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He whose mind is not steady doesn’t get happiness either amongst the people or in the loneliness of the jungle. When lonely he longs for company and when in company he yearns for loneliness.
Those who are signed by the mundane fare get solace only under three conditions staying with the son, with the wife or in the company of the noble person. [It means a persons tired and dwadled by the mundane duties gets solace in the company of his family or of the noble gentle persons. Such a company rejuvenates his exhausted physique and over worked mind.]
Despite having a well endowed physique; beauty charms and belonging to a high and big family if a man is uneducated or ignorant, he looks as useless and unimpressive as the kinshuk (palaash) flowers having only colour but no fragrance.
If one craves for comfort, then he should drop the idea of studying and if one wants to study sincerely then he should stop craving for comfort. One cannot get comfort and education simultaneously.
A student desirous of getting education must shun the following right activities— sexual intercourse, gratification of the tongue, showing anger and greed, caring for personal beautification, moving about the fair and fate for entertainment, excessive sleeping and indulging in anything excessively. [In short Chanakya says that for getting education the student must perform a rigorous penance complete with all the severe austerities. He who tries to get education in comfort fails to get it in reality and vice versa.]
Do not speak much
do not eat much
do not sleep much
do not gamble
do not desire for sexual intercourse
Like one digs the ground deep by a mattock to bring out water, so should a student attempt to get knowledge from one’s Guru. [One has to toil very hard to get water from the depth of earth. Chanakya says that the same way a student should toil and render strenuous service to his Guru to get knowledge from him.
He who tries to get knowledge only by reading books and not through the grace of a Guru deserves the position in a society due only to a woman impregnated through an illegal relationship. [A strong upholder of the Guru-Shishya tradition, Chanakya considers that to be no knowledge at all which is received without the Guru’s teaching. He asserts, and very rightly so, that such a knowledge would be incomplete and hence damaging.]
a rich-man with huge property would not command greater respect, if he is not virtuous or free from blemish, than the person having much less money or riches but more virtuous and untainted by any blemish.]
Truth is my mother, knowledge is father, my Dharma is my brother, compassion my friend, peace is my wife and forgiveness is my son. These six virtues are my real relations, the rest are all false!
Most certainly one good virtue haloes every other defect.
If others praise even the virtueless person, he may acquire some status, but even if Indra (the lord of the gods) starts praising his own virtues he will be little his stature.
if the fools do not give respect to the virtues, it is they who suffer the loss not the virtues, which have many admirers.]
the great men do not attach much importance to the riches but as they grow rich, they become more and more submissive and humble.]
He who has sweet voice, who worships the gods and keeps the brahmans satisfied and who takes interest in giving alms is actually a divine soul in this mundane realm. He is a great man who has all these four qualities.
The sumeru Mountain may be displaced from its position at the end of an epoch or all the seven seas may be disturbed at the end of a Kalp [a very big unit of time containing twenty seven cycles of the epochs (yugs), each containing four yugas : Satya, Treta, Dwapar and Kaliyug] but the great noble men never waver from their chosen path.
Determination is the key
The mean aspire only for wealth, the mediocre yearn for wealth and honour both while the nobles care only for honour. The real treasure of great men is only honour.
great men never waste their time and study these epics to derive lessons from them and mend their ways accordingly. They always are in the pursuit of knowledge.]
A good company generates the noble elements in the nature of the wicked but a bad or wicked company does not generate wickedness in the noble person. It is only the soil, which accepts the fragrance of flowers and not the fragrance, which refuses to accept the odour of the soil.
high company yields noble benefits and the poor association gives only inferior things.]
One must save money for the evil days. It is not that the distress won’t touch the rich people. Riches are by nature fickle and even the large, accumulated wealth can be destroyed in a trice.
Where the dunces are not honoured, where the eatables are available in abundance, where the husband and wife do not quarrel with each other – the Goddess Lakshmi (or good luck) comes in that house on her own.
He who has money has many friends, many relations and he is also deemed a great man and a scholar.
Sharukh khan's philosophy
riches should be spent in the welfare of the virtuous who help the society and they should neither be amassed in a miserly way nor spent extravagantly.]
All the riches and prosperity shun those person including even Lord Vishnu if he is also one of those who wear dirty clothes; who have filthy teeth; who are glutton; who speak harsh language and who continue to sleep even after the sun rise.
To be rich and prosperous one must be active and clean.]
if a person is poor and moneyless; he had better stay in a jungle suffering the most wild conditions rather than stay as a pauper among his relations.]
He who is aware of the future troubles and possesses sharp intelligence remains happy. In contradistinction to this stage, he who remains inactive, waiting for the good days to come destroys his own life. [A far-sighted and intelligent person is able to tackle the troubles far more efficiently than that fatalist sluggard who eventually gets destroyed by his lack of foresight and inactivity.]
