“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.”

“A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people fall into hot waters first.”

“As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does an unworthy son destroy a whole family.”

Chanakya (350-283 BC)

I wish to present Chanakya, who would figure as one of the greatest strategists of all time, through these posts. Rishi Canak named his son as “Chanakya”. Being a teacher himself, he knew the importance of education..

His achievements: In his capacity as author of the Arthaśhāstra, is generally referred to as Kautilya .He was the master of shrewd act of diplomacy. He believed in four ways, namely, Enticement, Sowing Dissension, Punishment or War. Takshashila was one of the world centers for education. At a very early age little Chanakya started studying Vedas. The Vedas; considered to be the toughest scriptures to study were mastered by Chanakya in his infancy. He was attracted to studies in politics. In politics Chanakya’s acumen and shrewdness was visible right from childhood. He was a student of politics right from child hood. Known as a masterful political strategist, he knew how to put his own people in the opposite camp and spy the enemy without his knowledge before destroying him forever. Chanakya was an ace in turning tables in his favor irrespective of the circumstances. He never budged to pressure tactics by the ruthless politicians. In this way after studying religion and politics, he turned his attention to economics, which remained his lifelong friend. “Nitishastra“, a treatise on the ideal way of life shows his in depth study of the Indian way of life.

At a time when the Dark Ages were looming large, the existence of a university of Takshashila’s grandeur really makes India stand apart way ahead of the European countries who struggled with ignorance and total information blackout. For the Indian subcontinent Takshashila like today’s IITs , IIMs & other important Educational Centres ,stood as a light house of higher knowledge and pride of India. Here it would be essential to mention briefly the range of subjects taught in the university of Takshashila. (1) Science, (2) Philosophy, (3) Ayurveda, (4) Grammar of various languages, (5) Mathematics, (6) Economics, (7) Astrology, (8) Geography, (9) Astronomy, (10) Surgical science, (11) Agricultural sciences, (12) Archery and Ancient and Modern Sciences.
The university also used to conduct researches on various subjects. This perhaps explains great scholarly work done by Chanakya in various fields. Chanakya has been misunderstood by a lot of people, mainly the modern western scholars. But Today India is in a similar situation which Chanakya encountered. The country had been ravaged by Alexander and there were numerous petty kings looking after their own interests. The nationalistic pride had disappeared, and people were not proud or even aware of their ancestry. Chanakya appeared on the scene and united Bharat under the rule of Chandragupta Maurya. He was fearless, not afraid of death, disgrace or defeat. He was compassionate to the poor and kind, evil to deceit. His writings which clearly show his fearlessness in the pursuit of Truth has been echoed over 2000 years later when Swami Vivekananda cried out, ‘Arise, Awake, sleep not till the goal is reached.’

Chanakya’s life is full of paradoxes.He plotted and overthrew governments, as a saint. Some have even gone as far as to say that he was evil. If re-establishing the truth and the glory of Bharat is evil, then perhaps even Gandhiji would be accused of overthrowing the British and getting independence of India. If remaining calm during war is not a mark of a yogi, what is ?

Moving to 21st Century: Today in India , we find several Chandraguptas waiting to be discovered, encouraged …..unfortunately , so few like Chanakyas. We find terrorists blatantly using Indian land to create havoc, but nobody with dogged perseverance of Chanakya to root the evil of terrorism. Perhaps today’s Chanakya would come from the IAS, the police, even someone from the corporate world. What needs to be done is great initiatives need to be supported by the community. For India to emerge as a super power in the 21st century, India needs visionary thought-leaders, like Chanakya. (would appreciate views from readers on this)

I wish to conclude Today’s piece by mentioning following thoughts by Chanakya.

“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?”

“As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.”

More about Chanakya’s Kutaniti sometime later…

This article is written by Sudhir Chandra. He has 25+ experience in Indian MNCs and is passionate about history, strategies and much more.

For facts refer following links:
1)http://www.hinduism.co.za/Chanakya.htm
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya
3)Teleserial Chanakya
4) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/chanakya.html

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