5 wise quotes from Chanakya

Chanakya was an Indian politician, strategist, and writer, 350 BC-75 BC. Chanakya is also known as Kautilya, the author of Arthashastra(Economics), or rather the Arthashastra identifies its author by the name of Kautilya. He is also referred to by the name of Vishnugupta and was a scholar in the court of Nand Dynasty of Magadh Empire in ancient India. According to legends, he wasn’t happy with the way Dhana Nand, the last king of Nand Dynasty was running the empire. He found him incapable of defending the empire from Greeks who were approaching the western border. This led to a dispute between him and the king. Insulted at the court, Chanakya untied the sikha(lock of hair) and swore that he would not tie it back till he destroyed the Nanda kingdom. He then trained Chandragupta and guided him to defeat the Nand Dynasty and thus Maurya Empire was established, the biggest empires in Indian History.  Chanakya played a key role in his conquest. He is known for his unmatched wisdom, and his teachings in statesmanship were believed to be unparalleled.

Here are five of his wise quotes according to me:

1. A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first. 

2. 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.

3. One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is a possession of others can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.

4. Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

5. The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you. If you cannot keep your secrets with you then how can you trust others to keep them secret?

 

 

Here’s a story about Chanakya’s wisdom:

THE REAL TEST

One day a known person approached Chanakya and enthusiastically started saying, “Do you know, just a while ago, I heard few things from your friend about you?”

Chanakya was famous for his wisdom, knowledge and good behavior. He said to his known person, “Before I listen to what you have to say, I would like to test it through my three step testing.”

“What is this three-step test?”, the person asked.

Chanakya made him understand, “ Before you tell me about what my friend has said, let us test it. I call this testing – a three-step test. The first test is of truth-ness. Is it sure that whatever you are going to say is a truth?”

“No”, the person said, “ I have heard it from somewhere.”

“Okay”, Chanakya analyzed. “If you don’t know whether this is true or not, we will do another test. The second test is for goodness. Are you going to tell me some good thing about my friend?”

“No, it’s opposite to it…..”

“Then”, Chanakya asked further. “Whatever you are going to say, is not the truth, is not positive about my friend then let’s do the third test. The third test is of usefulness. Whatever you are going to tell me, is that useful to me?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

Chanakya then said the last thing.

“Whatever you are supposed to tell me, it is not true, it’s not positive and it’s not useful also, then why you want to tell me?”

MORALE:

ANY INFORMATION MUST BE CHECKED ON THESE THREE PARAMETERS OF – TRUTHNESS, GOODNESS AND USEFULNESS.