✓Weigh advice by the adviser's stake in the outcome, not by how it lands.

→Keeping the honest voice close and never acting on it, as Dhritarashtra did with Vidura.

Background on the theme of this chapter, not a summary of this particular clip. Watch it for what Krishna actually says.

Transcript

English translation

In the moment of decision we always take as our ground someone else's suggestion, information, counsel, or advice — and the foundation of our future rests upon the decision we make today. So then, is our future the fruit of another's advice, another's suggestion? Is our whole life the result of another's intellect? Have we ever considered this? It is the experience of us all that different people give different counsel in one and the same situation. The devotee standing in the temple says that one should give in charity; the thief says that if the chance arises, one should steal the ornaments from this very idol. A heart full of Dharma gives its counsel in Dharma, and a heart full of unrighteousness (Adharma) gives the counsel of Adharma. It is the acceptance of counsel rooted in Dharma that carries a person toward happiness — yet accepting such counsel becomes possible only when there is Dharma within one's own heart. In other words, before accepting anyone's suggestion or advice, is it not first necessary to establish Dharma within one's own heart? Reflect on it yourself.

हिन्दी — as spoken

निर्णे के ख्षण में हम सदा हैं किसी अन्य के सुझाव, सूचना, मंत्रना या परामर्श को आधार बनाते हैं और हमारे भविष्य का आधार हमारे आज दिये गए निर्णे के उपर होता है तो क्या हमारा भविश्य किसी अन्ने के परामर्श, किसी अन्ने के सुझाव का फल है क्या हमारा संपून जीवन किसी अन्ने की बुद्धी का परिणाम क्या हमने कभी विचार किया है सबका आनुभव है कि भिन भिन लोग एक ही स्थिती में भिन भिन परामर्च देते हैं मंदिर में खड़ा भक्त कहता है कि दान करना चाही और चोर कहता है यदि अफसर मिले तो इस मूर्ती के शिंगार चुरा धर्म से भरा रिदे धर्म मैं सुझाव देता है और अधर्म से भरा रिदे अधर्म का परामर्च देता है धर्म में सुझाव का स्विकार ही मनुष्य को सुख की और ले जाता है किन्तु ऐसे परामर्च का स्विकार करना तभी संभव होता है जब रिदे में धर्म होता है अर्थात किसी का सुझाव अथवा परामर्श विकार करने से पूर स्वयं अपने रुदे में धर्म को सापित करना क्या आवश्यक नहीं स्वयं विचार कीजिए

Auto-transcribed from the audio; lightly imperfect on Sanskrit names and terms.

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