chanakya niti

Ø A wicked wife, a false friend, a saucy servant and living in a house with serpent in it are nothing but death.

Ø Do not inhabit a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends or cannot acquire knowledge.

Ø Do not stay for a single day where there are not these five persons: A wealthy man, a brahmin well versed in vedic lore, a king, a river and a physician.

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

Ø Do not put your trust in rivers, men who carry weapons, beasts with claws or horns, women, and member of a royal family.

Ø Separation from the wife, disgrace from one's own people, an enemy saved in battle, service to wicked king, poverty, and a mismanaged assembly: these six kinds of evils, if afflicting a person, burn him even without fire.

Ø Tress on a riverbank, a woman in another man's house, and kings without counselors go without doubt to swift destruction.

Ø Friendship between equals flourished, service under a king is respectable, it is good to be business-minded in public dealing, and a beautiful lady is safe in her home.

Ø Of a rascal and a serpent, the serpent is the better of the two, for he strikes only at the time he is destined to kill, while the former at every step.

Ø Give up a member to save a family, a family to save a village, a village to save a country, and the country to save yourself.

Ø 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.

Ø 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?

Ø As a single withered tree, if set flame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.

Ø Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution.

Ø The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear and, nor protect it from the bites of insects.

Ø The fragrance of flowers only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.

Ø The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun shine and winds blow; indeed all things rest upon truth.

Ø 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

Six evils that burn man even without fire

Ø   A wife and girl friend hold an important position in a man's life. When a man falls in love with a woman he cannot even think about a life without her and if they get separated he becomes hopeless in life.

Ø   According to Acharya Chanakya, a good man burns without fire in six conditions.

Ø  He said, separation from the wife, disgrace from one’s own people, and an enemy saved in battle, service to a wicked king, poverty, and a mismanaged assembly is the six kinds of evils, if afflicting a person, burn him even without fire.

Ø  Chanakya said that if a good man is caught in war by his enemy he feels disgraced and insulted throughout his life.

Ø   Similarly, if a man is insulted by his own people he gets hurt and suffers.

Ø  Also if a good man serves a wicked king he suffers throughout his life.

4 things that makes a man a good human being

Ø  A good person carries good thoughts while a bad person carries bad thoughts. This is how people differential between good and bad people.

Ø  According to Chanakya, as gold is tested in four ways by rubbing, cutting, heating and beating - so a man should be tested by these four things: his renunciation, his conduct, his qualities and his actions.

Ø  Chanakya says as the value of gold is decided after it goes through all the tests, similarly, qualities, ability to sacrifice, karma and renunciation decides the value of man.

Ø  A person should not expect anything in return when he sacrifices for someone. A person like this is a good

Save your soul

Ø 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. 

Ø   Every person born on this earth has to die one day. According to Chanakya, a man is great by deeds, not by birth.

ØHe says, as long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is imminent what can you do?

Ø  In order to keep the soul healthy one should indulge in good deeds and one should not trouble others. He says, once a person losses his health he cannot do anything and after death only a person's deeds are remembered.

Ø   Hence, once should always do good deeds and serve other people.

Key to happy life

Ø  It is true that nobody can change the past. But, some people keep thinking about what happened in the past and end up ruining their present and future.

Ø According to Acharya Chanakya, a person who is always worried about whatever happened in the past can never be happy. One should learn from their past and move ahead in life.

Ø He says, every person should make sure that he doesn’t repeat the mistakes committed in the past. Staying upset about something that happened will not serve any purpose.

Ø  Similarly, people should not get upset about some predictions that may happen in future.

Ø  Chanakya says, predicting future is impossible and there are high chances that the prophesies may prove false. Hence, a man should not worry about the past or the future and live in the present. Following this principle will keep a man happy throughout his life

Know your well-wisher

Ø   Many people would try to interefere in your life and advice you. These may be your family members or friends.

Ø  But, you cannot rely on all of them. People may have many well-wishers but there would be only a few whom you can trust.

Ø According to Chanakya, a true well-wisher does not forsake us in time of need, misfortune, famine, war, in a king's court, or at the crematorium (smasana). These are the six situations where a person's honesty and loyalty towards you is tested.

Ø  He also has also said that a false friend and living in a house with a serpent mean nothing but death.

Never reveal your wife’s character

Ø  A wise man should not reveal his loss of wealth, the vexation of his mind, the misconduct of his own wife, base words spoken by others, and disgrace that has befallen him.

Ø  According to him, a wise man keeps his weakness secret. People who reveals his weakness is sure to land in trouble in future.

Ø   Anything that upsets us or inflicts agony should never be told to anyone.

Ø  Similarly, a person should never tell anyone about his financial status or his wife's misconduct.

Ø  Chanakya says a person should never tell anyone if a person of a low rank insults him.

The four habits that a person can never change

A man learns everything after birth. He takes up the good and bad habits from the environment he is brought up in.Every human being has some habits that he cannot change. According to acharya Chanakya every man has four habits that no one can teach him or change in him.

He said, generosity, pleasing address, courage and propriety of conduct are not acquired, but are inbred qualities.He said that nobody can make a person more generous or less generous. Similarly, a person who uses bitter tone since birth cannot change his habit ever.

1. Financial Crunch:

The first and the foremost thing that Chanakya said not to discuss with people is a financial crisis. If you are going through a financial loss, keep it to yourself.

The reason for not exposing your financial position is that when people come to know about your money problem, they will never help you and even if they show their support, it is fake. According to Chanakya, the poor in the society are not respected. So, one should keep his poverty to himself rather than share it with others.

2. Personal Problems:

Chanakya says that people who share their personal problems with others are always ridiculed and looked down upon. People laugh at them behind their back. In order to avoid this one must not share their personal things with anyone.

3. Character of Your Wife:

The third secret to be maintained is the character of one’s wife. He said that men who talk about their wives in front of others might land them saying something they did not intend to. Later resulting in terrible consequences for them.

4. Insult By Downtrodden:

One should never share the insult by downtrodden or the “neglected” of the society. Chanakya thought if you do share such an incident, people might make fun of you. The result is people eventually harm your pride and ego, leading to the loss of self-confidence.