Chanakya Neeti

[vadapav]

1. A man may live but for a moment, but that moment should be spent in
doing auspicious deeds. It is useless living even for a kalpa (4,320,000
*1000 years) and bringing only distress upon the two worlds (this world
and the next).

[vadapav]

2. We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the
future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment.

[vadapav]

3.  It certainly is nature of the demigods, men of good character, and

parents to be easily pleased. Near and distant relatives are pleased when

they are hospitably received with bathing, food, and drink; and pandits

are pleased with an opportunity for giving spiritual discourse. 

[vadapav]

4. Even as the unborn babe is in the womb of his mother, these five are
fixed as his life destiny: his life span, his activities, his acquisition of
wealth and knowledge, and his time of death.

[vadapav]

5. O see what a wonder it is! The doings of the great are strange: they treat
wealth as light as a straw, yet, when they obtain it, they bend under its
weight.

[vadapav]

6. He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and
sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard
attachment to be happy.

[vadapav]

7. He who is prepared for the future and he who deals cleverly with any
situation that may arise are both happy; but the fatalistic man who
wholly depends on luck is ruined.

[vadapav]

8. If the king is virtuous, then the subjects are also virtuous. If the king is
sinful, then the subjects also become sinful. If he is mediocre, then the
subjects are mediocre. The subjects follow the example of the king. In
short, as is the king so are the subjects.

[vadapav]

10. He who has acquired neither virtue, wealth, satisfaction of desires nor
salvation (dharma, artha, kama, moksa), lives an utterly useless life,
like the "nipples" hanging from the neck of a goat.

[vadapav]

11. The hearts of base men burn before the fire of other's fame, and they
slander them being themselves unable to rise to such a high position.

[vadapav]

12. Excessive attachment to sense pleasures leads to bondage, and
detachment from sense pleasures leads to liberation; therefore it is the
mind alone that is responsible for bondage or liberation.

[vadapav]

13. He who sheds bodily identification by means of knowledge of the
indwelling Supreme Self (Paramatma), will always be absorbed in
meditative trance (samadhi) wherever his mind leads him.

[vadapav]

14. Who realises all the happiness he desires? Everything is in the hands of
God. Therefore one should learn contentment.

[vadapav]

15. As a calf follows its mother among a thousand cows, so the (good or
bad) deeds of a man follow him.

[vadapav]

16. He whose actions are disorganised has no happiness either in the midst
of men or in a jungle -- in the midst of men his heart burns by social
contacts, and his helplessness burns him in the forest.