Shloka 14
Family and Relationships — Chanakya Niti
तृणं ब्रह्मविदः स्वर्गस्तृणं शूरस्य जीवितम् ।
जिताशस्य तृणं नारी निःस्पृहस्य तृणं जगत् ॥
tṛṇaṃ brahmavidaḥ svargas tṛṇaṃ śūrasya jīvitam |
jitāśasya tṛṇaṃ nārī niḥspṛhasya tṛṇaṃ jagat ||
For the knower of Brahman, heaven is but grass; for the hero, life is but grass; for one who has conquered hope and desire, a woman is but grass; for the cravingless, the world is but grass.
FAQs
The verse reflects a common premodern Sanskrit rhetorical style in which ideals are expressed through stark comparisons. Such formulations appear across nīti and dharma-oriented literature, where renunciation (vairāgya), heroic valor, and mastery over desire are depicted as producing indifference to ordinarily prized goals such as heaven, life, social attachment, and worldly status.
Detachment is framed as a graded indifference to valued objects: spiritual insight renders heaven negligible; heroic commitment renders life negligible; conquest of āśā (often read as hope, desire, or expectation) renders sexual/romantic attachment negligible; and absence of craving (niḥspṛhatā) renders the entire world negligible. The verse describes these as conventional types rather than as universally applicable norms.
The repeated use of tṛṇa (“grass”) functions as a conventional Sanskrit metaphor for something treated as insignificant or disposable. The parallel syntax (tṛṇaṃ X … tṛṇaṃ Y …) creates a mnemonic aphoristic cadence typical of nīti literature. The compound jitāśasya is philologically notable: āśā can denote hope/expectation or desire, and the compound suggests a person who has subdued that motivating impulse.