Shloka 2
Learning and Knowledge — Chanakya Niti
धनधान्यप्रयोगेषु विद्यासङ्ग्रहणे तथा ।
आहारे व्यवहारे च त्यक्तलज्जः सुखी भवेत् ॥
dhana-dhānya-prayogeṣu vidyā-saṅgrahaṇe tathā |
āhāre vyavahāre ca tyakta-lajjaḥ sukhī bhavet ||
In using wealth and grain, in acquiring learning, and likewise in food and social dealings, one who sets aside shame lives happily.
FAQs
In the broader Nītiśāstra milieu, such verses reflect pragmatic norms associated with household management and public life in early and medieval South Asian literary culture, where wealth, grain, education, and transactional conduct were treated as core supports of stability and status. The formulation suggests an audience engaged in everyday economic and social negotiation rather than exclusively royal administration.
Here lajjā functions as a social-emotional restraint—embarrassment or inhibiting modesty—framed as counterproductive in contexts requiring practical initiative (resource use, learning, eating, and dealings). The verse’s phrasing treats the suspension of such inhibition as a condition associated with ease or contentment, without specifying moral praise beyond that association.
The compound pairs (dhana–dhānya) and the locatives (prayogeṣu, saṅgrahaṇe, āhāre, vyavahāre) create a catalog of domains spanning economy, education, and social practice. The term tyakta-lajjaḥ is a karmadhāraya-style compound emphasizing a state of having 'set aside' inhibition; the verse uses sukhī as an evaluative descriptor, presenting a culturally legible linkage between uninhibited pragmatism and well-being.