Chanakya Neeti

Chanakya Neeti”- Translation and Comments by: “Vishwamitra Sharma” is the collection of thoughts of Chanakya.

A medieval India scholar was accused as a ruthless political manipulator and humiliated for his ugly looks.Whatever actions he took were to safeguard his motherland from narrow minded quarrelling chieftains and kings. The infuriation of humiliation gave a new turn to history of medieval India, which raised a common child into “The Great Emperor Chandra Gupta”. Chanakya was too ahead of the times he existed in. Not only a scholar, but he was an economist, strategist, teacher and an able administrator. As Kautilya he wrote “Arthashastra”.

This book of Sanskrit couplets and quatrains guides a person to achieve goals of life and reach new heights of success. It gives a person the thought of carrying himself/herself with all safety yet a joyous life in the society. At many instances, he (Chanakya) has warned a person to safeguard himself/herself from the evils of the society. 

From bringing changes in day-to-day life to achieving the ultimate goal, against all odds of society is what summarises this book. How a person must treat himself/herself, what ways to earn money and how to invest it, which truths a person learns in bad times, how to choose friends, whom to stay away from, what not to utter in front of people, how to keep secrets about your plans announcing which can be harmful, how parents must treat their children and vice-versa, how important is education and learning, ways to bring self-discipline and self-development, how one must tackle an enemy, why is it important to stay healthy, what wonders can meditation do to the body, what is a true religion, how to assess oneself and analyse the situations around, how to treat a guest, instead of being afraid fight back during times of troubles, what wonders can will power make, what consequences we face are the results of our own acts, one must know when and what to speak, what information must be told to others and what not, what qualities an individual must possess, what all qualities a student must have, instead of worrying about past and fearing future: focus on present – these are the thoughts that one must learn and imbibe in their character. 

The book also speaks about the women. Though written in medieval times when situation and position of woman was different, I don’t completely agree with thoughts presented for them. Women in those times were seen as mere things. They were denied certain rights and freedom to live their life on their own terms. Contradictory to those times, today women have excelled in almost every stream and have become stronger to even support their families. There are a few thoughts that explain that women must be devoid of certain rights and freedom and how they must be treated. I disagree with those.

While reading the book I realized that many of these thoughts I knew earlier. But in daily life we somewhere tend to miss them out and later realize that we could have acted in a particular way. We often tend to ignore these thoughts but somewhere our life experiences teach us the same.

I suggest this easy to read and understand book specifically for teenagers who are new to life experiences. This book can help you avoid making mistakes, which we often learn after making any such. The book can help you grow personally, intellectually and spiritually as well. It can help grow thought process and decision making powers. Ultimately once our thinking process develops, so do we.

Happy Reading!!!!