Shloka 4
Liberation and Truth — Chanakya Niti
लोभश्चेदगुणेन किं पिशुनता यद्यस्ति किं पातकैः
सत्यं चेत्तपसा च किं शुचि मनो यद्यस्ति तीर्थेन किम्।
सौजन्यं यदि किं गुणैः सुमहिमा यद्यस्ति किं मण्डनैः
सद्विद्या यदि किं धनैरपयशो यद्यस्ति किं मृत्युना ॥
lobhaś ced aguṇena kiṃ piśunatā yady asti kiṃ pātakaiḥ |
satyaṃ cet tapasā ca kiṃ śuci mano yady asti tīrthena kim |
saujanyaṃ yadi kiṃ guṇaiḥ sumahimā yady asti kiṃ maṇḍanaiḥ |
sadvidyā yadi kiṃ dhanair apayaśo yady asti kiṃ mṛtyunā ||
If greed is present, what use are virtues? If backbiting is present, what use is counting sins? If truth is present, what need is austerity? If the mind is pure, what need is pilgrimage? If civility is present, what need are other qualities? If innate greatness is present, what need are ornaments? If true learning is present, what need is wealth? If disgrace is present, what use is death?
FAQs
In the broader nīti-śāstra milieu, such verses function as compact didactic units used to train judgment in courts and educated households. The contrasts reflect a social world where pilgrimage, austerity, ornamentation, wealth, and reputation were publicly legible markers; the verse reorders these by privileging inner dispositions (truth, purity of mind, learning) over external or compensatory practices.
The verse uses repeated conditional clauses (cet/yadi) to assert that certain core states—truthfulness, mental purity, genuine learning, inherent dignity—render other practices or possessions redundant, while certain vices—greed, backbiting, disgrace—negate or overshadow other moral categories or outcomes. The structure frames ethical evaluation as dependent on foundational dispositions rather than additive acts.
The shloka is built on anaphora and antithesis: a chain of 'if X, what use is Y?' (… kiṃ … kim) that produces a cumulative argumentative rhythm. Terms like tīrtha (pilgrimage ford) and maṇḍana (ornament) function as culturally specific metonyms for external purification and social display, contrasted with manas-śuci (purity of mind) and satya (truth) as internalized ethical criteria.