ଚାଣକ୍ଯ ନୀତି - ତ୍ରଯୋଦଶୋଽଧ୍ଯାଯଃ

It is better for a person to live even for a moment performing righteous deeds than to live for an entire aeon through actions that cause suffering and are detrimental to both this world and the next.

One should not grieve over the past nor be overly anxious about the future; the wise live fully and act according to the present moment.

The gods are pleased by one’s innate nature, good men by righteous character, fathers by the wellbeing of their children, relatives by hospitality, and the learned by thoughtful speech.

The lifespan of a person, their future deeds, their wealth, their learning, and the time of their death—these five are determined while the soul is still in the womb.

Oh, how marvelous are the ways of the great-souled! They consider wealth as worthless as a blade of grass, yet they remain humble under the burden of their own virtues.

Where there is attachment, there is fear; attachment is the vessel of sorrow. Since attachments are the root of all misery, one should renounce them to live in happiness.

He who prepares for the future and he who possesses a quick wit both prosper; but he who relies solely on fate will surely perish.

When a king is righteous, the people become righteous; when he is sinful, they become sinful; and when he is indifferent, they become the same. Truly, the subjects follow the king, for as the king is, so are the people.

I consider a person devoid of righteousness as good as dead even while living, whereas one who is established in righteousness, even if dead, continues to live on through their legacy; there is no doubt about this.

One who does not possess even one of the four goals of life—righteousness (dharma), prosperity (artha), desire (kama), and liberation (moksha)—has a life as useless as the dangling skin-folds on a goat's neck.

Base and lowly individuals, consumed by the intense fire of jealousy toward the success of others and lacking the ability to reach such heights themselves, resort to slandering those who are superior.

Attachment to worldly objects leads to bondage, while a mind detached from such desires leads to liberation. Truly, it is the mind alone that serves as the cause of both bondage and freedom for human beings.

When the false identification with the body dissolves through the realization of the Supreme Self, then wherever the mind wanders, it finds itself in a state of deep meditative absorption.

Whose desires are ever fully satisfied in this world? Since all outcomes are ultimately governed by destiny, one should take refuge in contentment.

Just as a calf finds its mother even among a thousand cows, the actions previously performed by a person inevitably follow the doer.

For a person with an unfocused and restless mind, there is no happiness either in society or in the forest; society burns them with its distractions, and the forest torments them with its solitude.

Just as one obtains water from the earth by digging with a shovel, a devoted student obtains the knowledge residing in a teacher through dedicated service.

The results for humans are dependent on their past actions, and their intellect tends to follow the nature of those actions; nevertheless, the wise and noble act only after careful deliberation.

One who does not pay respects to a teacher, even one who has taught them a single syllable, is condemned to be reborn a hundred times as a dog and eventually take birth among the lowest of outcastes.

At the end of an era, Mount Meru may tremble, and at the end of a cycle, the seven oceans may overflow, but the righteous never deviate from the promises they have made.

There are three gems upon this earth: water, food, and kind words. Only the ignorant consider pieces of stone to be gems.