Shloka 2
Governance and Policy — Chanakya Niti
आत्मापराधवृक्षस्य फलान्येतानि देहिनाम् ।
दारिद्र्यदुःखरोगाणि बन्धनव्यसनानि च ॥
ātmāparādha-vṛkṣasya phalāny etāni dehinām |
dāridrya-duḥkha-rogāṇi bandhana-vyasanāni ca ||
یہ جسم والوں کے اپنے ہی گناہ کے درخت کے پھل ہیں—مفلسی، دکھ، بیماری، اور قید و مصیبتیں۔
FAQs
In the broader nītiśāstra tradition, verses often frame social adversity (poverty, illness, legal punishment) as consequences of personal misconduct. Such formulations reflect pre-modern South Asian didactic literature that linked ethical behavior with social stability and individual fortune, and they can be read alongside contemporaneous legal-ethical discourses where wrongdoing is associated with both worldly penalties (e.g., bondage) and broader misfortune.
The verse compresses causality into a metaphor: wrongdoing is the generative source (a ‘tree’), while specific hardships are its ‘fruits.’ The formulation is descriptive within the text’s moral logic, presenting adversity as an outcome of self-generated fault rather than as random occurrence or solely external oppression.
The compound ātmāparādha (“self-wrongdoing”) foregrounds agency and responsibility, while vṛkṣa–phala (tree–fruit) is a common Sanskrit metaphor for cause and effect. The coordinated list (poverty–suffering–disease–bondage–calamity) functions as an enumerative rhetorical device, broadening the scope from economic distress to bodily affliction and juridical/social constraint.