Shloka 17
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
इन्द्रियाणि च संयम्य रागद्वेषविवर्जितः ।
समदुःखसुखः शान्तः तत्त्वज्ञः साधुरुच्यते ॥
indriyāṇi ca saṃyamya rāgadveṣavivarjitaḥ |
samaduḥkhasukhaḥ śāntaḥ tattvajñaḥ sādhur ucyate ||
He is called a “sādhu” who restrains the senses, is free from attachment and aversion, meets pleasure and pain with equanimity, is calm, and knows the true principles (tattva).
FAQs
Within the broader Nīti-śāstra milieu, such verses function as concise ethical typologies used in elite education and courtly or scholastic instruction. The terminology (e.g., indriya-saṃyama, rāga-dveṣa, śānti, tattva) overlaps with ascetic and philosophical discourse found across classical Sanskrit traditions, suggesting a shared intellectual environment in which moral psychology and self-governance were treated as foundations for public and private conduct.
Here “sādhu” is characterized descriptively through a cluster of traits: restraint of the senses (indriya-saṃyama), absence of attachment and aversion (rāga-dveṣa-vivarjana), equanimity toward pleasure and pain (sama-duḥkha-sukhatva), calmness (śānti), and knowledge of principles or reality (tattvajñatā). The definition is behavioral and cognitive rather than genealogical or institutional.
The verse employs compact adjectival compounds typical of didactic Sanskrit: “rāgadveṣavivarjitaḥ” and “samaduḥkhasukhaḥ” compress moral-psychological ideals into single descriptors. The pairing of rāga/dveṣa reflects a common binary in Indian philosophical vocabulary for affective partiality, while “tattvajña” situates virtue not only in conduct but in epistemic status, linking ethical identity to insight into “tattva” (principle/reality) in a manner characteristic of classical scholastic registers.