Takeaways from Chanakya Neeti

I have been reading Chanakya Neeti since some time now. For those of you who do not know, Chanakya was the advisor of Chandragupta Maurya, the first ruler of a united India. In fact, it was Chanakya's strategical planning that enabled Chandragupta to become the ruler. Chanakya Neeti consists of 'Chanakya - sutras', shlokas that together explain the principles one must follow to live an ideal worldly life. He is one of those ancient Indian philosophers whose philosophy is extremely practical and never advocates blind faith in religion. The reading of Chanakya Neeti, as opposed to reading Bhagwad Gita(or many other Indian philosophical works), does not require full faith in either the author or God.

Although most of his sayings are said to be valid even today, I did not agree with his absurd ideas about women. The way the subject of women has been dealt with reflects how little was known about them. They have been portrayed as mysterious creatures, capable of excelling in both goodness and evil, both kindness and cruelty.

I can't exactly blame him for for embracing the idea of casteism, but I did expect better from a great philosopher like him. Except for these 2 objections, I did find most of the Sutras relevant and they sounded like good advice.

I picked up a Sanskrit version, with translations of each sutra in Hindi. Altohugh I do not have much respect for this translator (Ashwin Parashar), the translations come to my aid when I don't know the meaning of a particular word in the shloka.

Warning : If you decide to use the same translation (I bought this from Flipkart), note that not all of the above author's translations are correct.

So I decided to write here some of the sutras I really liked and found relevant. Expect more of these to come, but here's the first.

Chapter 3, Sutra 20

धर्मार्थकाममोक्षेशु यास्यकोsपि न विद्यते |

जन्म जन्मानि मर्त्येषु मरणं तस्य केवलम् ||

One who pursues neither of Dharm(religious duty), Arth(money), Kaam(worldly pleasures) and Moksha(salvation) during his life, is as good as dead, whether or not he lives.

This sutra deals with the important question of 'the purpose of life'. Although it does not answer this question, it says that pursuing something is necessary for living a life.