Shloka 8
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
न पश्यति च जन्मान्धः कामान्धो नैव पश्यति ।
मदोन्मत्ता न पश्यन्ति अर्थी दोषं न पश्यति ॥
na paśyati ca janmāndhaḥ kāmāndho naiva paśyati |
madonmattā na paśyanti arthī doṣaṃ na paśyati ||
The blind from birth do not see; those blinded by desire do not see either. Those intoxicated with pride do not see; the profit-driven do not perceive fault.
FAQs
Within the broader nīti (didactic-ethical) tradition associated with Cāṇakya, such verses commonly function as compact observations about impediments to discernment relevant to courtly life, counsel, and social conduct in early and medieval Sanskritic political culture. The categories—desire (kāma), pride/intoxication (mada), and gain-seeking (artha)—reflect recurring concerns in classical Indian moral psychology and statecraft discourse.
The verse frames impaired perception through parallel examples: physical blindness (janmāndha) is presented as an analogy for forms of psychological or motivational “blindness,” namely desire-driven fixation (kāmāndha), pride/intoxication (madonmatta), and acquisitive motivation (arthī), culminating in the claim that such states obscure recognition of doṣa (fault/defect).
The repeated predicate “na paśyati/na paśyanti” (“does not see/do not see”) creates anaphoric emphasis, while compounds like janmāndha and kāmāndha employ “blindness” (andha) as a metaphor for cognitive occlusion. The final clause “arthī doṣaṃ na paśyati” tightens the aphorism by shifting from general non-seeing to a specific object of non-perception—doṣa—highlighting a philological link between perception vocabulary (paś-) and ethical evaluation.