Why Indians in general are not upright in their dealings!

Jawahar lal Nehru used to say

" baat aise karo ki har baat ke 100 pehlu hon, koi mudda to ho baat badalne kaa". 

"Speak in such a way that whatever u speak shud have multiple meanings and multiple contexts and multiple aspects, so that if needed, u could renege on what u said."

Indians consider Chanakya to be a great administrator and one of the wisest man to have ever born. They treat him as their Wisdom Guru.

In his book, Chanakya Niti, (Chapter 07, couplet no.12), Chanakya says

"Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing."

Since Indian society treats Chanakya as their Guru, they follow his words and this could be the reason that Indians in general are not upright and straight-forward people.

Quote

Indians consider Chanakya to be a great administrator and one of the wisest man to have ever born. They treat him as their Wisdom Guru.

In his book, Chanakya Niti, (Chapter 07, couplet no.12), Chanakya says

"Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing."

Since Indian society treats Chanakya as their Guru, they follow his words and this could be the reason that Indians in general are not upright and straight-forward people.

First of all, Chanakya is not a Sikh character and as such there is no need for us to defend him as a whole but still he was a very remarkable man who wrote about Rajneeti in Sanskrit two thousand years ago. In order to give Sikhs, a basic understanding of his Neeti, Siri Guru Gobind Singh jee had one of his best scholar (out of 52): Kavi Sainapat, to translate Chanakya Neeti from Sanskrit to easy language. This translated work is taught to this day in Taksals and other Deras that give traditional religious education.

The translation above is not correct. The word "upright" is not the correct translation. Chanakya here is saying that one should not fully show all your intentions when dealing in a political sphere. When you are negotiating a political deal, you ought not to open you heart out to the other party. The other party should not know your inner intentions. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the British worked out the Sutlej treaty, both sides used all their political acumen to get the best deal. The British later regretted doing the deal as it gave free hand to Ranjit Singh west of Sutlej.

Rest, all of Chanakya Neeti is not Gurmat and as such there is no need for us to defend it but by the same token there is no need to call all Indians crooked and thugs and blame Chanakya for that.

Kulbir Singh

Maybe "outright" instead of "upright".

sk Wrote:
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> Maybe "outright" instead of "upright".


Chanakya is giving example of straight trees versus crooked trees. So Chanakya is saying that dont be straight forward in ur dealing.