Alternative Forms of Punishment - Canakya Book Review

[Guest guest]

Dear Krishna Dharma Prabhu,

PAMHO AGTSP

 

Perhaps I made a mistake here, but perhaps not. I said "More often than not

he settles the conflicting views of the ancient dharma sastra authorities as

there are various schools who give stress to various ideas." This of course

was all in context of the contents of the Artha-sastra itself. Perhaps I

should have said "artha-sastra authorities", but perhaps it is not really an

error considering that those who wrote on politics also wrote on

dharma?(though I cannot make that claim with certainty).

 

I never stated that this book supplants all the dharma-sastras, but I see

how you may have drawn such a conclusion.

 

I appreciate you expressing your doubts, but Canakya doesn't essentially

recommend anything to anyone. He is essentially narrating or cataloging the

repertoire of means available to a ksatriya. I would imagine that there

would be ksatriyas who never occassioned a need to employ some of the more

diabolical-sounding strategems. For example from modern medicine, in

diagnosing a rare particular disease (forgot the name), the only way to do

so is to taste the feces of the patient. By taste only can one determine. So

that doesn't mean that you are going to taste every patient's feces, but

when other symptoms point to the possibility, then in those rare cases a

modern physician may indeed have to resort to such a distasteful diagnostic

means. This material world is no place for a gentleman.

 

Chanakya, being a thorough scientist, leaves no stone unturned in describing

the ways ksatriyas can defend the interests of the Lord in relation with the

Earth. No one would want to be in a position to employ such means, but what

if there was no alternative under the circumstances and hundreds of

devotees' lives depended on it? You would appreciate it being listed in the

book, at that time, I suppose.

 

At the same time I appreciate your call for caution. I think it goes without

saying that this knowledge, like any other, needs to be handled carefully.

The ksatriya training Srila Prabhupada called for in 1974 and thereafter

certainly needs to include understanding the value of restraint and taking

guidance in identifying hostile forces, and selecting appropriate means to

nuetralize their harmful effects with full consideration of the time, place

and circumstances. That's good judgment. Brahmanas are needed for that.

 

"Such standard texts" as Srila Prabhupada say, also includes the

Artha-sastra, which you admit has a place and a function to serve. That

Srila Prabhupada is not recorded to have mentioned artha-sastra may be

because he was not aware of it. Apparently it had become all but lost. I

recall it was published in 1907 in Malayalam in Madras, and then English

editions came out in the 50s and 60s. So perhaps he didn't have access to

it. I can't say, but that certainly doesn't devalue its intrinsic and self-e

vident value. It could help ussubject to our own unqiue constraints, of

course.

 

You say Arthsastra is subordinate to Dharmasastra, and I would like to see a

reference to that. I don't have a problem understanding it, but I have

always understood them to be "integrated" social sciences like the social

body is made of differentiated yet integrated parts. You can't have a

society without a philosophical aim, nor a society without a system for

organization, nor a society without an economic system, or a political

system. Certainly the social, economic and political systems should serve

the aim of the society, and in our case that is "sanatana-dharma".

 

So if this is your intent, then fine, but it does not in any way contradict

or minimize the importance and value of the science of artha, any more than

the importance and value of ksatriyas as a class to society, who are also

supposed to be subordinate to brahmanas. I don't believe this should be

approached as a "battle of the sastras". They all have their place and

function. I suggest we need them all to run a society, and not one to the

exclusion of the others. Still we should understand their relative

strengths, and value.

 

I don't find anywhere in Srila Prabhupada's teachings a hesitancy to embrace

the Vedic model Canakya represents in Arthasastra in its potential entirety.

ISKCON policy could potentially manifest along the lines of some of

Canakya's unsavory remedies, but then again, it may never do so. That would

depend upon time, place and cicumstances and ultimately the arrangement and

sanction of the Supersoul.

 

Plausibly the information may help a leader identify some underhanded

attacks by an enemy that empowers him to counteract them, though he might

not resort to them himself. A leader with good character will use restraint

and good judgment and will be guided internally and externally to take just

action. Others will not, thus Canakya offers salutations in the first line

to "Sukracarya and Brihaspati" the promulgators of this science to the

demons and demigods.

