Shloka 10
Power and Prudence — Chanakya Niti
संसारतापदग्धानां त्रयो विश्रान्तिहेतवः ।
अपत्यं च कलत्रं च सतां सङ्गतिरेव च ॥
saṃsāratāpadagdhānāṃ trayo viśrāntihetavaḥ |
apatyaṃ ca kalatraṃ ca satāṃ saṅgatireva ca ||
For those scorched by the heat of worldly life, there are three causes of rest: children, a spouse, and the company of the virtuous.
FAQs
In the broader Nīti-śāstra tradition, aphoristic verses often map social stability and psychological relief onto household structures (family and marriage) and moral communities (sat-saṅga). Such formulations reflect premodern South Asian assumptions in which the household (gṛhastha) and the company of the virtuous were treated as central supports amid the perceived hardships of saṃsāra.
The verse frames viśrānti as a form of relief from saṃsāra-tāpa (“the heat/affliction of worldly life”), locating that relief in three relational domains: lineage/children (apatya), conjugal or household partnership (kalatra), and ethically valued companionship (satāṃ saṅgati). The emphasis is descriptive of a traditional social-ethical valuation rather than an abstract metaphysical definition.
The compound saṃsāra-tāpa-dagdhānām employs a heat/burning metaphor (tāpa, dagdha) commonly used in Sanskrit moral and philosophical registers to depict distress. The term satāṃ saṅgati (“association with the good”) is a compact ethical expression, where sat functions both socially (good people) and morally (virtuous), indicating that relief is conceptualized not only materially (family) but also through moral community.