10^th July 2021 – Over the past few centuries, the meaning of the word ‘Pandit’ has corrupted. It has wrongly been associated with person’s caste at birth, rather than the characteristics of the individual. The connotation of the word is now found to be tainted. Strange is the fact that English has, in fact, picked up a better meaning of the word. As per Oxford dictionary, ‘pandit’ is a person who knows a lot about a particular subject and who often talks about it in public. So, one could be a pandit in politics, economics, sociology, technology and many more subjects.

Let us look at what ‘Vidur Niti’ talks about being a ‘pandit’. Mahatma Vidur has explained in detail about the qualities which a person must possess to be called a ‘pandit’. Some of those are as below.

1. one who does good deeds and stay away from the bad ones is a pandit;
2. one whose actions are free of anger, greed, pride, shame and selfishness is a pandit;
3. whose actions do not get interrupted by seasons of the year, fear or love, richness or poverty, is a pandit;
4. one who does not regret the past and does not get afraid in tough times, is a pandit;
5. one who starts his work with determination, does not stop in-between, does not waste time and keeps his mind under control, is a pandit;
6. one who works for the greater good and betterment of others and does not criticize the other good people around, is a pandit;
7. one who is logical and rational, is a pandit;

It is time to move beyond the namesake and move to the real name of the word ‘pandit’.