Sama vyAyAmikam - Philosophy of tranquility and activity

This post covers the second chapter of maNDala yOniH called Sama vyAyAmikam that deals with the philosophical basis behind the peace and war.

There are two things that drive all the activity. 1. yOga is about acquiring something new; while 2. kshema is about protecting and enjoying what is already acquired. So, Sama i.e., peace and vyAyAma exerting effort combined in right proportions is the basis of yOga and kshEma says cANakya.

shADguNyam the six-fold policy is the basis for Sama and vyAyAma which results in three outcomes: 1. Loss or Decline, 2. stability or holding, 3. Growth or advancement. These three or consequences of the policy.

The activity of people  is of two types: nayam - good of lawful; and apanayam - bad or unlawful.

The activity of daivam (that of God) is of two types: ayam - fortune and anayam - fateful.

Only the above two types of activities run all that in this world. The activity of people is called mAnusham which is visible and the activity of god which is called daivam that works invisibly. Both these activities when end in a favorable result it is called ayam, otherwise it is anayam.

The king/leader possessing Atma sampat and the other excellence described earlier and who is wishing "ayam" is vijigIshu the center of circle i.e., rAja maNDalam.

As shown above, ten types of kings/leaders are naturally form based on the way they control the territories around the vijigIshu. Putting the vijigIshu and his friend circles there are 18 elements and the opponents and their friends make up 18 elements.

Friends are of two types, 1. natural and 2. artificial. Even the opponents can be grouped in to natural and artificial. There are neutral kings that can turn friend or opponent; they make another 18 + 18 elements. Hence a total of 12 types of kings and 60 types of other constituent elements making a total of 72 elements that form the rAja maNDalam.

Having understood the elements, now about sakti and siddhi

Sakti is the possession of power and siddhi is about happiness (or success!) Sakti is three types 1. that of strategy, knowledge, counsel (mantra-Sakti) 2. that of treasury and army (prabhu-Sakti) and 3. that of valour (utsAha-Sakti)

The siddhi is also of three types: that which is gained by mantra-Sakti is mantra siddhi; that is gained by prabhu-Sakti is prabhu siddhi and that is gained by utsAha-Sakti is utsAha-siddhi.

Thriving with these Saktis and siddhis the king becomes superior. otherwise inferior. If these are equal then equal. 

A king/leader should improve the sakit and siddhi of his own and friends constituent elements. Diminish the sakti and siddhi of the opponents.

There are some special situations, the king should desire the sakti and siddhi in the opponent. One example is if the opponent is going to injure his own subjects due to his excessive power (Sakti) then the constituent elements will oppose that leader; or if the opponent will, when endowed with success (siddhi) become negligent and become addicted to bad habits like hunting, wine and women etc., in that case, a king should desire the opponent to have power and success!!

A king desiring victory should keep himself in the middle like the hub putting the opponents as spokes and the friends as the external rim of the wheel. 

Thus we reached the end of second chapter, and of sixth book of artha SAstra called manDala yOniH i.e., about the basis of foreign policy.

vijigIshu swami sampat - Excellences of victorious king

Few months back, I have concluded the first part of arthaSAstra that deals with the internal administration of the kingdom. Then, made this post on my LinkedIn to reintroduce the leadership and the second part of dealing with external affairs based on rAja maNDala i.e., the circle of kings. 

Having bowed down to Lord Ganesha, ancient teachers of SAstra Sukra & bRhaspati again let me restart posts to this blog.

The sixth book of artha SAstra is called maNDala yOniH which explains the basis of political diplomacy around a victorious leader.

swami the lord, amAtya minister, janapada the country, durga the fortified capital city, kOSa the treasury, daNDa the armed forces, mitra the allies are the constituent elements of a state.

Of these prakRtis, most important is the king/leader. The excellences of the leader are now being discussed.

There are four sets of qualities or excellences enumerated by cANakya.

First set are abhigAmika guNAH i.e., the natural qualities of a king who everyone should approach: Born of a high family lineage, of great fortune, righteous, truthful in speech, acting as per his words.

Second set is prajnA guNAH i.e., qualities of intellect: Desire to learn, listening (to the knowledgeable persons), understanding, remembering, contemplating, building on the learning, rejecting false concepts or views and finally able to conclude on the subject

Third set is utsAha guNAH i.e, qualities of strength or energy: Valour, endurance, quickness and dextricity

The froth and most important set is Atma sampat i.e, excellences of self: Eloquence, boldness, endowed with memory, thought and power of execution, able to correct oneself, ability to control oneself in calamity and in normal conditions of success, one who depends on the effort based on the conditions of time and place as appropriate, dispassionate with respective to greed, anger, fickleness,  one who conducts himself based on the advice of elders - These are called excellences of self.

The qulities required for amAtyas is discussed earlier - http://sastra-artha.blogspot.in/2013/05/qualities-of-mantri-prime-minister.html 

The janapada which is naturally protected, rich in natural resources, independent, having hard working inhabitants who are honest and loyal to the king is excellent one!

The excellence of durga i.e, fort is described earlier. - http://sastra-artha.blogspot.in/2013/06/durga-vidhanam-establishment-of-forts.html

cANakya describes the sampada of kOSa, daNDa and mitras as well and concludes the first chapter of maNDala yOniH with few concluding verses that emphasise the importance of Atma sampat.

संपादयत्यसंपन्नाः प्रकृतीरात्मवान् नृपः ।
विवृद्धाश्चानुरक्ताश्च प्रकृतीर्ह्यन्त्यनात्मवान् ॥

sampAdayati asampannAH prakRtIH AtmavAn nRpaH 
vivRddhAH ca anraktAH ca prakRtIH hanti anAtmavAn 

A leader/king with the excellence of self, will acquire the other constituent elements and makes them excellent; one who is not endowed with excellence of self will destroy even the most excellent other prakRtis!

A king who has lordship over the whole world and wealth, who is not having the excellence of self will end up destroying everything including self. Where as

आत्मवान् स्वल्प देशोऽपि युक्तः प्रकृति संपदा ।
नयज्ञः पृधिवीं कृत्स्नां जयत्येव न हीयते ॥ 

AtmavAn svalpa dESaH api yuktaH prakRti sampadA 
naya-jnaH pRthivIm kRtsnAm jayati Eva na hIyatE 

One who has conquered the self, even he is having a small country and other constituent elements, who is well versed in nIti SAstra will conquer the whole world verily! He will never lose!!

That is the power of wealth of self i.e, Atma sampat of the vijigIshu.