 

Why be concerned that no previous acarya has certified this book? Well, one

suspicious thought I always had in relation to this book (being a devout

follower of Canakya's teaching not to trust anyone very easily) is the

distinct possibility that THIS BOOK IS THE WEAPON!!! Yes I especially don't

trust Canakya!

 

Why should a true follower of Canakya trust even Canakya himself? I would

imagine Canakya would have tested his followers and wouldbe imitators with

all kinds of obstacles and traps, otherwise, anyone who just gets his hand

on this little book can reproduce his results? No way, my suspicious mind

tells me, "He wouldn't have made it that easy." Yogis re like that, and they

test their disciples before revealing all their secrets.

 

Intelligence also means to consider the dark side. Considering the top

secret classification of this knowledge certainly it could be an

intellectually booby-trapped manuscript that was purposefully used to

proliferate flawed strategems. We really have no idea since the manuscripts

just appeared out of no where. Canakya could have leaked such a book to the

ememy as a means to defeat them! Especially since the science of politics

had apparently diminished in that period, maybe to the point where his

counterpart (the advisor of the Nandas) would have been unable to detect the

modifications and flaws. Canakaya even opens the possibility in the last

verse that this was "a rushed job", and not a pain-staking well-researched

effort.

 

Under this scenario, the Nandas would have been thinking that they

stole/acquired Canakya's secret book of political tricks/science. Thus when

they tried to use it against him, it served his purpose and their undoing.

Clearly the good info and the booby trapped info could also be existing

side-by-side, and only Canakya would have conclusively known the difference.

A real Canakya would have been prepared for the event of the king or an

enemy making the mistake and offense of stealing his books, or trying to

make Canakya irrelevant! Ooops. That would be the last mistake they made. I

can conceive a Canakya certainly doing something like that. So be careful

as this is serious potentially high-stakes life and death reading matter.

 

To furter this argument, Canakya himself says "Never trust a politician".

Since Canakya is identified as a politician, then why should we trust

anything he wrote? hahaha Just food for thought. Of course, somethings he

states are obvious and clear, but some of the critical stuff, I would

imagine, could only be tested at the critical moments when your life

depended on it and you can't turn back and must make a decision, and that is

clearly where Canakya would have placed his ideological traps and lured his

enemies, potentially making the book "a pitcher of poison with a layer of

cream on top", as he says.

 

He does give a potential "fair warning" on the cover by calling it

"Kautilya", or the book written by a crooked and deceptive author. Doesn't

that fact alone send up red flags all over the place?

 

Also some of the more archane and apparently impossible remedies may in fact

be impossible and placed there as a diversion for greedy enemies who receive

the book to divert their development works and drain away their resources.

Instead of building their defenses they are spending time and energy trying

to become invisible. It could also be a psy-ops strategy to bluff the enemy

into thinking you possess all these advanced capabilities. This is a

political book written by the master politician himself, so everything is

possible.

 

Seriously read it with caution and if anyone detects any booby traps please

let me know.

 

To satisfy the regulators and the attorneys; "BUYER BEWARE". Ksatriyas

should not try to implement Arthasastra at home on their own without the

supervision of a brahmana as intelligent as Canakya. You have been warned.

 

The bottomline here for ksatriyas and ksatrya-wannabes is that there is NO

REPLACEMENT FOR A QUALIFIED BRAHMANA. They will always have superior value

to any book you might be able to get your hands on. Having the book and

knowing when to implement what against who is not so simple.

 

That this book is not received in disciplic succession certainly brings such

doubts of its authenticity and intention into question. God only knows what

he wrote, and He isn't telling. Still there are valuable ideas in this book

any real brahmana should be able to extract with sufficient care and caution

without setting off a potential booby-trap.

 

Everything needs to be considered with intelligence, especially these

material sciences that are not as forgiving of error as the process of

Bhakti, but since we are approaching it in devotional service, we can surely

count on Krishna's protection. Not taking the risk means to risk not

preaching.

 

Hare Krishna.