Shloka 12
Learning and Knowledge — Chanakya Niti
नात्यन्तं सरलैर्भाव्यं गत्वा पश्य वनस्थलीम् ।
छिद्यन्ते सरलास्तत्र कुब्जास्तिष्ठन्ति पादपाः ॥
nātyantaṃ saralair bhāvyaṃ gatvā paśya vanasthalīm |
chidyante saralās tatra kubjās tiṣṭhanti pādapāḥ ||
Do not be overly straightforward. Go and see the forest: the straight trees are cut down there, while the crooked ones remain standing.
FAQs
Within the Chanakya-nīti/Nītiśāstra tradition, such verses function as pragmatic observations about survival and risk within hierarchical courts and competitive social environments of early historic South Asia. The imagery aligns with a broader genre of didactic aphorisms that encode political caution through natural metaphors rather than explicit institutional description.
The verse frames “saralatā” (straightness/straightforwardness) as a quality that can become vulnerable when it is “atyanta” (excessive). Rather than offering a formal definition, it contrasts two archetypes—straight versus crooked—suggesting that visible, easily exploitable qualities attract harm in contexts marked by extraction or predation.
The metaphor hinges on polysemy: “sarala” denotes both a straight tree and a straightforward person, while “kubja” denotes physical crookedness and, by extension, indirectness. The passive “chidyante” (“are cut”) foregrounds an impersonal social mechanism—selection and removal—mirrored in the forest economy, where straight timber is preferred, while irregular growth is left untouched.