Chanakya Neeti: Chapter 12

The lines stated below contain the ideas mentioned in the 12th chapter of Chanakya Neeti.  Have a look:

Such home is endowed with divine favor of God; where sons & daughter obey orders, the housewife is sweet-tongued, family members are hardworking, the money is earned with honesty and is sufficient to fulfill their needs, food is in surplus, servants are faithful, where guests are welcomed and often visited by learned spiritual teachers.

O king, a person who donates a little of his earning to deserving Brahmin (with full-time involvement in spreading enlightenment in the society), attracts multiple amounts of his donation in different ways by the grace of almighty God.

The world is maintained by good people who are polite and helpful to their near ones, people who are compassionate to deserving fellows, who show no mercy to wicked, face a powerful opponent with bravery, who show respect to learned scholars,  show reverence to parent and guru, and who are good at tackling women in a wise manner instead of putting complete trust in them.

Chanakya compares such man to Jackal and calls him the lowliest; whose hands do not come forward for charity, ears do not listen to the sermons in holy scriptures, eyes never focus on saints, legs do not move on the path of pilgrimage, who earn money by unjust means, and who do not take care of their parent or guru. 

Fate is a powerful component of life. Chanakya expresses his opinion by giving the following examples:

• You cannot blame spring for taking away the leaves from a Karel tree. (A rare leafless tree)
• An owl cannot see in daylight, and none can be blamed for this.
• In the same manner, you cannot blame the cloud if the raindrop does not fall in the open beak of Chatak bird. (As per mythology Chatak bird only drinks the rain drops that fall at the time of Swati Nakshatra. For this, it opens its beak and waits for a drop to fall in it.)  

[Take note that those lines don’t say that destiny is everything.  The message is that sometimes in spite of all care, the things may go wrong. One must accept reality with an open heart. ]

A reasonable person can inculcate goodness in a wrong person, but the badness of a bad is unlikely to be transferred in the nature of a good person. The fragrance of a flower might leave its effect on the soil beneath. but the flower never attains the dirty smell from the ground.

[In another verse of Chanakya Neeti, it has been said that you cannot turn a real wicked to some nice person. The thing to be noted is that both statements are correct in their contexts]

Beholding a sadhu is like an instant pilgrimage for which you don’t even require visiting a holy place. 

  A traveler goes to a new city (a bad town) where he asks following questions to a man and receives following replies.

1.  Who is greatest in your village?  The man replied that the ‘Toody’ trees is greatest as all men fall on the ground after  consuming its milky intoxicant.  
2. Who performs  greatest charity? … The  Washerman takes clothes of men in morning and returns those in evening. [no charity]
3.  Who is most clever? … all men consider themselves as clever and are engaged in cheating one another for money and women.
4. … And how do you survive at such place?  The man says … I am just like an insect who is born in filth, lives in it, and finally dies in filth.

* The passage above is a satire stating the condition of a state without law & order, where people drink, cheat, do no charity, and have adapted themselves to such situations.

Once a divine saint was asked about his family. He replied that his mother is truth, knowledge is his master, religion is his brother, kindness is his sister, peace is his wife, and tolerance is his son.

Finding a green pasture is a festival for the cow, A brahmin’s festival is to receive an invitation for a meal, and the recovery of her husband is the festival for a woman, but for me, the festival is to have faith in God.

A person who considers women of others as mother, the wealth of others as dirt, and one who sees his own soul in all living creatures; is the person who has really found the truth.

One who always abides by religion, is a polite speaker, is always interested in acts of charity, is/has a faithful friend, show respect to any good advice, respects guru, is full of knowledge, and has faith in almighty is a noble soul for sure.

O Lord Rama, there is no point in comparing you with anyone. [a simple summary for a longer verse ]

One must learn decency from princes, speech from scholars, the art of bluffing from gamblers, and cunningness from a woman.

One who overspends money without planning, he who provokes the stronger opponent and one who desires a relationship with all kinds of women will meet quick destruction.

One must not worry about meals and must perform his duties. It is God who will arrange food for you.  [Something closely related to Karma Theory of Bhagavad Gita. Action is supreme, and a person devoted to his duty is unlikely to face such trouble. The line has nothing to do with inaction]

A pitcher can be filled drop-by-drop, and so is the case with your wealth.

A person with evil nature is unlikely to change even after gaining maturity. So is the case with a bitter pumpkin that does not taste sweet even upon ripening. [A class of such persons does exist.]

I would like to make it clear that as the author of this post, I have tried my best to bring irrefutable facts as per my knowledge & belief. Sometimes it is not possible to present the very-exact idea due to language differences. Still, I hope that you enjoyed it. If you have a query, suggestion, or complaint, then please let me know by commenting.

 Chanakya Niti: Chapter 11       Chapter 13.