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Two kinds of teachers: Some impart practical knowledge while others instill morals & ethics
Two kinds of teachers: Some impart practical knowledge while others instill morals & ethics
In the Ramayana, Ram is educated by two teachers: Vasistha and Vishwamitra. And these two teachers are as different from each other as day and night. Vasishtha is one of the primal seven sages. He is associated with Vedic wisdom. After Ram completes his study, he travels around the world and returns disillusioned by the illusory nature of the world, uninterested in worldly life. Alarmed, his father Dasharatha sends for Vasistha who declares that this is a good thing for Ram is now ready to receive the ultimate wisdom of the Vedas. Then follows, for 21 days, narration known as the Yoga Vasistha in the king's court, after which an enlightened Ram is at peace with worldly life having understood the true nature of reality. One of the lessons he learns is not to mistake correlation with causality: just because a coconut falls from a tree when a crow alights on it does not mean the crow is the cause and the falling of the fruit is the effect. We often mistake events that may be coincidence to be causality and this is the cause of much sorrow in the world. Another lesson is how in turbulent waters the moon has many reflections just as in turbulent minds we see many versions of reality and not the truth.
Vishwamitra, however, is a very different kind of teacher. Born a king, he is a great warrior before he decides to become a sage. He drags Ram into the forest, ignoring Dasharatha's protests. There he makes Ram kill the rakshasa demon lady, Tadaka, who disturbs his yagna. He then makes Ram bring back to life Ahalya, the wife of Rishi Gautama, who had been turned into stone on charge of adultery. Thus he makes Ram take life in one incident and give life in another. He tells Ram stories of his gre ..
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