Written by London Swaminathan 

Date: 29 DECEMBER 2017 

Time uploaded in London- 8-03 am

Post No. 4561

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Greatest statesman and astute politician who succeeded in establishing the largest empire in ancient India, Chanakya, gives a strange advice. He advises to learn 20 qualities for invincibility from animals and birds. But he is not the first one to use animals and birds for teaching. Dattatreya listed 24 Gurus from Nature. It is in the Bhagavata Purana.

Learn from Animals and Birds:

One should acquire one quality each from a lion and a crane, four of them from a cock, five of them from a crow, six of them from a dog and three from an ass.

—chapter-6, sloka 14, Chanakya Niti

If he has left it like this it would be a puzzle leading to different answers. But Chanakya, fortunately continued with more slokas giving the details

The first lesson one has from a lion, as they say, is that whatever work, big or small, one wants to accomplish, one should put in all efforts for it –sloka 15

A wise man should accomplish all things with a brake on his senses like a crane weighing the proper place, time and his own capacity – sloka 16

One should acquire four qualities from a cock: to wake up in time, to be ever ready for an assault, to distribute equally (what one has acquired) among his kith and kin, and eating a thing attained through self-attack- sloka 17

One should learn the following five from a crow:

Coitus in secret, insolence, accumulation of things from time to time, alertness and non-trust- sloka 18

Eating in good quantity, feeling satisfied with a little, good sleep, getting alert even with a feeble sound, loyalty to master, bravery – these six are the qualities that one should learn from a dog- sloka 19

One should acquire three qualities from an ass: however tired it may be, it goes on carrying load, does not care for cold or heat, moves about in all contentment – sloka 20

A person who follows these twenty qualities in the course of all types of his work, will become invincible- sloka 20

Panchatantra and Hitopadesa used only nature to teach the youths. Adi Shankara and others used plants and animals to illustrate their teachings. Tamils did not lag (Tirukkural, Viveka Chudamani, Divya Prabandam). They used the tortoise image to teach Self -control. We find it in Sanskrit literature as well in the Bhagavad Gita, Manu Smrti and other books.

Following is the link for my earlier articles on the subject.

Lessons from Nature | Tamil and Vedas

https://tamilandvedas.com/tag/lessons-from-nature/

This type of learning started in the Vedic days. I have already written about what the Devas, Demons and Humans learnt from the Da,Da,Da sound from the Thunder. It is a parable in the Upanishad. I have also written about the connection between Dattareya and William Wordsworth two years ago (Dattatreya episode is in …

The Connection between William Wordsworth and Dattatreya | Tamil …

https://tamilandvedas.com/…/the-connection-between-william-wordsworth-and-dattatr…

10 Nov 2011 – Let Nature be Your Teacher ”–William Wordsworth and Dattatreya William Wordsworth was an English poet who lived from 1770 to 1850 in England. … The most interesting thing about Dattatreya is that he mentioned 24 natural objects or living beings as his teachers. … What did he learn from the nature?

-SUBHAM-