Chanakya Neeti for Women | | Aparna Sharma | Consulting Editor | The People Management

Chanakya is one of the greatest figures of wisdom & knowledge in Indian history. He is touted as the “Pioneer Economist of India.” His famous works include “Chanakya Neeti”, “Arthashastra” and “Neetishastra”. Chanakya is also known by the name of Kautilya & Vishnugupta.

Chanakya’s brand of wisdom is ageless & immutable. “Chanakya Neeti” is, in fact, this great thinker’s pithy observation to impart practical wisdom to the people of his time. But these teachings are so fundamental & their relevance is almost everlasting.

Chanakya Neeti For Woman-

1. To liberate himself from the clutches of this mirthless world, Man must worship God with pure devotion. To attain the pleasures of celestial life, he must adhere strictly to ethical and scriptural instructions. If this is impossible, then he must at least take care not to be captivated by womanly graces.

2. It is always essential to save money. A man can attract a woman, only if he has wealth. But he must never lose sight of the fact, that they are both fickle in nature. Both money and woman can deceive him at any moment!

3.  A man must give particularly careful consideration to marriage, for any decision taken in haste can ruin his life forever. He must always marry into a family which enjoys an equal status in society. A girl may have no illustrious lineage, then he must not hesitate to marry her, for beauty is merely skin deep. But even if a girl is a ravishing beauty & if she belong to an unworthy family, he must not accept her as his wife!

4.  A woman is believed to be more delicate than a man. But a woman is four times more brazen than a man. She also has six times his courage and eight times his strength of passion!

5. Duplicity, deception, greed, profligacy and quarrelsomeness are the natural characteristics of a woman. One must not feel confounded, seeing her behave this way!

6. Only a chaste, astute, virtuous and mellifluous woman, who remains faithful to her husband, truly deserves his patronage. Such a wife is a godsend to any man. Blessed, is the man, who has found such a woman to be his wife!

7. What is man’s greatest fascination? It is the woman. She is the hub around which his mind revolves. A man is powerfully influenced by her captivating, coquettish ways. She soon succeeds in confining him to a prison of passion and irrational behavior!

8. A woman by nature is courageous, deceitful, foolish, greedy and cruel. These are the innate attributes of a woman.

9. Staying close to the king, fire, the Guru and woman yield disastrous results but staying far away from them do not produce any good result either. So we must chose the mean position, i.e. we shouldn’t be very far off from or very near to them. [Proximity with the king might give some occasional benefit but the situation would expose one to the royal wrath consequence might be disastrous. The same is true with fire, woman and the Guru.]

10. (True) woman (wife) is she who is pious and deft (in her work), who is faithful to her husband, who loves her husband and who is truthful to her husband. [ Chanakya lists five qualities for an ideal wife: she ought to be pious, deft, faithful, loving and truthful to her husband.]

11. Wicked wife, roguish friend, imprudent servant and staying in a snake infested house cause death. There is no doubt about it. [Since all the conditions are self evident, they do not need separate explanations.]

12. Rivers, weapon-wielders (having weapon in their hands), animals (beasts) with horn and paws, women and the members of the royal family should never be taken for granted. [One should never attempt to cross the river without assessing its depth and width, its current strength, etc. Similarly those having weapon in their hand should never be taken for granted, for even the slightest suggestion of the provocation is enough to make them use their weapon. He has no preparation to make, the weapon is already in his hand. The same is true with the animals with horn and paws-a little carelessness are fickle by their nature; hence one can’t be sure about their behavior. Those who take these for granted suffer the adverse consequences.]

13. It is better not to have a king than have a king who is tyrant; not to have a friend than have a wicked friend; not to have a wife than have an unfaithful wife. [A tyrant king, a wicked friend, a bad disciple and an unfaithful wife should not be acceptable, it is better to go without them, for in such cases their absence ensures more peace and happiness than their presence.]

14. Shyness is the jewel of women.

15. Women are fickled minded.