Shloka 21
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
सुश्रान्तोऽपि वहेद्भारं शीतोष्णं न च पश्यति ।
सन्तुष्टश्चरते नित्यं त्रीणि शिक्षेच्च गर्दभात् ॥
suśrānto 'pi vahed bhāraṃ śītoṣṇaṃ na ca paśyati |
santuṣṭaś carate nityaṃ trīṇi śikṣec ca gardabhāt ||
Even when worn out, it bears the load, noticing neither cold nor heat; ever moving, it remains content. Learn these three traits from the donkey.
FAQs
Within the broader Nīti-śāstra milieu, such verses commonly employ animal exempla to encode observations about labor, endurance, and temperament in premodern social settings. The imagery reflects agrarian and caravan economies where pack animals were familiar reference points, allowing moralized descriptions to circulate as compact aphorisms.
The verse frames endurance through the motifs of carrying loads despite fatigue and remaining unaffected by seasonal extremes (śītoṣṇa), while contentment is expressed via the term santuṣṭa and the depiction of continual movement without complaint. These are presented as traditionally attributed traits rather than argued as a philosophical doctrine.
Key terms such as suśrānta (intensified exhaustion) and śītoṣṇa (a dvandva compound pairing opposites) heighten the contrast between hardship and persistence. The phrase trīṇi śikṣec ca gardabhāt uses the donkey as an exemplar (dṛṣṭānta), a common rhetorical strategy in Sanskrit didactic literature where animal behavior is stylized into memorable ethical shorthand.