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THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUCCESS Arthaśāstra, stands for the danda of dharma. The king is the chief policeman of dharma within the realm that he controls, being the maintainer and staff (danda) of the revealed ritualistic order of civil life. Mutual good will, forbearance, and cooperation among the individuals, groups, trades, and castes are demanded within each state, just as within the fold of a family; but there is no hope, according to the Indian conception, that this peaceful pattern of well-controlled, harmonious human decency should ever become transferred to the larger field of the nations. Between these fiercely antagonistic superindividuals, since they are unainenable to the control of any higher power, the primeval law of nature remains in operation, uncontrolled.
And yet there is an ancient mythical ideal-an idyllic compensatory dream, born of the longing for stability and peacewhich represents a universal, world-wide empire of enduring tranquillity under a just and virtuous world-monarch, the cakravartin, "owner of the cakravarta," who should put an end to the perpetual struggle of the contending states. Cakra is "wheel," a noun related etymologically to the Greek xúxhos, Latin circus and circulus, and Anglo-Saxon hwēol. Cakravarta refers to the circumference of the mighty mountain-range that surrounds the world, out beyond the enveloping world-ocean, like a rim. The Cakravartin conducts his army to the farthest horizon. His war-elephants quench their thirst and bathe in the deep seas at the four quarters. The kings of the rival realms throughout the concentric circles of his mandala bow in acknowledgment of his unchallengeable supremacy, the diamonds of their jeweled tiaras and diadems being reflected in the mir. rorlike nails of his toes as they pay obeisance at the platform of the raised throne of his supreme command. For by virtue of his moral supremacy the passage of his army is irresistible. The Cakravartin is the great man, the superman (mahāpuruşa), among kings; and he is preceded on his march by a luminous
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |