Was Chanakya Pandita a pure devotee?

From: Nishita

Hare krishna, prabhuji, i wanted to know who was chanakya pandita? Was he a pure devotee of the Lord Krishna, as i have heard and read many times that srila prabhupada often quotes him in many of his lectures and books.Is his appearance predicted in any of the scriptures?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question Who was Chanakya Pandit? Was he a pure devotee of Lord Krishna? As I have heard and read many times that Prabhupada often quotes in many of his lectures and books Is his appearance predicted in any of the scriptures? Question by Nishit Prabhu Answer Chanakya Pandit just talked about in the Bhagavatam in the twelfth canto where there is a reference to the future predictions related with Kalyuga and there he is referred to as a Brahmana who overthrows the tyrannical Nanda dynasty and helps a virtuous king to come to power in the Bhagavatam itself Chanakya is referred to more as a Brahmana and not so much as a Vaishnava so 12.1.11 says that a certain Brahmana will overthrow the king Nanda and bring the Mauryas to power now the verse itself may seem to portray Chanakya in a negative way a certain Brahmana will betray the trust of king Nanda and his eight sons and will destroy the dynasty in their absence the Mauryas will rule the world as the age of Kali continues so Sridhar Swami and Vishnachikathakul say that this refers to actually Chanakya who is also known as Kautilya and also Vatsyayana so then after the Chandragupta Maurya will become the king so this is talking more in one sense from the point of view of the dynasty of the king from the dynasty of the king point of view this Brahmana overthrew them so it can be called as a betrayal but actually the kings were not following the duty of the kingly class and that’s why this Brahmana had to overthrow them so that the proper Vedic culture could once again be re-established because the Bhagavatam is focusing on the Rajyavamsa so this particular verse is talking from the Rajyavamsa point of view but anyway the important thing here is that Chanakya Pandit is talking about the Brahmana now was he a Vaishnava in his Niti Shastra and other places there are verses where he offers obeisances to Vasudeva this could be taken as an indication that he was a devotee or this can also be taken as an indication that he was pious generally in the Vedic tradition before starting any activity what to speak of any literary activity prayers are offered to the various gods so he is offering to Vasudeva also now whatever the Chanakya Pandit state is he was surely a pious person he was a Brahminical person and actually Prabhupada quotes him not for his spiritual wisdom but for his material wisdom so Chanakya Pandit says that we should see good in everything so this is material principle it can be applied in devotional service also but primarily he is talking about how if gold is fallen in a dirty place one overlooks the dirtiness of the place and takes gold from it so Prabhupada’s references to Chanakya Pandit are primarily for his brilliant worldly insights that he has given and this worldly wisdom is compatible with his characterization in the Bhagavatam as a Brahmana he was certainly a very shrewd Brahmana and there are various books and novels written about how he very expertly overthrew a powerful dynasty which was tyrannical and broad and brought a relatively unknown young man to the position of the emperor of a large tract of land and in spite of doing all this and for getting Chandragupta so much power Chanakya himself remained very detached so certainly from the worldly point of view he was influential he was detached he was very wise and shrewd so as devotees we understand that the super soul is present in everyone’s heart and if the super soul gives some wisdom to some people and especially those people are within the Vedic tradition then we take that wisdom from them and we use it in Krishna’s service so Chanakya Pandit it is not that everything that he is speaking is necessarily pure devotion Prabhupada Ratan never quotes him for pure devotional principles but he talks about his insights for ethical and moral principles as well as wise and penetrating sayings so we see Chanakya as a very wise Brahmana who has a witty and penetrating reservoir of worldly wisdom and that’s what we can take from him