se from even them! Then again all men are kings in
their own houses. All men, again, in their own houses are house-holders.
Like kings, O Janaka, all men in their own houses chastise and reward.
Like kings others also have sons and spouses and their own selves and
treasuries and friends and stores. In these respects the king is not
different from other men.--The country is ruined,--the city is consumed
by fire,--the foremost of elephants is dead,--at all this the king yields
to grief like others, little regarding that these impressions are all due
to ignorance and error. The king is seldom freed from mental griefs
caused by desire and aversion and fear. He is generally afflicted also by
headaches and diverse diseases of the kind. The king is afflicted (like
others) by all couples of opposites (as pleasure and pain, etc). He is
alarmed at everything. Indeed, full of foes and impediments as kingdom
is, the king, while he enjoys it, passes nights of sleeplessness.
Sovereignty, therefore, is blessed with an exceedingly small share of
happiness. The misery with which it is endued is very great. It is as
unsubstantial as burning flames fed by straw or the bubbles of froth seen
on the surface of water. Who is there that would like to obtain
sovereignty, or having acquired sovereignty can hope to win tranquillity?
Thou regardest this kingdom and this palace to be thine. Thou thinkest
also this army, this treasury, and these counsellers to belong to thee.
Whose, however, in reality are they, and whose are they not? Allies,
ministers, capital, provinces, punishment, treasury, and the king, these
seven which constitute the limbs of a kingdom exist, depending upon one
another, like three sticks standing with one another's support. The
merits of each are set off by the merits of the others. Which of them can
be said to be superior to the rest? At those times those particular ones
are regarded as distinguished above the rest when some important end is
served through their agency. Superiority, for the time being, is said to
attach to that one whose efficacy is thus seen. The seven limbs already
mentioned, O best of kings, and the three others, forming an aggregate of
ten, supporting one another, are said to enjoy the kingdom like the king
himself.[1705] That king who is endued with great energy and who is
firmly attached to Kshatriya practices, should be satisfied with only a
tenth part of the produce of the subject's field. Other kings