Chapter 56: Unjust Reign

Verse 557
Here an unkind and wealth-seeking king brings suffering to his people, just as the rainless sky and blazing sun scorch the Earth.

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Weaver’s Wisdom

Verse 551

More malicious than a professional murderer is the monarch
who rules his people with injustice and oppression.

Verse 552

A scepter-wielding king requesting a gift is like
a lance-bearing robber demanding, “Give me all you have.”

Verse 553

Day to day the king must seek out and punish unlawfulness,
or day by day his country will plummet toward ruin.

Verse 554

Without thinking, a king rules crookedly, and thus
forfeits his subjects’ loyalty, together with his own fortune.

Verse 555

Are not the tears of a people who cannot bear their monarch’s
oppressive reign the force that erodes his prosperity?

Verse 556

Ruling rightly, a monarch may long endure.
Without that, his majesty is rightfully unenduring.

Verse 557

As the Earth fares under a rainless sky,
so do a people languish under an unkind king.

Verse 558

Possessions hold less pleasure than poverty
for oppressed subjects living under an unjust king.

Verse 559

If the king acts contrary to justice, contrary seasons will befall
the land and rain-laden clouds will fail to come forth.

Verse 560

If the people’s protector fails to protect
brahmins will forget the Vedas and cows’ milk will dry up.