No person in this world, O king, can support life without
injuring other creatures. The very ascetic leading a solitary life in the
depths of the forest is no exception. A Kshatriya should not live,
relying upon destiny,[395] especially he, O chief of the Kurus, who is
desirous of ruling. The king and the kingdom should always mutually
protect each other. This is an eternal duty. As the king protects, by
spending all his possessions, the kingdom when it sinks into distress,
even so should the kingdom protect the king when he sinks into distress.
The king even at the extremity of distress, should never give up[396] his
treasury, his machinery for chastising the wicked, his army, his friends
and allies and other necessary institutions and the chiefs existing in
his kingdom. Men conversant with duty say that one must keep one's seeds,
deducting them from one's very food. This is a truth cited from the
treatise of Samvara well-known for his great powers of illusion, Fie on
the life of that king whose kingdom languishes. Fie on the life of that
man who from want of means goes to a foreign country for a living. The
king's roots are his treasury and army. His army, again, has its roots in
his treasury. His army is the root of all his religious merits. His
religious merits, again are the root of his subjects. The treasury can
never be filled without oppressing others. How 'then can the army be kept
without oppression? The king, therefore, in seasons of distress, incurs
no fault by oppressing his subjects for filling the treasury.
Pages:
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547