Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Power and age

Sir, — Sage Uddalaka decided to gift away all his possessions with the objective of winning heavenly life. The gifts included cows were too old and weak even to walk and drink water, let alone munch grass and give milk. The sage's son, Nachiketa, finding that such useless gifts would not win heavenly life for his father but only life in hell tried to dissuade him from gifting such cows.

The father was in no mood to listen to the entreaties of Nachiketa and in anger banished the boy to the abode of Yama. So goes the Upanishadic story.

Most of our aged politicians in public life are verily the Upanishadic cows. They would do well to make way for young leaders as done by the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, and his colleagues. But our politicians will not emulate the Chinese example.

G. Jagannathan,
Dharmapuri, T.N.

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