Nov 10, 2008 12:25 PM
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With this review, I enter the world of Book Reviewers.
One has heard that God takes with hand and gives with the other. How true it is !! He didn’t give any beauty and looks to Chanakya but gave him intelligence, creativity, statesmanship. He is the best administrator to be born to-date. He was the greatest strategist of his time. His hard labour, perseverance and guidance bore fruit to Chandra Gupta Maurya became the Emperor. Chanakya served as his Prime Minister and he is known for his great wisdom, far-sightedness, power of persuasion, manipulation and spreading dissension. I think maybe the British followed his strategy of Divide and Rule. He was also known as a cunning and crafty person, he ruled over others through his intelligence, the known greatest weapon which could cause untold destruction without lifting a finger.
The Complete Chanakya Neeti translated by Vishwamitra Sharma, is such a book which instructs a person to follow a disciplined and virtuous life, perform his religious obligations, keep away from greed, earn wealth lawfully, keep away from bad company and to be worldly-wise. Until, I read this book I was not aware that Chanakya showed a tendency towards being a Misogynist. The translator of the book claimed that there was absence of Printing Technology and Quality Control in those times, so the Copiers might have added something of their own to take revenge or maybe as the women were treated worst than dirt in olden times, Chanakya must have subscribed to those views himself. Those who strongly believe in Women’s Lib please keep away from this book.
The book is divided into 17 chapters, each chapter has several shlokas. The shlokas are written in Sanskrit, accompanied by a translation in English followed by a brief explanation of the same. I found that the shlokas are in no particular order, no continuity in any chapter just included haphazardly in each chapter. At the end of each chapter, there is a summary of the entire chapter.
The book is Copyrighted so can’t produce any thing from it. I don’t understand Sanskrit, so can’t say anything about the authenticity of the translation.
Here is the chapter wise summary in my own words or rather how I interpreted it.
Chap 1:He advises to live in a place which provides basic necessities of life. He stresses one keep away from bad company, to save for bad times and self preservation comes foremost in his list.
Chap 2:In this chapter he advises against revelation of one’s secrets, stresses on women being faithful to her husband, sons to obey their parents and parents to groom their children through education. He believes in friendships between equals.
Chap 3:He says nature has made us imperfect, avoid finding faults in others. In one of the shlokas, he mentions, that introduce your enemy to some fatal addiction. Isn’t this true in present times too? He emphasizes one to keep his dignity in times of provocation. He says real beauty of a thing lies in its qualities. He says that an uneducated person is worthless.
Chap 4:His advice is that when you are doing something, don’t get distracted. He says that Knowledge is instrumental in bringing Honor, respect and money. Peaceful family life is a great boon to man. He believed that our destiny was predetermined at the time of birth. He was against Idol worship.
Chap 5:All people are different from one and other. Those who miss something in life are jealous of those who have those things. He asks others to revere the learned people. He dislikes obsession or infatuation for anything; he said to avoid greed as it leads to one’s downfall. He emphasizes on the fact that nothing is ultimate but the faith in God.
Chap 6:He tries to tell us about the qualities of some animals or what we should learn from them. A Dog teaches loyalty, bravery. A Crow teaches us to be a private person; he examines and collects things that he likes. A Rooster teaches that we should get up early, defend our interest and be just. A Lion teaches us that a project started should be fully accomplished. A Crane inspires concentration. A Donkey teaches one should work hard and never complain.
Chap 7:He advocates some permanency in life; a content person never veers towards any kind of evil. He also says never reveal the skeletons present in your cupboard to others as it may endanger your honor. A person is known by the company that he keeps, Chanakya too strongly believed in this adage.
Chap 8:He mentions that money in good hands will be put to good use and to bad use if in bad hands. A person’s origin doesn’t matter if he achieves something. He tells to avoid anger and greed. He was not in favour of Idol worship and said that God should be found in our own souls.
Chap 9:Betraying, addictions are the vices from which we should keep far away. One should practice forgiveness, patience and endurance. He is of the opinion that being a literate doesn’t mean that he is learned. He opines that a person must trick others to preserve himself.
Chap 10:He said that women in those days too defied society to get justice and be noticed. The students should never live luxurious life. It was the time they believed in strict routine, sometimes had to forego bare essentials too. One should advice only to those people who will receive it wholeheartedly. He said it is better to die than to lose one’s self-respect.
Chap 11:A man’s basic nature never changes. He abhorred defection but didn’t think twice to turn the opposition into an ally. He believed in money put to good use. He says that the power and potential of a thing matters and not it’s size.
Chap 12:He saidone cannotfight one’s destiny. He extols the virtues of obedience and faithfulness. A person who is not jealous of others is closest to God. He tells to learn the art of bluffing from gamblers and cunningness from women. I think he must have come across women of only these types. What say ;-)
Chap 13:Forewarned is forearmed, is his belief. He says that be always aware of the impending danger. Life should be lived fruitfully by doing good deeds, he also feels that if one has not achieved something then his life is wasted.
Chap 14:A person who is wise will speak according to the situation, should have full control over his tongue. One should do things at appropriate time. He also strongly believed that there is Unity in strength. He also adviced to keep away from ego but one should practice humility.
Chap 15:The attributes of mercy and compassions should be present in all. In this chap he speaks about Brahmins, who know the scriptures by rote but do not understand the meaning of it. One can imbibe only the gist of knowledge for it is very vast.
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