Indra Bṛhaspati Saṃvāda

This saṃvāda (dialogue) is in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 84. Indra asks the teacher Bṛhaspati what single practice, done well, makes a person the standard (pramāṇa) for all beings and wins great fame. Bṛhaspati answers: sāntva, which is kind and honest speech, free of deceit, spoken with a smile and offered first. Bhīshma tells this old itihāsa to Yudhishṭhira to teach him how to draw all his subjects toward the king through well-used speech.

The frame

Bhīshma is teaching how to win the hearts of one’s own people through mantrasiddhi, success through right counsel. The people’s loyalty is not won by daṇḍa (force) alone, nor by dāna (gifts) alone, but by the quality of how one speaks to them. This is sāntva. As his example, Bhīshma gives the dialogue between Indra and the teacher Bṛhaspati.

Indra’s question

Indra asks Bṛhaspati what the one ekārtha (the one basic act) is that, when done perfectly, makes a person the pramāṇa (the standard, the one all look to) for all beings and wins him great kīrti (fame).

Bṛhaspati’s answer: sāntva

Bṛhaspati answers at once: sāntva, kind and honest speech. This one practice, done well, makes a person dear to all living beings and brings him great fame. He goes on:

  • A person who keeps his face tight and will not speak has no priya-vāk (pleasant speech) and becomes the object of everyone’s dvesha (hatred).
  • One who looks carefully at the situation and speaks first, who greets a visitor with a smile before the visitor has had to speak of his sorrow, is one in whose company people feel at ease.
  • Even dāna (giving) without priya-vākya (pleasant words) is like food without vegetables. It does not satisfy in every case.
  • A person who speaks sweet words can keep the whole world under his influence, even if he has actually taken the people’s wealth. Such is the power of sāntva over daṇḍa and dāna.
  • One who holds the daṇḍa and wishes to rule must above all speak priya-vākyāni (pleasant words). That alone bears fruit, and the people are not made to suffer.

Bṛhaspati ends by saying that sāntva, well used, pleasant, sweet and served at the right time, has no equal.

Bhīshma’s closing words

When this teaching was given, Bhīshma says, Indra heard Bṛhaspati’s instruction and then practised exactly that. Bhīshma closes the chapter by advising Yudhishṭhira to do the same and to use perfect sāntva in his own rule.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, Chapter 84