Why Wouldn’t I Want to be Reborn as Chanakya?

Sex is a part of a relationship, not the entire being around which a relationship revolves.

Chanakya was considered as one of the most authentic philanthropists, astute thinker, rigid teacher, and shrewd politician of his times. His words of wisdom have been loved by many generations including the one that faced the rage of Alexandra The Great.

This book ‘Chanakya Neeti’ has changed my view on Chanakya entirely and the more I read about his pearls of wisdom, the more hatred I felt in my blood for him. It had 17 Chapters filled with the translation of his shlok’s in the Sanskrit language. While many shlok’s with critical political commentary made sense to me, his view on women turned my ears all blank and scratchy.

I am listing four reasons along with the shlok’s which I didn’t like at all and justifying reasons why wouldn’t I want to be reborn as Chanakya?

First Shlok

Protect the money you save for hard times. Protect your woman with the money. Protect yourself with the money and the woman.

Comment: Saving money for hard times is a foresighted thing. There is no disagreeing. That money should be used to protect your woman if required because she is the source of happiness in your life. But if the situation arises, you should not hesitate to sacrifice the money and the woman both to buy your protection.

My View: Who the hell gave him the right to talk about women in such a degrading language? Why men cannot sacrifice themselves for the love or for that matter source of their happiness? Why men cannot think of ways to pay back to the women the same way women do it all the time? Why did Chanakya always advised about killing/sacrificing/compromising women but never about men, not in one great shlok’s of his life? I am glad he is dead else I would have killed him.

Second Shlok

Do not trust clawed beasts, long and sharp horned animals, persons in arms, women, and royalty.

Comment: The first three are predatory by nature and prone to violence. You run the risk of getting physically harmed any time they feel provoked. Women and royalty are fickle. They can turn against you or ditch you any time at their whims. The history is replete with stories of the sufferings of people caused by the treachery and fickle-mindedness of the women and the royalty.

My View: I believe this fickle-minded man didn’t hear stories of strong and intelligent women ever in his life. He kept on emphasizing women ruining the society, world, and more authentically the species of men. But nowhere he ever mentioned about how women since centuries got betrayed by the men who slept around, beaten them up to the death, took their kids away, and never looked back. I wanted him to shadow some light on both ends while he kept on lynching the status of women from all ends.

Third Shlok

Women have twice the food consumption, four times the shame, six times the courage, and eight times the sex hunger in comparison to men.

Comment: It is difficult to guess on what grounds Chanakya based his food consumption statistics. Women don’t eat more than men. Maybe, a woman’s tongue has an itch for spicy and sweet-sour things and she whiles away her idle hours by munching a little of this and a little of that. But still, the total food taken will not justify the above statistics. Or was it facts multiplied by bias against women?

Women are more bashful by nature. They can’t be shameless otherwise the society will fall on them like tons of bricks. After all, not satisfied with the bashfulness endowed by nature, male-oriented orthodox societies raised walls of veils, pardhas and ghunghats. The woman is courageous of course because of a supreme forbearance she must display to carry the burden of the Sati Savitri and Bhartiya Nari status accorded to her by our society. She has to make all the sacrifices for the good of the family, toil like a slave, act mute and docile cow and dedicate her life to the service of lord husband. How can she survive without courage?

As far as sex is concerned, nature has a based reproduction system in women. So, her basic instinct has to be stronger. Besides, in sex game male has to perform an active role which exposes him to physical and emotional limitations. He has to run a race that has no end. At some point, he is bound to flag down were to him a woman’s even normal demand would appear eight times unfair.

My View: Chanakya was on weed while writing this particular shlok or maybe the kind of women he was fucking around with was not so normal. Where is the analytical tool that measures we eat more than men? Where is the measurement tool of sex drive either?

I have worked in different offices at different points of time in life. I have heard all sorts of stories.

How sex just became like another task because those women weren’t getting enough sleep after waking up every day at 5 am? Their husbands demanded sex and they just wanted to get rid of it in 5 minutes without any sexual pleasure because they didn’t get enough rest. And here Chanakya is so sure about women having more sex drive than men in life. I want him to prove all his points to me with examples and I command him today to come out of his grave.

Fourth Shlok

In this world, which is a boiling cauldron of miseries three things provide cool relief, a worthy son, a devoted wife, and discourse by saintly people.

Comment: It is evident that the life of a common man in those days was wretched. Plagued by grinding poverty, exploited to the bones by the feudal system, ruled to ruin by tyrant kings, straight-jacketed by cast equations, drained by rituals and traditions, burdened by large families and stunted by own blind faiths and ignorance, a common man’s fate was pathetic. A good son and a loving wife came as only consolations. And discourses by holy men rationalized his misery. Compensation of sorts. There was nothing else to draw solace from.

My View: Again he emphasized the status of a devoted and loving wife. I am angry and wish I could have slapped him right here at this moment. Why do people demand lots of love, courage, support, devotion, and worshipping from women in their lives? What the hell is so wrong with this world? Why cannot men be placed in the same position and ask for all the devotion and lovable vibes? It hurts me to see women only as a sculpture of some sort of satisfaction in all hooks and corners of life. She cannot breathe on her own forget about living under the whims of looking out for a devoted man.

Verdict

There are more shlok’s than I would have ever imagined where he talked about the beauty and character of women. He didn’t write the same about men. Even if he did it sounded more like an authority to be a man than being a good human being in the first place.

He even claimed if an old man gets married to a young woman he cannot satisfy her so she ultimately becomes a poison in his life. Like seriously?

There are couples in this world who couldn’t become parents irrespective of the same age and still stood united to face any obstacle in life and here he talked about such a bullshit concept. Sex is a part of a relationship, not the entire being around which a relationship revolves. People do stick together especially the ones who know one day everything will vanish except their love for each other.

I may have been rude in this article and I respect your concern about Chanakya if at all you love him by any chance. I hold no grudges against you. I have already scolded the dead Chanakya.

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Gurpreet Dhariwal is the author of “My Soul Rants: Poems of a Born Spectator.” Her eBook is now available at Google PlayStore, Amazon, and Kindle. Connect with Gurpreet on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube