VENI VIDI VICI - ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND CHANAKYA'S CHANT

 

 Veni Vidi Vici - Alexander the Great and Chanakya's Chant

Veni Vidi Vici  -  Alexander the Great  and Chanakya’s Chant

               

                       

The Latin Phrase “Veni Vidi Vici” means “I came, I saw, I conquered”.   This phrase was originally uttered by Julius Ceaser.  However,  it was apt in the case of Alexander the Great.   The Greek Emperor and great conqueror after conquering most of the world and reaching Asia, standing tall and suitably made himself worthy of the phrase  “Veni Vidi Vici” - “I came, I saw, I conquered”. 

 

 

 

This writer was greatly fascinated by the above phrase and found to fit in by the above words in my real life. Two of my major workplaces and the illustrious real-life scenarios give testimony to the above belief.

 

                                                     

                                                

                          

 

 

 

Jesus Christ, the writer’s Dad, and Alexander the Great – they all lived 33 years only in this world.

 

 

Alexander III of Macedon known as Alexander the Great was born in BC 356. By the age of 30, he had conquered most of the ancient world. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history’s most successful military commanders.

“There is nothing impossible to him who will try” – a famous quote by Alexander the Great.

Alexander said, “Thank the Gods to have been born Greek.”

Alexander resembled the Greek myth of Adonis the God of Beauty and Desire.

During his youth Alexander was tutored by the great thinker and philosopher Aristotle till he attained the age of 16.  Alexander attributed his father for his life and his teacher for how to live a life king size and wise.  Alexander succeeded his father to the throne when he was twenty.  Alexander was the emperor par excellence.

“An army of Sheep led by a Lion is better than an army of Lions led by a Sheep” – Alexander the Great.

Like our own Indian political honchos like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Alexander’s father, mother and wife were assassinated.  Though mystery shrouds Alexander’s death, we shall examine the end scripted by our English writer Ashwin Sanghi in his treatise “Chanakya’s Chant”.

In his novel “Chanakya’s Chant” Ashwin Sanghi examines the life of Alexander the Great who was a contemporary of Indian Demi-God Brahmin “Chanakya”.  Chanakya has written “Arthashastra”, the “Science of Wealth”.  Chanakya was also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta.   Chanakya was a shrewd political advisor and mastermind in unifying India under one roof, one umbrella through the historical ruler and his contemporary King Chandragupta Mourya.

I would like to use here few excerpts from Ashwin Sanghi’s fiction “Chanakya’s Chant” which I found interesting in respect of Chanakya.   In his work Ashwin Sanghi examines the present day Chanakya, Pandit Gangasagar Mishra and his protégé Chandni Gupta in parallel with Chanakya and his protégé Chandragupta Maurya almost 2300 years ago.

 

 

“King Dhanananda of Magadha spent his life amidst wine and women in his pleasure palace. His Prime Minister Shatkar wanted him to spend less time satisfying his carnal desires and concentrate on ruling the kingdom wisely to strengthen it and make a better life for its subjects. An infuriated King Dhanananda orders to take Shatkar in custody. A close friend of Shatkar and the father of Chanakya – Acharya Chanak revolted against this act of King Dhanananda. Acharya Chanak was a scholar and all the Kings wanted their Princes to be educated under him. Acharya Chanak being famous and well-known for his wisdom found a large gathering to listen to his speech. After sighting a huge assembly of people listening to Acharya Chanak and being threatened so, King Dhanananda orders to behead Chanak. King Dhananada’s men severed Chanak’s head from his body and hanged it with the lock of his hair on a tree branch. Chanakya’s eyes welled up with tears after seeing his father’s head hanged on the tree branch. Chanakya, supported by one of the influential friends of his father secretly climbed onto the tree before sunset and released the head and then wrapped it with fresh muslin and swam across the other side of the river and conducted the necessary funeral ceremony there with the presence of a Hindu priest. Then, Chanakya decides that this is the only occasion he will cry, and for the rest of his life, he will make others who are found guilty cry. He unlocked his hair and took an oath that after the murder of “Dhanananda” who killed his father then only did he tie it again……finally one day Chanakya took his revenge by eliminating Dhanananda from this world.”

