Chanakya Sutras is a wonderful guideline principles to help a person to achieve goals of life and attain good success.
Chanakya is also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta (350-283 BC). He was the the mentor and prime minister of the great Indian emperor, Chandragupta Maurya 340-293 BCE.
His other two famous books are Artha Sastra and Chanakya Sutras.
About Chanakya
About 2300 years ago the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great invaded the Indian sub-continent. His offensive upon the land’s patchwork of small Hindu empires proved to be highly successful due to the disunity of the petty rulers. It was Chanakya Pandit who, feeling deeply distressed at heart, searched for and discovered a qualified leader in the person of Chandragupta Maurya. Although a mere dasi-putra, that is, a son of a maidservant by the Magadha King Nanda, Chandragupta was highly intelligent, courageous and physically powerful. Chanakya cared little that by birth he should not have dared to approach the throne. A man of acute discretion, Chanakya desired only that a ruler of extraordinary capabilities be raised to the exalted post of King of Magadha so that the offensive launched by the Yavanas (Greeks) could be repressed.
It is said that Chanakya had been personally offended by King Nanda and that this powerful brahmana (Brahmin) had vowed to keep his long sikha (hair) unknotted until he saw to the demise of the contemptuous ruler and his drunken princes. True to his oath, it was only after Chanakya Pandit engineered a swift death for the degraded and worthless rulers of the Nanda dynasty that this great Brahmin was able to again tie up his tuft of hair. There are several versions relating the exact way that Chanakya had set about eliminating the Nandas, and it appears historians have found it difficult to separate fact from folk legend as regards to certain specific details.
After the Nanda downfall, it became easy for Chandragupta to win the support of the Magadha citizens, who responded warmly to their new heroic and handsome young ruler. Kings of neighbouring states rallied under Chandragupta’s suzerainty and the last of the Greeks headed by Alexander’s general Seleucus were defeated.
With the dual obstacles of the Nandas and Alexander’s troops out of the way, Chanakya Pandit used every political device and intrigue to unite the greater portion of the Indian sub-continent. Under the Prime ministership of Chanakya, King Chandragupta Maurya conquered all the lands up to Iran in the Northwest and down to the extremities of Karnataka or Mysore state in the South ( India ). It was by his wits alone that this skinny and ill-clad brahmin directed the formation of the greatest Indian empire ever before seen in history (i.e. since the beginning of Kali-yuga). Thus the indigenous Vedic culture of the sacred land of Bharata ( India ) was protected and the spiritual practices of the Hindus could go on unhampered.
Although many great savants of the science of niti such as Brihaspati, Shukracharya, Bhartrihari and Vishnusharma have echoed many of these instructions in their own celebrated works*, it is perhaps the way that Chanakya applied his teachings of niti-sastra (political science) that has made him stand out as a significant historical figure. The great Pandit teaches us that lofty ideals can become a certain reality if we intelligently work towards achieving our goal in a determined, progressive and practical manner.
Chanakya Sutras by Chanakya
A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.
A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode.
A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are troubled first.
As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.
As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?
As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.
Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.
Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.
Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution.
Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere.
Education beats the beauty and the youth.
Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple.
He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.
He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.
If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?
It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.
Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.
Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.
Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.
Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.
The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.
The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun shine and the winds blow; indeed all things rest upon truth.
The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.
The happiness and peace attained by those satisfied by the nectar of spiritual tranquillity is not attained by greedy persons restlessly moving here and there.
The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.
The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.
The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.
The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.
The world’s biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.
There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.
There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.
There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.
Treat your son like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.
We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment. Chanakya Whores don’t live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don’t build nests on a tree that doesn’t bear fruits.
