Shloka 21
Human Nature — Chanakya Niti
युगान्ते प्रचलेन्मेरुः कल्पान्ते सप्त सागराः ।
साधवः प्रतिपन्नार्थान्न चलन्ति कदाचन ॥
yugānte pracalen meruḥ kalpānte sapta sāgarāḥ |
sādhavaḥ pratipannārthān na calanti kadācana ||
At the end of an age even Mount Meru may shake, and at the end of a cosmic cycle the seven oceans may churn; yet the good never stray from the purpose they have resolved upon.
FAQs
Within the Chanakya Niti/Nitisara tradition, such verses function as didactic aphorisms circulating in scholastic and courtly milieus, using cosmological time (yuga, kalpa) and well-known mythic geography (Meru, seven oceans) to frame ethical qualities in memorable, hyperbolic form. The social backdrop is an environment where ideals of reliability and constancy were rhetorically valued in administrators, counselors, and householders, and were expressed through widely shared Purāṇic and epic imagery.
Steadfastness is presented as non-deviation (na calanti) from a purpose already undertaken (pratipannārtha). The formulation treats constancy as a defining marker of sādhavaḥ (“good/virtuous persons”), contrasting human moral firmness with the hypothetical instability of even cosmic-scale features at period endings.
The verse employs a conventional Sanskrit rhetorical strategy of atiśayokti (hyperbolic exaggeration): even Meru and the seven oceans—symbols of cosmic stability—are said to be subject to movement at yuga/kalpa boundaries. The compound pratipannārtha (“one whose aim has been adopted/entered upon”) compresses the idea of resolved intent into a single term, while kadācana (“ever/at any time”) intensifies the claim of unwavering constancy.