Older versus New Generation

“Our ancestors - the older generations were liberal in their thoughts. But now ………….”

Every generation has thought this way. They always thought that the old, ancient times were better than now. But if we read the past history, we find many stories of envy and bitterness between some highly learned and devoted disciples of great Gurus or even between the great sages of past, we learn that this is the human nature. 
Here is one such instance from the Story of the great sage Adi Shankracharya, the chief exponent of ‘Advaita’ (Non-dualism) philosophy, who imparted the illusionary nature of the universe and taught to live beyond the body.
One day, Adi Shankracharya asked Sureshvar, one of his four senior disciples to write commentary on one of his works. The other three disciples, Padamapad, Totak and Hastamalik became very jealous of him thinking that they were not less intelligent. They even questioned the Guru why any of the others was not chosen. Adi Shankracharya said “If I cannot find consensus among just four of you, then how are we to spread Vedic thought all over India in one voice? Our ancestors were liberal in thought. That is how the Vedas were preserved but now I see it may not ………..” 
(Even Adi Shankracharya thought that the older times were better).

Then Shankracharya explained to them that experience is higher than the knowledge. That is the reason he chose Sureshvar. 
The disciples said they were not jealous, rather they also want to spread the message of their Guru, the Truth, enthusiastically.
Shankracharya, The Guru said “you all have different talents - Go and spread the Gyana in your own way but without envying others and becoming a hurdle in their way”.

There are several other similar stories about disputes between great ancient Hindu sages such as Vashisht Muni and Vishvamitra – disputes and rivalries between brothers and families of Sikh Gurus – disagreements and fights for the leadership immediately after Prophet Mohammad’s passing away in Islamic history etc. 

History shows that conflicts, jealousy and rivalries exist everywhere - may it be business, politics, kingdoms or corporations – or even families.
It proves that envy is a natural human trait - regardless of time; ancient or modern.  

“Olden times were much better” - 
is a common and perhaps most favorite phrase of the ‘middle-generation’ – that has seen some 'good-old' part of the previous times but lives among the new, modern generation and cannot cope with it. 

But simply talking about the old times and praising them is not going to change anything. We need to learn from the history and find out what was better in those days and why? Finding the reasons - why those times were better - is the most important and crucial thing if we want to bring any changes for the betterment.

                                                               ‘Rajan Sachdeva’