Blemishless?

You know, it's a rather tempting thing for people to think that a leader is someone who can do no wrong. Leaders, too, would love to consider someone - a friend, a follower or a trusted adviser - who can be trusted to always be right in what they say. It is such a stress to always to assessing issues, weighing one person's opinion versus another's and so on. Much easier to be able to vest the burden of your decision-making on the judgment of one person and leave it at that.

Tiru, though, does not allow you that luxury. Here he goes with his couplet against the idea: 

Ariya kattru Aasattraar kannum theriumkaal inmain aridhe veliru - Tirukkural

Even he who is learned in even the rare scriptures and is free from faults, when carefully examined, will not prove totally free of ignorance - Loose Translation

There you go. Essentially, perfection is not given to mortals. The point that Tiru is making here is not merely that. It is, quite likely, a cautionary statement about the fact that the most learned and trustworthy of your advisers can be wrong at times.

Which, essentially, means that you SHOULD take advice from multiple sources anyway and not rely on only one adviser. IF, perchance, he IS the only person who can advise you on a certain issue, you SHOULD filter even his advice through your own judgment. AND, when you have acted on the advice, you need to still take routine feedback on the results of the actions and be prepared to change course if necessary. In other words, no matter how much you trust the adviser, your attitude cannot be one of taking a decision with certainty merely because of who you got you advice from; you CAN take the decision in accordance to the advice but you should also take all the precautions that you would take for a decision taken in uncertain circumstances.

The same applies if YOU are the follower. Blind obedience to a leader can lead to the downfall of both you and your leader. More often than not, only you! Even your leader, no matter how great, can be wrong at times and it behooves you to be aware of the possibility.

Perfection is not given to mortals, yes. But you CAN be a perfect idiot especially when you trust someone else to BE perfect!