I never thought that monkeys can be wise! Wise Monkeys? My foot! That is a different story, anyway! The three monkeys were first seen in a 17th century carving by Hidari Jingoro. One can see these carvings on the doorway in the Toshogu Shrine, Nikko, Japan. The three monkeys suddenly became famous, found themselves in paintings and advertisement materials. For Mahatma Gandhi they represented an important message. These days we often find them in the emoji’s. By the way, what do these 3 monkeys mean? The three wise monkeys represent some of the principles in the Confucius Code of Conduct from the Analects or the sayings of Confucius.
“Look not at what is contrary to propriety;
Listen not to what is contrary to propriety;
Speak not what is contrary to propriety
Make no movement which is contrary to propriety”
In monkeys we have shortened the saying to see no evil; Hear no evil; and Speak no evil. I feel that statement ‘see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil’ does not offer anything great and is not a great life learning. At places I do find the fourth monkey with his arms crossed and hands bucked up in his armpits to indicate – Do no evil. In the age of instant communication a social media, I wish to represent these three monkeys to mean the following: Be careful what you consume:
“What you Watch
What you Speak and
What you Hear”.
The social media became the graveyard of the generation Alpha & generation Beta – or the more materialistic & success-oriented generations that made the 3 monkeys to mean:
See no Good,
Hear no Good and
Say no good.
Whatever may be the interpretation (I can off hand give 100 more!) the three monkeys do not have the meaning as assigned by Mahatma Gandhi, today.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
