Fw: chanakya to chandragupta -- Have our "Rajadihraj/MPs rea

[airgun_novice]

Got this fwd - posting here as it's very potent in content and thought provoking. However, Air Mashal Inamdar seems to have continued with the same error as many others before him when he refers to "Kautilya" and not "Kautalya". Anyway, as he says the crux of the matter is relevant today, more so than Chandragupta's period. AGN.
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"Kautilya to Chandragupta on the Mauryan Soldier" - Air Marshal Inamdar

, "It is truly amazing how those observations continue to be so
completely relevant today, even after 2000 years." I am reproducing it
in full below with emphasis added: - Air Marshal Inamdar

The Mauryan soldier does not himself the Royal treasuries enrich nor
does he the Royal granaries fill.

He does not himself carry out trade and commerce nor produce scholars,
thinkers, littérateurs, artistes, artisans, sculptors, architects,
craftsmen, doctors and administrators.

He does not himself build roads and ramparts nor dig wells and reservoirs.

He does not himself write poetry and plays, paint or sculpt, nor delve
in metaphysics, arts and sciences.

He does not do any of this directly as he is neither gifted, trained
nor mandated to do so.

The soldier only and merely ensures that:
The tax, tribute and revenue collectors travel far and wide unharmed
and return safely;
The farmer tills, grows, harvests, stores and markets his produce
unafraid of pillage & plunder;
The trader, merchant and moneylender function and travel across the
length and breadth of the realm unmolested;
The savant, sculptor, painter, maestro and master create works of art,
literature, philosophy, astronomy and astrology in peace & quietitude;
The architect designs and builds his Vaastus without tension;
The tutor ('acharya'), the mentor ('guru') and the priest ('purohit')
teach and preach in tranquility;
The sages ('rishis, munis, and tapaswees') meditate and undertake
penance in wordless silence;
The doctor ('vaidyaraja') tends to the ill and the infirm well, adds
to the pharmacopoeia, discovers new herbs and invents new medical
formulations undisturbed;
The mason, the bricklayer, the artisan, the weaver, the tailor, the
jeweller, the potter, the carpenter, the cobbler, the cowherd
('gopaala') and the smith work unhindered;
The mother, wife and governess go about their chores and bring up
children in harmony and tranquility;
The aged and the disabled are well taken care of, tended to and are
able to fade away gracefully and with dignity; cattle graze freely
without being lifted or harmed by miscreants.

He is thus the VERY BASIS and silent, barely visible CORNERSTONE of
our fame, culture, physical well being and prosperity; in short, of
the entire nation building activity.

He DOES NOT perform any of these chores himself directly: he ENABLES
the rest of us to perform these without let, hindrance or worry
('nirbhheek and nishchinta').

Our military sinews, on the other hand, lend credibility to our
pronouncements of adherence to good Dharma, our goodwill, amiability
and peaceful intentions towards all our neighbour nations ('sarve
bhavantu sukhinaha, sarve santu niramayaha.') as also those far away
and beyond.

These also serve as a powerful deterrent against military misadventure
by any one of them against us.

If Pataliputra reposes each night in peaceful comfort, O King, it is
so because she is secure in the belief that the distant borders of
Magadha are inviolate and the interiors are safe and secure, thanks to
the mighty Mauryan Army constantly patrolling and standing vigil with
naked swords and eyes peeled for action ('animish netre'), day and
night ('ratrau-divase'), in weather fair and foul,
dawn-to-dusk-to-dawn ('ashtau prahare'), quite unmindful of personal
discomfort and hardship, loss of life and limb, separation from the
family, all through the year, year after year ('warsha nu warshe').

While the Magadha citizenry endeavours to make the State prosper and
flourish, the Mauryan soldier guarantees that the State continues to
EXIST! He is the silent 'sine qua non' of our very being!

To this man, O Rajadhiraja, you owe a debt for that very guarantee
which is the vital key-stone of our nationhood arch.

Please, therefore, see to it, suo motu, that you are constantly alive
and sensitive to the soldier's legitimate dues in every form and
respect, be those his needs or his wants, including his place in the
social order. Do thereafter ('tadanantara') ensure that he receives
these in time or preferably ahead of time, in full measure, for he is
NOT likely to ask for them himself.

This is so because before getting so completely wrapped up in his
onerous, harsh and exalted charge, the soldier has assumed with good
reason that the State, in return for his extraordinary burden and
services, has freed him from all responsibility towards his own
present and future welfare as also that of his family back home in the
hinterland. He is thus very clear in his mind when deployed at a
distant border outpost, fighting lumpen groups within Magadha or when
campaigning in far away lands that he need only look out in FRONT for
the enemy of the State and concentrate only on his MILITARY ONUS and
aim ('shatrunjaya'), completely free of all temporal worries. This
assumption is a holy sacrament and an unwritten covenant that exists
between him and the State. And rightly so!

If ever things come to a sordid pass, O King, when, on a given day,
the Mauryan soldier has to LOOK BACK over his shoulder
('Simhawalokana') prompted by even a single nagging worry about his
and his family's material, physical and social well being, it should
cause you and your Council the greatest concern and distress!

I beseech you to take instant note and act with uncommon dispatch to
address the soldier's anxiety. It could be on account of harsh living
conditions, inequitable material compensation or asymmetric Court or
societal dispensations affecting either his self respect or his
family's material welfare, or both. If any in your household, in your
Council or among your courtiers is/ are responsible for allowing
matters to come to such a pass, punish him/ them exemplarily without
loss of time and send him/ them to serve for four cycles of seasons
('Chaturrutuchakre') alongside the soldiers, on the border outposts.
If they perish, those would be their just desserts. If they survive,
they will return wiser and wizened, more responsive to and with
greater empathy for the soldier's cause.

If you first learn of your soldiers' problems and needs from your own
trusted informers ('gupt doota') and NOT from the Commander-in-Chief
('Senapati') himself, relieve him of his charge and retain him not for
another day. No matter how good a horseman ('Ashwarohi'), a swordsman
('Khadgaveera'), a wrestler ('Malla'), an archer (Dhanurdhara) or a
tactician ('Rana neetigya') he is, dismiss him ('ardha chandra
prayoga') for failing to keep his ear close to the military ground.
Dismiss him also for not having the gumption and courage to be the
first to tell you of the soldiers' anxiety and needs before the others
do. The Senapati owes a downward loyalty and sensitivity to his troops
in much the same way and measure as he owes these upwards to you, for
this is a unique and age-old essential feature of sound military
leadership and an article of faith between the troops and the General!

It is my bounden duty to caution you, My Lord, that the day when the
Mauryan soldier has to demand his dues or, worse, plead for them, will
neither have arrived suddenly, overnight nor in vain. It will also
bode ill for Magadha. For then, on that day, you, My Lord, will have
lost all moral sanction to be Rajadhiraja ! It will also mark the
beginning of the end of the Mauryan Empire!

Please share.this ought to be read widely - especially with those at
the helm of our affairs.

[.32]

Wow great words of wisdom & totally relevant in todays times. I myself find Chankyas teachings as the most up-to-date & clear.

Here in our land I feel the Sarkar has to fulfill its duties to common man more than to forces. Ofcourse forces not to be left behind but the common man has never been tended to.

Formost duty should be infuse a work culture, ethics into Govt. officials. Make them responsible for ill-actions & weed out corruption.

Thanks for the wonderful share.