A meat-eater, a wine-taker and a fool are animals in the human form. The earth is getting distressed by their weight.
the town where no wise, intelligent, noble or scholarly person dwell, where people may not be deft and efficient but expert in looting others and each vying with others in bad manners and roguery, should be considered just a pile of filth or a gutter and whose citizens just the herd of insects.]
That man who fails to achieve even one of the four aims of life, viz. Dharma (faith in his belief), Artha (riches which provide meaning to life), Kaam (Fulfilment of the desires), and Moksha (satiation of all wants) is verily born only for dying (as his life is just a waste).
[A man doing some noble deeds and living for a very short duration is more welcome in this world than a man living for centuries but working against the welfare of all.]
He who fails to achieve even one of the four aims of life: Dharm, Artha, Kaam and Moksha has his life as useless as breast below the neck of the goat (which has no purpose, and is just useless).
Only he survives who is virtuous; only he lives who is firm in his Dharma. He who is devoid of virtues and faith (Dharma) is existing in vain. (Virtues and firmness in faith make life meaningful. Those who lack these qualities are wasting their life.]
Barber among men; the crow among birds; the jackal among the four legged beasts; and the female gradener among the women is cunning.
Between the wicked and the snake, the snake is less evil because it stings once while the wicked stings on every step. [Snake would sting rarely and once but the wicked would sting repeatedly and even most unobstrusively. Hence the wicked is more dangerous than even a snake.]
The place of poison in a snake is the tooth, in a fly the head, in a scorpion the tail but the wicked has poison in his entire body.
The brahmans become pleased with food, the peacocks by hearing the thunder of the clouds, the noble by seeing other’s prosprity and the wicked by witnessing other’s distress.
No method can trun a wicked into a noble person like as no quantity of milk and ghee can turn the neem tree sweet. [The basic nature can’t be altered.]
The wicked burns with the fire of jealousy seeing the prosperity of others. Since he cannot progress (due to his shortcomings), he starts deriding others. [He who is jealous at other’s prosperity is basically an incompetent person. Knowing his shortcomings he realises that he can’t achieve what others have done. But, his wicked nature refuses to admit anyone’s superiority. So he starts finding faults and deriding others to mentally efface the element of their superiority, only to assert his parity. It is a known psychological truth which Chanakya had opined milleniums ago, but it is still very
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one shouldn’t stay in the land inhabited by the wicked.]
There are only two ways the wicked and the thorns should be dealt with: crush them by your shoes or go away from them. [Meaning either smash them to bits or have no contact with them. They shouldn’t be dealt with leniently.]
An elephant is kept under control by a goad, the horse by hand, the animals with horns by hand or stick and the wicked by a sword (or any Such weapon). [The emphasis is again on being ruthless in our dealing with the wicked.]
Meet obligation with obligation, voilence with vengeance and wicked with wickedness. There is no harm in acting foully with the foul persons.
Tit for tat
How are the times? Who is a friend? What type of land is this? What is the income and what is the expenditure? What am I and how much power I really possess?–all these questions one must keep asking oneself. [Before entering into any venture, we must assess our position minutely. Most of the failures are caused by assessing only our strengths and not our weaknesses. We must weigh the pros and cons fully before doing anything. Only then can we expect successful results.]
They who treat their own people with love; others with kindness; who are ruthless to the wicked; straight forward to the noble; indifferent to the fool; respectful to the scholars; who take on their enemey with bravery and pay obeisance to the Gurus; who are not infatuated to the woman–they are known as great men. [In this quatrain, Chanakya has very succinctly sums up the ideal behaviour of a man with his society. Quid pro quo is the basic idea behind this behaviour.]
Food is that which is left over by the brahmans after having it to their bellyful; love is consideration for others; wisdom is that which prevents one from committing sin and noble religious act (Dharma) is that doing which one doesn’t feel arrogance.
One should not grieve for the past and worry for the future. The wise care for the present and chart their life’s course accordingly. [Care for the present sets right not only the past but also the future. The wise don’t cry on the split milk nor worry for the future.]
Yudhisthar says that if you aim at other’s benefit, your own selfish end would also be served in the process.]
Speak sweet before someone you expect a favour from. When the fowler spots a deer he sings a mellifluous song before killing it.
Staying close to the king, fire, the Guru and woman yield disastrous result, but staying far away from them do not produce any good result either. So, we must chose the mean position, i.e. we shouldn’t be very far off from or very near to them. [Proximity with the king might give some occasional benefit but the situation would expose one to the royal wrath consequence might be disastrous. The same is true with fire, woman and the Guru.]
