Page 37 - Sri Canakya Niti

1.5

Similarly one’s character is influenced by his associates. Cāṇakya

Paṇḍita’s advice that we choose our friends wisely should be taken to
heart if we want to live happily. The useless society of worldly men
destroys all good qualities. Conversely there is no fellowship like the
company of genuine sādhus, devotees of the Lord.

Regarding Cāṇakya Paṇḍita’s tidbit about a wicked wife, Śukrācārya
says:
Begging and death are better than being a householder with a bad
wife. (SN 3.288)

ŚLOKA 1.5

ं
र्
दु ा भाया शठं िम भृत्य ोत्तरदायकः ।
ससपेर् च गृहे वासो मृत्युरेव न संशयः ॥५॥

duṣṭā bhāryā śaṭhaṁ mitraṁ
bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ
sa-sarpe ca gṛhe vāso
mṛtyur eva na saṁśayaḥ

An unchaste wife, a false friend, an insolent servant, and living
with a poisonous serpent in the house are nothing but death.

Commentary: He who lays trust in mundane friendship is as foolish
as the man from Kerala who died after a month in a cage with cobras
while trying to get his name into the Guinness Book of World Records.
A man is judged by his company, just as a guru is judged by the
quality of his disciples, or parents by their offspring. Whomsoever we
associate with, marry or accept service from hinges upon our power
of discrimination. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita repeats this śloka from Bṛhaspati-
nīti-sāra. (GP 1.108.25)

Śrīla Prabhupāda dilated on this verse during a lecture in San Francisco
on 16 July 1975 from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.31:

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