Ṭiṭṭibhaka Upākhyāna

This is a short teaching account in the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata (Chapter 114), in the Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva. Bhīshma teaches Yudhishṭhira, with the ṭiṭṭibha (a plover or lapwing bird) as the image, how a person of learning and dignity should act when base people slander and abuse him. The main teaching is that the wise person bears such abuse with upekshā (calm disregard). To answer back is to sink to the slanderer’s level, and the slanderer’s own anger comes back to harm him.

The question

Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma: what should a vidvān (a learned person) do when a mūrkha (a fool), who is also bold and sharp of tongue, slanders and abuses him? And what should a gentle person do when a harsh one attacks him with words?

Bhīshma’s answer

Bhīshma answers that a person of great understanding should always bear the abuse of one who is alpabuddhi, of small understanding. This is the steady rule. He then explains how it works.

The anger returns to the slanderer. A person who bears the abuse of an angry man without answering in anger gains puṇya (merit). The anger of the slanderer stays with the slanderer. He keeps pouring his krodha (anger) on himself.

The ṭiṭṭibha image. The slanderer should be treated like a ṭiṭṭibha crying without end, or like a sick person moaning. One simply pays no heed. Such a person gains no loka by his slander and gains no benefit. He ends up as the object of everyone’s dvesha (hatred) in the world.

He shows himself. A base person who slanders a great one in a public assembly and is proud of it only shows his own pāpakarmā (evil nature). He thinks he is praising himself, but the listeners see only his own fall. He is like a peacock showing its feathers, which also shows what is underneath. Without meaning to, he lays bare what he should hide.

The danger of answering. A vivekavān (a discerning person) who tries to answer such a man or pay him back is like a donkey rolling in a heap of ash. He only covers himself in dirt. He falls into the slanderer’s world. The sthirabuddhis, those of steady understanding, look down on this.

The dog-meat saying. A person of discernment should throw such a base person away. He is a “human dog”, one who walks the paths of the spineless, and whose only vrata (vow) is to hold a grudge. Wise people throw such a man away as they would throw away dog-meat.

What the base person cannot really do. When a pāpakarmī‘s only action is vāk (speech), all his work is vāk-mātra, words only. Because the action is only in words, the result he wants, harm to the great person, does not happen. The blow of words does not strike.

The last instruction. When such a person is slandering, give him no reply. Do not grieve because he spoke so to you. The noble do not quarrel with the lowly.

The slanderer and the king

The instruction is given in the Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, the part of the Mahābhārata on a king’s duty. The slanderer, called pāpabuddhi, is the one who praises a man to his face and insults him in private. He is the “wolf in the body of a man”. He roams like a mad elephant growling at a real one. He must be seen for what he is, named, and then firmly ignored.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, Chapter 114