The Happy Sage

Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, TN 1/13/2013 Review: What is Atma? Important lessons of the Gita? Review Proverbs from previous class Moral of the “Donkey in the Well” story? Wisdom Story: The three filters of Socrates In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?” “Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?” “Well, no,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…” “All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now, let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?” “Umm, no, on the contrary…” “So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about my friend, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left—the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?” “No, not really.” “Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?” Page 1 of 2 Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, TN 1/13/2013 Mahabharata (Part 13): Bheeshma’s defeat: Bheeshma was a tremendous warrior, killing Pandava soldiers by the thousands. In spite their best efforts, the day ended with heavy losses for the Pandavas. At night, Yudhishthira called a meeting of army commander Dhrishtadyumna and his brothers. They planned a new strategy and on the following day Bheeshma could not make as much progress. Duryodhana expected Bheeshma to win the war within a few days. Instead, the Kaurava army was losing ground, as Bheeshma was held firmly by Arjuna. The war raged for several days and, finally, Duryodhana lost his patience. He taunted Bheeshma as being too old to fight a war. Bheeshma responded that the Pandavas were blessed with divine powers and that, under the circumstances, he was doing his best. He promised to conclude the war in the next few days or to quit the battlefield. By the tenth day of battle, there seemed no end in sight. The Pandavas were worried. At the rate that they were losing soldiers, they would not be able to hold out too long against Bheeshma. Bheeshma was blessed with the power to choose his time of death hence he was practically invincible. When the Pandavas were about to give up, Krishna came up with a plan. Krishna knew that Bheeshma would not fight Shikhandi under any circumstances, because he was aware that Shikhandi was the rebirth of Princess Amba. Krishna knew Bheeshma’s weakness and wanted to take advantage of this. So he asked Arjuna to keep Shikhandi in front of the chariot while fighting with Bheeshma. This would stop Bheeshma, and Arjuna could take this opportunity to let loose a volley of arrows from behind Shikhandi. The plan worked and Bheeshma fell on a bed of arrows. That was the tenth day of war. The fighting stopped so that all could pay respects to a hero of all times. As he fell to the ground, Bheeshma requested Arjuna to raise his head. Arjuna shot an arrow to give him the headrest. When Bheeshma asked for water to drink, Arjuna shot an arrow into the ground and water gushed out to quench Bheeshma’s thirst. Even Karna came to pay respect to the hero of heroes, grandfather Bheeshma, and sought his blessing. Page 2 of 2 .

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