Hitopadesha

Nepalese manuscript of the Hitopadesha, c.1800

Hitopadesha (Devanagari: हितोपदेशः, Hitopadeśa) is a collection of Sanskrit fables in prose and verse.

Quotes

• मनस्वी म्रियते कामं कार्पण्यं न तु गच्छति ।
  अपि निर्वाणमायाति नानलो याति शीतताम् ॥
  • The high-spirited man may indeed die, but he will not stoop to meanness.
    Fire, though it may be quenched, will not become cool.
  • Book I. Robert O. Ballou (ed.) The Bible of the World (1946 [1939]) p. 157 [1]

Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)

Boston: George H. Ellis [2]

For thy bread be not o’erthoughtful,—God for all hath taken thought:
When the babe is born, the sweet milk to the mother’s breast is brought.
He who gave the swan her silver, and the hawk her plumes of pride,
And his purples to the peacock,—he will verily provide.

• The tree of the world hath its poisons, but beareth two fruits of exquisite flavor, the nectar of poetry and the society of noble men.
  • "Uses and Sanctions", no. 6, p. 3

• Let a man mark the quick increase of a white ant’s nest, and suffer no day to pass unfruitful in study, charity, and work.
  • "Beginnings", no. 87, p. 16

• The sun and moon, wind and fire, heaven, earth, and water, the heart and Yama, day and night, both twilights and justice, are acquainted with the conduct of man.
  • "Justice and Truth", no. 101, p. 18

• In disuse, knowledge is poison. In indigestion, food is poison.
  • "Knowledge and Wisdom", no. 119, p. 21

• Learning is a companion on a journey to a strange country. Learning is strength inexhaustible. A man without learning is a beast of the field.
  • "Knowledge and Wisdom", no. 126, p. 22

• The natural disposition is hard to overcome. If you make a dog a king, will he not still gnaw leather (literally, gnaw his shoe-strap).
  • "Fate", no. 154, p. 28

• A work prospers through endeavors, not through vows. The fawn runs not into the mouth of a sleeping lion.
  • "Freedom", no. 167, p. 31

• In the sandal-trees are serpents. In the waters are lotuses, but alligators also. In our enjoyments are envious spies. No pleasures are unimpeded.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 278, p. 46

• He whose days pass without imparting and enjoying, is like the bellows of a smith: he breathes indeed, but he does not live.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 306, p. 51

• Riches in their acquisition bring pain and suffering; in their loss, manifold trouble and sorrow; in their possession, a wild intoxication. How can we say that they confer happiness?
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 313, p. 52

• A wise man should think upon knowledge as if he were undecaying and immortal. He should practise duty as if he were seized by the hair of his head by death.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 330, p. 55

• The favor of the ruler may confer fortune, but it does not bestow nobility of birth. The blackness of the poison Kalakuta does not blanch through coming in contact with Siva.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 342, p. 57

• Inasmuch as a child, seated upon a throne, has no strength, his subjects will not fight for him. Who would, in any case, fight for another, when he is not in condition to do anything for himself?
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 350, p. 58

• A mean man can never possess himself of the place of the great. No one will put a shoe in the place of the diadem.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 381, p. 65

• A dog’s tail, softened with unguents, rubbed down and wound about with cords for twelve years, instantly it was released, sprang back to its original curl.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 397, p. 67

• They whose eating is solely for the sustaining of life, whose cohabitation is but for the sake of offspring, whose speech is only for the utterance of truth, surmount difficulties.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 414, p. 71

• Only the foolish ask, Is this one of us, or an outside person? To the noble, the whole world is a family.
  • "Ethical", no. 595, p. 120

• The good show pity even to worthless beings. The moon withholds not its light from the hovel of the outcast.
  • "Ethical", no. 607, p. 122

• Be not anxious for subsistence,—it is provided by the Maker. When the child is born, the mother’s breasts flow with milk. He by whom swans are made white, and parrots green, and peacocks variegated, will also feed thee.
  • "Ethical", no. 636, p. 129

• The very first night on which the man of valor took up his abode in the womb, thenceforward without faltering in his march, he approaches death, day by day.
  • "Trial and Sorrow", no. 695, p. 182

• How many soever connections dear to the soul a human being forms, so many thorns are implanted in his heart.
  There exists no cure for a heart wounded with the sword of separation.
  • "Trial and Sorrow", no. 699, p. 183

• He only threshes chaff, who schools
  With patient kindness thoughtless fools.
  He writes on shifting sand, who fain
  By favors worthless men would gain.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 744, p. 203

Quotes about

• Thus, in contemporary India, countless public speakers, both political and religious, pompously claim as the core of India’s heritage the motto: Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, “The whole world is one family.”...In the Hitopadesha, a jackal is trying to befriend a gullible deer in order ultimately to devour it, but a crow warns the deer, telling it about what happened to animals past who took strangers into confidence without checking out their true intentions. When the crow is about to dissuade the deer from going out with the jackal, the jackal interrupts him with a sardonic appeal to the oft-cited phrase: “‘Beware of strangers’, such is the talk of narrow-minded people. To magnanimous people, by contrast, the whole world is one family.” The deer then rejects the crow’s warnings, invites the jackal, and later on gets attacked by the jackal, only to be saved by the crow’s intervention. Sarcastic lesson: the one who believes that “the world is one family”, is a fool bound to get into trouble; the one who disbelieves it, is wise; and the one who propagates it, is a knave whom you should avoid like the plague.
  • Koenraad Elst, The Argumentative Hindu (2012), "Humour in Hinduism"

• Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, “the whole world is one family”, is a very oft-quoted verse, and very much taken out of context. It nowadays functions as the creed of Hinduism, at least for public consumption. Hindus often think it has been taken from the Vedas or from the Bhagavad Gītā, but it comes from a fable collection, the Hitopadeśa. And there, its meaning is not that positive. When a jackal targets a deer for his meal and cleverly wins its trust, a crow gets alerted by the sinister sight of this sudden interloper. However, the jackal protests that suspicion is misplaced: vasudhaiva kutumbakam! The crow has to bow out, but remains vigilant from a distance. When the jackal finally tries to strike, the deer is saved by the crow’s intervention. Moral of the story: only a knave would assert, and a fool believe, that “the whole world is one family”. Fortunately there are still a few clever skeptics who don’t let down their guard, and who see through this unrealistic maxim. I wonder what it says about modern Hindus that they all run away with this saying and even advertise it as the essence of their worldview.
  • Koenraad Elst, Hindu Dharma and the Culture Wars (New Delhi: Rupa, 2019)