Chanakya, The Great Indian Teacher, Philosopher and Royal Advisor

For decades to come and go that recorded the great men and legendary characters who shaped time through their vision and exemplary actions.

Chanakya, perhaps, is the only famous personality that has been accepted and revered as a genius both by Indian and Western scholars.
 
He is a milestone in the history making of India amidst tremendous turmoil and countless obstacles.
He is revered as a sharp statesman and a great administrator, he counted as one of the best diplomats of the world. He is considered as a good Orator who can speak his heart out in simple words, even in front of the rulers. He had the strong inclination to democratic values and the audacity to put his views through.

Although, he lived around the third century BC, his political and philosophical ideas and principles show concurrence and validity in the present day world. He is filled with self-confidence and the tremendous ability to stay calm in worst situations.

His immense knowledge and foresight blended with the expert politics founded the strong Mauryan Empire in India. He was a great economist with a great intellect to perceive the complicated economic activities and principles.

The centuries that succeeded him show distinct effects of his thoughts on the way a kingdom is managed and other phases of economic administration.

Even today, one of his dictum on taxation is very much alive and calls for adherence by the governments of the world. According to Chanakya, Taxation should not be a painful process for the people.

There should be compassion and carefulness while deciding the tax structure. Ideally, governments should levy taxes just like a honeybee, that take just the right amount of honey from the flower so that both can survive. Taxes should be collected in small and not in large proportions.

Chanakya, apart from being a man of great understanding and reliable strategies, put forward Nitishastra, the ideal way of living for every individual of the society.

He thinks his state is like a person surrounded by problems. He worked at the root level of each and every problem.

Chanakya ‘s foreign policy and defense strategy are still in practice today. In present times also many Universities teach his strategies, so that the future progeny also learn from him.

Chanakya had  written many books such as ‘Chanakyaniti’, ’Arthashastra’ and  ‘Nitishastra’.
According to him, King must certainly progress to attain his goals, no matter what way he takes. He advocated the view that for the king Victory is primary and morality is secondary. His harsh views made him great personality to the world. He has been compared with Aristotle, Machiavelli and Plato. He has even been compared with Vivekananda who insisted that person should not sleep until goal is reached. It means a person should try till his last breath to reach its goal and never get afraid of obstacles.

His Dreams.

Chanakya wanted to invade India, where he would place itself as the forerunner politically, economically and socially. He mentioned the Indian economy as feudalistic, closed and self-sufficient economy. The main activities of the Indian economy were agriculture, cattle rearing and commerce. Among the three, Chanakya considered agriculture to be the most important constituent of the economy. Not surprisingly, Indian economy of today is an agro-based one. He had even covered various topics such as administration, politics and the economy and the law running a country that is relevant even today.

Broadly speaking, Chanakya dreamt India as a country that... Read More

Life gives us the lessons to learn from our mistakes in our life

Life gives us the lessons to learn from our mistakes in our life. The very next question is how?
Everybody makes mistakes in life but, there is the difference between the successful and failure person. Successful person is quick to learn from the mistakes and failure person does not learn from the mistakes instead they tend to repeat the same mistakes. Thus, life gives us opportunity of growth by the process of trial & error and exploration. This kind of learning is called Experimental Learning.

The starting of experimental learning is from school. Many students are reluctant to go to school. Students generally give different kind of excuses to miss school. Parents must explain their children politely but firmly.

One incident narrated here will help you to understand better:-

One day mother found her son Bini was not getting up. Mother was worried that he would be late for school. She repeatedly asked him to get ready for school. Bini told her that he did not like to attend school as neither any student in his class nor his teachers liked him. Mother replied Bini that he should not bother about the opinion of the other people about him. He should concentrate in his studies and always ready to learn from his mistakes. She further added once he should regularly attend school and concentrate in his studies to get good marks, everybody would start liking him. She said that he could not afford to miss the school as it provides the opportunity to learn by experiment. It would make him understand that situation could not be changed, but he only has to change himself to improve himself. He should attend school and face the situation with a positive frame of mind. He should take the comments in a positive way and work on it. For example, his Mathematics teacher commented that he was very poor in Mathematics. He should not take it in a negative way instead practice hard to prove his teacher wrong. This way school would give him lot of situations to make him better person and he could face the world in a better way.

