Evaluate Slowly, Dispassionately

Afew days ago, I read Master Choa Kok Sui’s perceptive advice: ‘Remember, anybody can say anything. Anybody can write anything. Practise discernment or intelligent evaluation.’ These are truly golden words that are ever-relevant. One must never get worked up by what someone says about him or just about a general situation. We should be discerning and perspicuous to get to the root of what someone says or writes. An evolved soul never reacts. It only discerns and examines from all angles.

The Anekantvad, that is Pluralism, Non-absolutism, states that aperson must use his mind without getting agitated. This is aql-e-saleem or zahaanat, perspicuity, in Arabic. The Buddha called it Samyak Sthitam, integrated stoicism, in Pali. Every individual is endowed with the power of perception, analysis, introspection, evaluation and finally evolution. By putting them together, we must come to a conclusion. Intelligent evaluation also entails the holistic analysis of an issue and its contextualisation.

Why something was said or written in which context must be clear to us. Without the contextual evaluation, we can and should never jump to any conclusion. It’ll then be incomplete and abortive.


The old English proverb — ‘You don’t grudge when you properly judge’ — is forever true. Judge, evaluate, calculate and then postulate. One, therefore, must act as a drashta, a silent spectator. And to be a drashta is not being indifferent. A drashta is a silent observer. He’s a disenchanted onlooker, a seer to be precise.