Chandragupta Maurya uncertain. Chanakya: “A proud man can be won through professing loyalty, a greedy man can be won with money, A stupid man can be won through propaganda. But a scholar is won by the truth, and only by the truth. My hope is that from my education you have become the latter. So I will not give you a pep talk, for that would be an insult to my own teaching, I will speak to you only the truth.” Gita style: “I’m fighting on the side of invaders whom I’ve always considered barbarians – and against men whom I’ve regarded as my brothers. … And in the end, I will rule from the very city from which this nation was destroyed?” “They’re fighting for what is wrong, these guys are fighting for what is right.” “I’m expanding the territory of Magadha…” The plan. I’m merely the son of a merchant, am I not meddling in matters far beyond my level? That is an excuse for inaction …
Who’s our friend and who’s our foe? Was it with the army of Punjab and the Yaudheyas that we won this war? The Greeks and Persians? The Scythians? The vassal kings? Or Magadha itself? No, we manipulated them all, used them all for our victory. Some of them will benefit from this manipulation, that makes us their friends. Some of them will lose, that makes us their victors (Arthashastra quote 7.8 end). But fundamentally, this is a victory of one idea over another: of Vedic philosophy, the philosophy of wealth creation and creating the most of it possible, over Magadhi philosophy, the philosophy that gains can only be had by causing harm to another. The victory of the culture of learning and enlightenment, over the culture of darkness where whatever the king does is justified.
Thera, Megasthenes, are they our guests or our prisoners? The Greeks: are they our allies or enemies? For that matter, the bordering kings: are they our allies or enemies? Both. Also applies to merchants and cartelizing. Do you not feel any sense of being torn, etc.? Why would I be torn? It is not a difficult problem. That there are benefits and costs to every decision is not new to me, and this problem needn’t be solved every time it is encountered – mathematicians solved it centuries ago, with the theory of subtraction. Should a woman cry every time she purchases coriander in the market because she has to pay a price for it? Was she not already aware of it before? There is no joy to be had in solving the same problem multiple times.
Some people thank and celebrate, some people curse because their relatives died in war. Chanakya is unaffected, because this does not affect the truth. “When I decided on this war, did I not know that wars cause people to die? Why would their crying affect me? And when I had decided to liberate India from Nanda and the Persians, did I not know that this liberation would be good? If the consequence was known, there should be no regret when it is realized.”