The mother then told one story that there was the boy whose name was Devendra. He was a dull boy. He was abused by his peer group daily. He was so upset that he did not like to go to school and started disliking studies. When his results were out as expected he flunked. Arvind came home and showed his result. His parents were worried then they decided they would visit their village for the change. When they reached their village, they saw one well where one lady was taking out water. Arvind 's mother told his son that he could observe that repeated motion of a soft rope over the hard stone... Read More

A beautiful message for successful life

A beautiful message for successful life

I am presenting a new version of the common story of Hare and Tortoise.

Once, there were two friends Hare and the Tortoise who had an argument over the issue that who was faster among them. They determined to settle an argument with a race.

They consented on a route and started off the race. The Hare as we all know is fast in running and jumping so quickly he was out of vision at once, But soon stopped to have a  little rest to have a nap.

The tortoise slowly walking towards their goal overtook the sleeping hare and quickly wins the race and unboundedly emerging as the undisputed champ. When Hare woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.

Tortoise took 40 minutes to finish the race.

The moral of the story is: Slow and steady wins the race
This is the older version we all have heard off.
The new version starts from here…

It continues…

The Hare was disappointed at losing the race. He introspects himself for his failure...
Introspection is crucial for your success…

He came to the conclusion that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident and careless and taken his competitor lightly…

Hare challenged the tortoise to another race and that tortoise agreed.

This time the Hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several... Read More

Vivekananda and his Teachings!!!

Vivekananda was the famous social reformer during late 19th century. He had born to an aristocratic Bengali Kathya family of Calcutta on 12 January 1863. His father, Vishwanath Datta, was an attorney at the Calcutta High Court.

Vivekananda childhood name is Narendra. His grandfather Durgacharan Datta, was a Sanskrit and Persian scholar. Narendra ‘s father, Vishwanath Datta, was an attorney at the Calcutta High Court  and his  mother Bhuvaneswari Devi, was a devout housewife. The progressive, rational attitude of Narendra's father and the religious temperament of his mother helped shape his thinking and personality.

From his childhood only he was inclined to spirituality. He used to play by meditating before the images of Hindu deities such as of Lord Shiva, Lord Rama, and Goddess Sita. He was fascinated by wandering ascetics and monks.

He was genius student. He studied Hindu scriptures, including the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas. He had interest in English literature and thus studied Western Philosophy and European History at the General Assembly's Institution. In 1881 he passed the Fine Arts examination, and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1884.

Narendra's father's sudden death in 1884 left the family bankrupt; creditors began demanding the repayment of loans, and relatives threatened to evict the family from their ancestral home. Narendra, once a son of a well-to-do family became one of the poorest students in his college. He unsuccessfully tried to find work and questioned God's existence, but found solace in Ramakrishna .Narendra gradually ready to renounce everything for the sake of realizing God and accepted Ramakrishna as his teacher. His teacher taught him that all living beings were an embodiment of the divine self; therefore, service to God could be rendered by service to mankind.

Later After the death of Ramakrishna, He extensively travelled throughout India and abroad.  He founded Belur Math, Ramakrishna Math, and Ramakrishna Mission for social service in India and established Vedanta Societies in San Francisco and New York and founded a peace retreat (shanti ashrama ) in California.

His literary work: - Vivekananda was a powerful orator and writer in English and Bengali.Some of his famous litrary works books are Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga.

Most of his published works were compiled from lectures given around the world. He was a singer and a poet, composed many songs and poems (including his favorite, "Kali the Mother"). Vivekananda blended humor with his teachings, and his language was lucid. His Bengali writings testify to his belief that words (spoken or written) should clarify ideas, rather than demonstrating the speaker (or writer's) knowledge... Read More