 

 

Chanakya’s greatest asset was his uncanny ability to plumb the lowest depths of the human mind.

Chanakya lived in the 4th Century B.C. Chanakya graduated from the University of Takshasheela and was a sharp student. Chanakya was a strategist, great teacher, and visionary.

Chanakya has written Arthshastra a book on total management or science of wealth and Chanakya Neeti. Arthshastra contains 15 books 150 Chapters and 600 Sutras or Shlokas. Arthshastra is known as a Book of Economics, State Craft, Punishment, Warfare and Strategy, etc.

 

The seven traits to be seen in a person vying to become a Chanakya are –      

• To inspire and mold good performers to be future leaders. 
• To build a successful organization that manifests fortitude and cohesion.
•  To be more efficient and effective.         
• To experience a dose of self-discovery and transformation.
•  To face and overcome business challenges.
•  To get a gamut of ancient Indian yet universally relevant business            knowledge.    
  
• To get a course in experiential management and economic practices.

Vishakanyas   -   Hiss of Death

“Vishakanya is a poison maiden groomed in Chanakya’s foundation “gurukul” or “institute” to deal with their enemies.

The Vishakanyas are the most beautiful celestial creatures with deadly poison. Chanakya had personally supervised the creation of an entire army of such maidens. All the girls in the institute were born on a Tuesday during the seventh lunar day of Vishaka. Vishaka means Heavenly Star. One of the Vishakanya named Vishaka was used to kill King Paurus of Magadha by Chanakya. Paurus was a threat to his protégé Chandragupta Maurya and thus Chanakya wanted to eliminate him by using Vishakanya named Vishaka. Vishaka, undoubtedly was a celestial creature. Her utterly seductive hourglass body, translucent ivory complexion, sensuous mouth, full ruby lips, delicate pert nose, and mischievous emerald eyes were partially covered by her cascading, silken, auburn hair. Her clove-and-cardamom-scented breath set Paurus on fire. An excited and aroused Paurus kissed Vishaka and experienced that his throat was burning with Sankhiya poison. Vishakanyas are trained with poison intake from the age of puberty, and when they graduate from Chanakya’s institute they are asked to put their hands in a basket with deadly poisonous snakes. The snakes bite Vishkanyas but by the time Vishkanyas becomes immune to snake poison any man who cohabits with them would die.”

 

 

Once upon a time, Chanakya said to one of the messengers of Seleucus called Megasthenes that let us not discuss war but love, marriage, and happiness. He continued that our King Chandragupta has already married the lovely lady Cornelia your master’s daughter via Gandharva Vivah. He explained to him that in ordinary marriage the couple celebrate sex on “Suhaag Raat” or first night but in “Gandharva Vivah” they first enjoy sex and then the marriage takes place by garlanding each other and taking the ceremonial oath of marriage without any witness. 

 

 

The death of Alexander the Great

“Alexander had spent a night drinking excessively at a banquet organized by his dear friend Medius of Larissa. By the time the night was over, Alexander was shaking violently from tremors of malarial fever. Alexander’s royal cupbearer, Lolla, knelt by Alexander’s side and offered him the medicated water that had been specially sent by Antipater – Alexander’s supreme commander of his European forces – to cure him of the fever. What the divinity did not know was that this medicated water contained Hellebore and Strychnine a deadly mixture - that had been transported secretly to Babylon inside a Mule’s hoof by Antipater’s son not to cure but to kill Alexander. Thus, gradually Alexander the Great met with his death due to poisoning.”

 

 

Alexander’s gravest of the mistake was his attitude and the damage he had done to Zoroastrianism. 

Ashwin Sanghi begins and ends with a mantra –

“Adi Shakti Namo Namah
Sarab Shakti Namo Namah
Pritum Bhagvati
Namo, Namah
Kundalini Mata Shakti,
Mata Shakti Namo Namah”

It’s an ancient Sanskrit mantra extolling the virtues of feminine energy.