Shloka 4
Human Nature — Chanakya Niti
आयुः कर्म च वित्तं च विद्या निधनमेव च ।
पञ्चैतानि हि सृज्यन्ते गर्भस्थस्यैव देहिनः ॥
āyuḥ karma ca vittaṃ ca vidyā nidhanaṃ eva ca |
pañcaitāni hi sṛjyante garbhasthasyaiva dehinaḥ ||
Lifespan, deeds (karma), wealth, learning, and death—these five are said to be set for a being while still in the womb.
FAQs
Within the broader Sanskrit nīti (ethical-political aphorism) tradition, this verse reflects a commonly attested premodern discourse on destiny and moral causality, where key life outcomes are portrayed as fixed from birth (or even before birth). Such formulations appear across dharma and nīti literature as compact statements about the limits of human control, often framed through concepts like karman and preordination.
Determinism is conveyed through the claim that five life parameters—āyuḥ (lifespan), karma (deeds and their moral consequence), vitta (material fortune), vidyā (learning), and nidhana (death)—are ‘sṛjyante’ (brought into being/ordained) for the dehin (embodied person) while ‘garbhastha’ (in the womb). The verse presents these as already-set conditions rather than outcomes negotiated later through choice.
The compact list (pañca) uses parallel nominal compounds and coordination (…ca…ca) to create an enumerative, aphoristic style typical of nīti verses. The verb sṛjyante (‘are created/ordained’) combined with garbhasthasya (‘of the womb-abiding one’) functions as a metaphor of prenatal inscription—an image used in classical Sanskrit to express pre-established allotment of life circumstances.