The free advice!

The one thing that you could get free, anytime, without a doubt is, advice. You could be a small kid wandering around, enjoying the beauty of life or a person with more days to his age than knowledge. Fear not, you would get at least a handful of them for sure.

Being on the receiving end of advice is the most hated job universally, while dishing them out seems to be the easiest and most preferred job for the majority of population.

Whenever I get myself lost in pondering over the concept of advising, this little story pops up somewhere in the process. Here’s that story.

Once a mother approached a person, considered as some sort of inspiring leader or guru, with her child. She asked him to tell her kid to reduce the sweets intake of the kid. The guru simply asked her to come and visit after a week. Though perplexed, she left silently and met him after a week.

He said to the kid, “Dear one, listen to your mom and don’t eat too much sweets. It is not good for your health” The mother wondered why he needed a week to say this. He could have said the same past week itself, is what she thought.

The guru answered the unasked question clear in her face. “Till last week, I too was eating way too many sweets and I hadn’t controlled myself on that simple desire. During this week, I reduced the sweets I eat and now I know, it is possible to control the desire. That is why I needed a week to know, what I’m going to advice is actually practical.”

This story eventually reminds me of this couplet.

சொல்லுதல் யார்க்கும் எளிய அரியவாம்
சொல்லிய வண்ணம் செயல். (664)

Transliteration:
solludhal yaarkkum eLiya ariyavaam
solliya vaNNam seyal

Translation:
Easy it is, to say; rare it is,
the ability to do what one says.
[Couplet 664]

After all that is said above, I’m not advising, but just wondering, How beautiful and peaceful the world would be, If everyone started following their own advices. There would be lot lesser absurd advices and lots more of near perfect people.

Still I could and mostly I would zip up my mouth when one of those free advice tries to spill out, when I can’t live through them myself. That is for two reasons. One, it’s not my place to say them without walking in your shoes. Two, I’ve got holes to be mended in my shoes and I’ll go attend to them, pronto.