108 - Bruhaspati-niti-Sara

Suta said: 

1. Now I shall explain the essence of Polity based on Economics for the benefit of kings and others. It is holy and conducive to longevity, heavenly bliss, etc. 

2. A person wishing for success and achievement should always associate with good men: never with the wicked; it is good neither for this nor for the other world. 

3. One should always avoid arguments with mean-minded base people and shun even the very sight of the wicked. He should avoid enmity with friends and intimacy with persons serving the enemy. 

4. Even a scholar comes to grief by trying to advise a foolish disciple, by supporting a wicked wife and by keeping the company of wicked men.

5. One should keep aloof from a brahmin foolishly puerile, a kshatriya averse to fighting, a vaishya sluggish and inactive and a shudra hot-headed and vain due to complete, defective study. 

6. Alliance with an enemy or estrangement with a friend should be indulged in at proper time. A true scholar bides his time after a careful consideration of causes and effects. 

7. Time allows all living beings to mature, time brings the dissolution of all people. Even when people are asleep, time is watchful and awake, it is difficult to transgress time. 

8. The semen virile flows out at proper time and develops itself in the womb. It is time that causes creation and it is time again that effects the dissolution. 

9. The passage of time is incomprehensible. It has two-fold functions, an apparent gross movement at one place and a subtle invisible movement at another. 

10. The divine preceptor Bruhaspati expounded the essence of polity to god Indra which got him omniscience and heavenly glory after killing the asuras. 

11. The worship of gods, brahmins, etc. should be performed by saintly kings and brahmins. They should also perform the horse-sacrifice to wipe off their sins both small and great. 

12. A person never comes to grief if he associates with good people, conducts discourses with scholars and contracts intimate friendship with persons devoid of greed. 

13. Illicit contact with or gay revelries in the company of another man's wife, desire for another man's wealth or residence in another man's house shall never be pursued. 

14. A well-intentioned enemy is actually a kinsman and a kinsman acting against one's interests is an enemy. Sickness in the body is inimical and a herb in the forest is friendly and beneficial. 

15. He is a kinsman who works to our benefit; he is the real father who nurtures and nourishes us; he is a friend where confidence can be placed; it is the native land where sustenance is available. 

16. He is the true servant who is loyal and obedient; it is the real seed that germinates well, she is the real wife who speaks pleasantly and he is the real son who lives to the family tradition. 

17. His life is perfect who has virtues and good qualities; fruitless, indeed, is the life of a man devoid of these two. 

18. A true wife manages the household affairs skilfully, speaks sweet pleasant words, solely dedicates herself to her husband and is loyally devoted to him. 

19-21. The man who has a wife endowed with these qualities is no less than Indra the lord of heaven. He is no ordinary man. The good wife takes her daily bath, applies sweet scents to her body, speaks sweetly, is satisfied with limited quantity of food, is not garrulous, has always auspicious things around her, is very scrupulous in virtuous activities, exhibits her love to her husband by every action and is pleased to surrender herself to his dalliance after the four days of the menstrual flow. She enhances the good luck of everyone. 

22-23. What we call old age is not so dispiriting as a wife devoid of good qualities and possessing all bad traits---ugly eyed, slovenly, quarrelsome, argumentative, visiting other people's house frequently, depending on other people's help, evil in actions and devoid of shame. 

24. A wife who appreciates good qualities, devoted to her husband, and satisfied with the minimum in everything is the real beloved. 

25. It is death indeed if one has a wicked wife, a rogue as a friend, a servant who answers back and serpents infesting his house. 

26. Forsake the contact with wicked people, resort to the assembly of the good; do meritorious acts day and night and remember the unstability of everything. 

27. A woman devoid of love, terrific in appearance, ferocious by nature, more horrible than a serpent round the neck, tigerlike in having ruddy eyes, appearing to spit fire desirous of visiting other houses and cities should never be approached. 

28. Devotion in the son, good deed in the ungrateful coldness in the fire may occur sometime by God's grace; but love in a prostitute is never come across. 

29. Who can be complacent and carefree if serpents infest the house wherever we cast our eyes, if sickness cannot be cured with all appliances of treatment and if death is ever ready to pounce on the body at every age from infancy to old age?