Shloka 6
Education and Conduct — Chanakya Niti
आपदर्थे धनं रक्षेद्दारान् रक्षेद्धनैरपि ।
आत्मानं सततं रक्षेद्दारैरपि धनैरपि ॥
āpadarthe dhanaṃ rakṣed dārān rakṣed dhanair api |
ātmānaṃ satataṃ rakṣed dārair api dhanair api ||
In calamity, guard wealth for emergencies; to protect one’s family, spend wealth if needed; but always protect one’s own life, even at the cost of family and wealth.
FAQs
In the broader niti (pragmatic-ethical) tradition, such verses are commonly read as reflecting household and political economies in early classical South Asia, where scarcity, conflict, and sudden reversals (āpada) were assumed social realities. The prioritization of assets, kin, and personal survival aligns with a genre that catalogs strategies of preservation rather than devotional or metaphysical ideals.
The verse presents a tiered ordering: wealth is framed as a reserve for emergencies; family/spousal relations are framed as preservable through the use of wealth; and the self (ātman, in the sense of one’s life/person) is framed as the highest-preservation priority, described as continuously to be safeguarded even when other attachments or resources are expended.
The parallel construction (repetition of rakṣet and the instrumental phrasing “...air api”) creates a stepped escalation in what may be spent to preserve what is deemed higher. The term dāra, while literally “wife/spouse(s),” often functions metonymically for household and dependents in Sanskrit aphoristic literature; ātmānam here is best read pragmatically as the person/life rather than as a metaphysical doctrine, consistent with the niti genre’s idiom.