Shloka 19
Virtue and Vice — Chanakya Niti
जन्म जन्म यदभ्यस्तं दानमध्ययनं तपः ।
तेनैवाभ्यासयोगेन देही चाभ्यस्यते पुनः ॥
janma janma yad abhyastaṃ dānam adhyayanaṃ tapaḥ |
tenai vābhyāsayogena dehī cābhyasyate punaḥ ||
What one has practiced birth after birth—giving, study, austerity—by the power of that very habit, the embodied being practices again.
FAQs
In the broader Sanskrit nīti and dharma literature, moral and intellectual dispositions are frequently framed through the idiom of saṃskāra (formed dispositions) and rebirth. This verse reflects a historically widespread South Asian theory that ethical conduct and disciplined learning persist as cultivated tendencies across lifetimes, functioning as an explanatory model for character formation.
Continuity is expressed through the compound "abhyāsa-yoga" (a linkage through repeated practice), suggesting that repetition itself forms a causal bridge by which prior cultivation reappears. The verse presents dāna, adhyayana, and tapas as representative domains of such cultivation rather than an exhaustive list.
The repetition "janma janma" is a stylistic intensifier indicating recurrence across multiple births. The term "dehī" foregrounds embodiment, aligning the claim with a metaphysical vocabulary common in classical Sanskrit where an enduring agent is distinguished from transient bodily states; the verb "abhyasyate" reinforces the theme of habituation and re-enactment.