The Hindu Business Line : Classical secrets to prosperity

Attainment of wealth creates prosperity for the people, and with prosperity even a leaderless domain will be orderly. Thus reads a reassuring translation of Kautilya's thought that Thomas Cleary explains in The Art of Wealth, from Westland.

Well, are we getting into ancient Indian thought, to imbibe `exotic and rarefied... profusion of abstract philosophies'? Wait, "nothing could be more concrete and practical than what we find in the classical Sanskrit, Art of Wealth," avers Cleary about the 2,500-year old Arthashastra.

"Gaining what is lacking is not for the lazy. The lazy one, moreover, cannot keep even what he has gotten," counsels another insight. "Gaining what has not been gained, maintaining it, developing it, and employing it: These four are the essentials of sovereignty."

Virtue and wealth

As we are aware, trading in shares can blur into speculation, and degenerate further, to be no different from gambling. Which is why it pays to listen to Chanakya: "No task is accomplished by one devoted to gambling. Virtue and wealth disappear from one addicted to hunting." A gambler will keep on gambling "even at night by lamplight, even when his mother has died," rues Chanakya. Adds Cleary, with a cite from Tao Te Ching: "Colours blind people's eyes; sounds deafen their ears; flavours spoil people's palates; the chase and the hunt craze people's minds; goods hard to obtain make people's actions harmful."

Interestingly, Kautilya didn't count `meaningful quest for wealth' among the vices. However, he exhorted one to rise beyond the riches. For, `prosperity abandons one who is satisfied by material wealth.' Avenues of profit increase through all accomplishments, reads an apt translation by the author. "At times an avocation or a hobby may be as profitable as a profession or a vocation," explains Cleary. "Taking an interest in life and being versatile in one's activities creates an atmosphere of greater enjoyment, a ground of greater potential and also a reservoir of greater resilience in changing times."

Doesn't luck play a major role in success? "Gain gotten by chance can also be lost by chance," warns the author, drawing inspiration from Kautilya's line: `Success at work does not come through recklessness.' Taking risks and taking chances are different things, educates the book. "It may be necessary to take risks sometimes," but this must be backed by `basic constancy and deliberate planning.' And emboldens Arthashastra: "Ruination through risk is better than ruination without risk."

End not means?

Rules for rulers include diktats such as: "The leader should amass wealth justly on the one hand, while on the other should use that to foster the finest freemen." And, "A virtuous quality in a leader, and in a minister, is one by which state finances are improved." Spending irrationally is a quick way to financial ruin, as much as being argumentative or sickly.

Towards the end of the book is this secret to achieve just the things that most people aspire for: "Calmness and effort are the source of profit and security." Cleary paraphrases thus: "Calmness makes it possible to perceive realities clearly; effort makes it possible to act on realities effectively."

As the intro urges, you can productively employ the classic to stimulate your thinking; "for exercise rather than indoctrination... rationally and reflectively, rather than religiously and dogmatically."

A common misconception is that the ancient Sanskrit work paid more attention to the ends rather than the means. Wrong. Because, Kautilya valued virtues, saying, for instance, "Trust is to be preserved, even at the cost of life," and dinning in elsewhere, "A single fault eclipses a multitude of virtues." Though Arthashastra argues for an autocracy, in the interest of `an efficient and solid economy,' it also discusses `the ethics of economics and the duties and obligations of a king,' notes Wikipedia.

"There is no wealth like grain, there is no enemy like hunger," reads a line in translation. "Grain and wealth can be expressed by the same word in Sanskrit, for grain is a basic form of wealth," writes Cleary. "Grain is perhaps the most prolific and economical source of human food energy, far more efficient than harvesting energy from meat." To the poor, knowledge is wealth, says Chanakya. And the Sufi master Ali would affirm: "Wealth is diminished by spending, while knowledge grows by use."

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