Shloka 10
Ethics of Action — Chanakya Niti
नाग्निहोत्रं विना वेदा न च दानं विना क्रिया ।
न भावेन विना सिद्धिस्तस्माद्भावो हि कारणम् ॥
nāgnihotraṁ vinā vedā na ca dānaṁ vinā kriyā |
na bhāvena vinā siddhis tasmād bhāvo hi kāraṇam ||
Without agnihotra the Vedas are not truly realized; without giving, action is not complete. Without inner disposition (bhāva), success is not attained; therefore bhāva is the cause.
FAQs
In the broader milieu of classical Sanskrit didactic literature, references to agnihotra and dāna reflect the interlinking of ritual practice, social reciprocity, and moral evaluation. The verse can be read as echoing a Brahmanical cultural framework in which Vedic authority, ritual action (kriyā), and gifting were treated as mutually reinforcing markers of legitimacy and merit within elite social and political life.
Bhāva is framed as an enabling condition for siddhi (accomplishment). Rather than defining bhāva abstractly, the verse positions it as the internal element that completes external acts—suggesting that intention, attitude, or sincerity is treated as a causal component in evaluating outcomes.
The verse uses a parallel, negated construction (na… vinā…) to build a chain of dependencies: Vedas ↔ agnihotra, kriyā ↔ dāna, siddhi ↔ bhāva. This rhetorical symmetry functions as an aphoristic intensifier, culminating in the causal statement “bhāvo hi kāraṇam,” where kāraṇa foregrounds a quasi-philosophical register of causality applied to ethical and ritual life.