Guru Govinda Singh, Founder of the warrior Khalasa Panth in Sikhs, 17th Century
Chapter - 10 of Chanakya's Treatise on Policies for Kings & Ministers
 

Translation:
A poor person is not lacking, he can be definitely rich. One who does not have the jewel of education is lacking in all things even if rich.

Translation:
Put your foot forward if the eyes allow after seeing, drink water if cloth allows after filtering, speak a sentence if it is in accordance with the scriptures, take an action if it is in accordance with your conscience.

Translation:
If you desire comfort, leave education; if you desire education, leave comfort. How can a person wanting comfort get education, how can a person desiring education get comfort.

Translation:
What cannot be seen by the poet? What cannot be done by the woman? What cannot be blabbered by the drunkard? What cannot be eaten by the crow?

Commentary:
[Poet can go beyond the sun in his imagination, woman can do any deed - good or bad, drunkard can speak anything - appropriate or inappropriate, crow can eat everything - fresh or rotten.]

Translation:
Destiny can make a king into a beggar and a beggar into a king, can make a rich person into a poor person and also a poor into a rich.

Translation:
Greedy person's enemy is the beggar, fool's enemy is the one who tells him the correct things, thief's enemy is the moon, and husband is the enemy of the woman having adulterous love.

Translation:
Those who have no education, no penance, do not donate, do not have good behavior, no good qualities, no religious acts done, are a burden for this earth. They are animals roaming in the guise of humans.

Translation:
Teachings given to those who lack the internal ability to understand, does not have any effect; like the bamboo tree does not become fragrant even if it grows along with sandal trees on Malayanchal, the forest in Southern India where sandal tree grows.

Translation:
What can scriptures do for the person who does not have his own intelligence? What can the mirror do for the person who has no eye sight?

Commentary:
[Scriptures are useless for the person who lacks the ability to understand them just like mirror is for the blind.]

Translation:
There is no way available on the earth to change criminal people into good. The organs of excretion cannot become excellent organs even after washing them a hundred times.

Translation:
Death results from enmity with those who are credible & trustworthy, loss results from enmity with other people as it causes fights, destruction results from enmity with the king, degradation of family results from enmity with the priestly class.

Translation:
Choose living in a forest of lions & elephants, eating leaves & fruits, sleeping on a bed of straw & old clothes torn in hundred pieces; rather than spending your life as a poor person amongst brothers & relatives.

Commentary:
[Poor person is insulted among relatives also. Never be poor.]

Translation:
Priest is the tree, sandhya (ritualistic prayer prescribed for priests) is its root, scriptures are its branches, and religious practices are its leaves. Therefore protect the root in every way since if the root is destroyed there will be no branches and no leaves.

Commentary:
[Priests must always follow their routine of ritualistic prayers prescribed by scriptures.]

Translation:
The person whose mother is like Kamala Devi, Goddess of Wealth; father is like God Janardhana, who rears all living beings on earth; and whose brothers are devotees of God Vishnu, the same as God Janardhana; for him his own place is like the three world - viz. heaven, earth & hell.

Commentary:
[In a home where the mother provides all material comforts of children, father takes care of proper upbringing, and all children are devoted to the father; the children have all happiness available in the three worlds within their family itself.]

Translation:
Birds of different colors come and sit together on one tree. In the morning they go into different directions. What is there to be sad about this?

Commentary:
[Members of a family sit together in the tree called family and when the time comes they go away. Like daughters go away on their marriage and all of us go away leaving this earth on our death. There is nothing to be sad in this parting because it is natural. Let us not be sentimental about these separations.]

Translation:
One who has intelligence has strength also. What strength does the un-intelligent have? In jungle, the intelligent rabbit made the lion proud of his strength fall in the well.

Commentary:
[Intelligent can use their strength properly even if it is less. Un-intelligent are unable to use their strength.]

Translation:
Why should I worry about my life if God is called Vishwa-ambhar, one who rears all living beings in the whole world? Had this not been the case, then how can milk appear in mother's breasts for the child? Seeing this happen constantly, O' God, I am passing my days continuously praying at your lotus feet.

Commentary:
[This appears to be one of the few personal statements by Chanakya in this book. He has retired from work and is old by now.]

Translation:
I want to learn other languages even though I have special knowledge of Sanskrit language, just like the gods in heaven have nectar but still want to taste the sweetness of lips of swarga-angana, the beautiful women who live in the heaven.

Translation:
Flour is 10 times as strength giving as food grains, milk is 10 times of flour, meat is 10 times of milk, and clarified butter is 10 times of meat.

Commentary:
[Modern nutrition science clear informs us that calorie contents of these foods do not rise ten times as stated above. It could reflect another aspect. Rather than eating raw food grains, flour is far easier to consume & digestible. Milk, meat, & clarified butter may be adding some essential nutrients - not available in other elements of diet - making a critical difference in providing a balanced diet. Looked at this way, the statement could be meaningful.]

Translation:
Sorrow increases disease, milk increases the body, ghee (clarified butter) increases seminal fluid, meat increases meat.

Guru Govinda Singh, Founder of the warrior Khalasa Panth in Sikhs

References


[1] Chanakya Neeti, Ashwini Parashar, New Delhi, 1998.
[2] Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, R.S. McGregor (Edited), New Delhi, 1999.
[3] Bhargava's Concise Dictionary of the English Language (Anglo-Hindi Edition), R. C. Pathak (Edited), Varanasi, 1995