Sri Sathya Sai elaborates on Management Lessons from Chanakya - Part 3


Chanakya composing the Artha Shastra




CHANAKYA LEARNS AN IMPORTANT LESSON

As Chanakya was still engaged in the preparation of Artha Shastra, King Nanda attacked and routed Chandra Gupta and sent him to exile. Chanakya was always helpful to Chandra Gupta and he felt grieved at his defeat. He started making inquiries as to the reasons for Chandra Gupta’s defeat. He travelled all over the country in disguise so that his identity would not be revealed. In those days, it was the custom of the householders to welcome guests, serve them with food and help them. One day Chanakya visited a certain house in a village where an old lady hosted him. She requested him to have food in her house. She made her grandson sit for food with Chanakya. The tradition was that both the guests and the other people in the host’s house partake the same food together. The old lady thus served hot dosas (sort of pan cakes) to both Chanakya and her grandson. The grandson started eating, the middle part of the dosa. The old lady spontaneously remarked, “You are eating dosa just the way Chandra Gupta rules the kingdom.” Chanakya was surprised at the remark. He asked, “What is the comparison between the method of eating a dosa and Chandra Gupta’s ruling of the kingdom?” The old lady replied, “Chandra Gupta was defeated because he did not place his soldiers around the country but positioned them only in the middle of the capital. Just like my grandson, he concentrated only on the middle and ignored the provinces at the border.” Chanakya learnt a lesson.

As he was ‘Kutila Chitta’ i.e. a shrewd person, he understood the full implication of the old lady’s remark. Thus by going around the country, Chanakya was able to find out the reasons for Chandra Gupta’s defeat. He then started making all preparations for the proper fortification of the kingdom. He then swore to re-install Chandra Gupta as the king and in due course of time achieved that objective.

2 comments:

  1. Sai Ram and thank you for this article. How does it apply to modern day donating of income? very few can donate 25% of their earning BEFORE tax. so does one take 25% of disposable income if there even is any disposable income? kindly comment. Jai Sai Ram

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    Replies
    1. Sai Ram,
      Thanks for your comment. We appreciate your interest in practicing Swami's guidelines on charity. However, we need to practice this more in spirit than in letter. Very often Swami says that the feeling behind the act of charity is more important than the quantum of money donated. 100% of money given away for pomp and show may lead to no merit. On the other hand a single coin given with genuine feelings may be most dear to the Divine.
      These guidelines on division of one's income are to portray an ideal placed before us by great intellectuals from Bharat to maintain a balance between personal requirements and contribution to social welfare.
      Regards
      SSwS Team

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