Stories of Panchatantra (for Men!) Part-1

For the last few months, I was reading the stories of Panchatantra {1st Tantra: Mithrabheda} in sanskrit prose and verse. Reading the book in its original form revealed many gems of wisdom which are usually lost in translation.
Please do not come to any premature conclusion that stories of Panchatantra are just for children. It contains many invaluable lessons for adults much more than children.
Here are few shlokas:
जल्पन्ति सार्धमन्येन पश्यन्त्यन्येन सविभ्रमा: ।
हृद्गतं चिन्तयन्त्यन्यं प्रिय: को नाम योषितां ॥
(Women while having romance with one man, will look to another man with love, remember another lover in her mind all at the same time. Thus no woman is completely devoted to anyone.)
Please don’t think that this one shloka cannot generalize women. Here is another shloka with similar meaning:
एकेन स्मितपाटलाधररुचो जल्पन्ति अनल्पाक्षरं
वीक्षन्ते अन्यमित: स्पुटत्कुमुदिनीफ़ुल्लोलसल्लोचनाः ।
दूरोदारचरित्रचित्रविभवं ध्यायन्ति चान्यं धिया
केनेत्थं परमार्थतोऽर्थवदिव प्रेमाऽस्ति वामाभ्रुवां ॥
(Women ,with their pleasing smile and light red lips, speak eloquently with one person, [at the same time], with their lotus eyes look discreetly to another man with passion [and at the same time] they will also fondly remember another hero or flame who is romantically popular with women. Thus, whether beautiful women have any complete love to anyone? ).
Well, if this is the attitude to romance, what would be their attitude in its climax?
Watch out for more updates in this blog.

A very useful blog

I have pleasure in suggesting an interesting blog

http://www.useful-toall.blogspot.com/

As the name itself suggests, this blog contains very useful tips to techies in particular and others in general. The blog has very interesting and novel features.Yet another reason why I liked the bolg, I must confess, is that the author Mr. Skanda happens to be my relative.

Well, the extent to which one's judgment can be clouded about relatives is very aptly described by Neelakantha Deekshitha in his classic Kalividambana Shathaka.

गृहिणी स्वजनं वक्ति शुष्काहारं मिताशनं

पति पक्शान्स्तु बहु आशीन क्शीरापां तस्करानपि

{The wife praises her relatives as moderate eaters but condemns the relatives of her husband as gluttons, milk suckers and even thieves.}

It took 41 long years....

.. to know the correct meaning and origin of the word Madhusoodana.
As providence has it, in this evening's Gita + sanskrit class, i not only got the definition and also the authority. Certainly the best gift I can hope for on my birthday and more so when earleir part of the day had more of miseries than joy!
मधुसूदनः = मधुं (तन्नामकं ) दैत्यं सूदयति इति मधुसूदनः
मधु + सूद + णिच (सवार्थे ) + ल्यु (अन)
सूदनं मधुदैत्यस्य यस्मात् स मधुसूदनः {ब्रह्मवैवर्त पुराणे -११०}

My Great Predecessors

MY GREAT PREDECESSORS [in 5 volumes] is a series of books authored by the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. This book is not just a compilation of play of the early greats of chess. Kasparov's biographies of these champions places them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chess board and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas.

One of the early greats of chess is American legend Paul Morphy [1837-1884]. At the end of his career, he abndoned chess, became a recluse with mental disorder.

The first official world chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz [1836-1900] ended his days in poverty and in a mental asylum on an island near New York. He went there by boat, clutching to his chest a small chess board imagining that he moved his pieces and struck down his opponents. He longed to play both with Lasker [his successor, 2nd world chess champion] and with God himself- and he was sure that he could win...

Well, how could these great intellectuals lost their thinking faculties before the physical body?

Explanation is found in classic Panchatantra stories:

आदो चित्ते ततः काये सतां संपद्यते ज़रा

असतां तू पुन: काये नैव चित्ते कदाचन
[Great people become old in their mind first and then in body. But ordinary people, even if become very old in body, will continue to be greedy and hence mind will not be old]

I admit that the translation has not been very effective. I will be grateful, if somebody can suggest better wordings. Further, errors have crept in the sanskrit words aadau and tu. Somehow, I am unable to rectify the same.