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The attempt by a person to inject good sense into the hardened mind of an arrogant and self-sure person through quotations from great scriptures is more like an attempt by a man to confront and stop a violent dragon or a rogue elephant using the stalk of a lotus plant, cut and break a diamond rock with the tip of a Shireesh flower (the flower is very soft and its petals are like very tender hair-like protrusion.. from mimosa family generic name Albizzia lebbeck Benth) or, to fill the salty water of ocean with sweetness by pouring a drop of honey.

The great poet Bhartrihari is also a stark realist. He penned Neeti Shatak and Vairaagya Shatak perhaps with a view to instill some sense into the minds of the arrogant people with attractive versions containing numerous similes and vivid verbal pictures. But he conscious of his inability to educate the
adamant persons ..any amount of exhortations or entreaties or even harsher measures are not likely to make any impact on the mindset of the selfish and arrogant people who have decided not to lend their ears to any sensible advice.

It would be easy to wake a person who is sleeping but who can wake a persons who is only pretending that he is asleep?
However great people like Bhartrihari have created their immortal gems of advice out of their kindness and concern for their fellow beings . If such entreaties reach and make even the slightest change in the attitude of even a stray person. towards virtue the world would be better than it is.

Vyaalam connoted the imaginary fire spitting dragon of yore, and it can mean a rogue elephant also. Either way, brandishing of a stalk of lotus plant at them will not halt their progress.

The Shireesh flower is noted for its extreme softness (great poets have attempted to compare this softness with the delicate physical structure of heavenly beauties) and the diamond and similar gems are famous for their toughness. Even very tough alloys sometimes fail to cut the diamonds. How can a hair of a tender flower cause any scratch on such hard surface? Similarly attempt to bring sweetness to the waters of the ocean can be only ridiculous.

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