in business and popular and devoted to thy welfare?
O Bharata, dost thou employ superior, indifferent,
and low men, after examining them well in offices they
deserve? O monarch, employest thou in thy business
persons that are thievish or open to temptation, or
hostile, or minors? Persecutest thou thy kingdom
by the help of thievish or covetous men, or minors,
or women? Are the agriculturists in thy kingdom
contented. Are large tanks and lakes constructed
all over thy kingdom at proper distances, without
agriculture being in thy realm entirely dependent on
the showers of heaven? Are the agriculturists
in thy kingdom wanting in either seed or food?
Grantest thou with kindness loans (of seed-grains)
unto the tillers, taking only a fourth in excess of
every measure by the hundred? O child, are the
four professions of agriculture, trade, cattle-rearing,
and lending at interest, carried on by honest men?
Upon these O monarch, depends the happiness of thy
people. O king, do the five brave and wise men,
employed in the five offices of protecting the city,
the citadel, the merchants, and the agriculturists,
and punishing the criminals, always benefit thy kingdom
by working in union with one another? For the
protection of thy city, have the villages been made
like towns, and the hamlets and outskirts of villages
like villages? Are all these entirely under thy
supervision and sway? Are thieves and robbers
that sack thy town pursued by thy police over the
even and uneven parts of thy kingdom? Consolest
thou women and are they protected in thy realm?
I hope thou placest not any confidence in them, nor
divulgest any secret before any of them? O monarch,
having heard of any danger and having reflected on
it also, liest thou in the inner apartments enjoying
every agreeable object? Having slept during the
second and the third divisions of the night, thinkest
thou of religion and profit in the fourth division
wakefully. O son of Pandu, rising from bed at
the proper time and dressing thyself well, showest
thou thyself to thy people, accompanied by ministers
conversant with the auspiciousness or otherwise of
moments? O represser of all foes, do men dressed
in red and armed with swords and adorned with ornaments
stand by thy side to protect thy person? O monarch!
behavest thou like the god of justice himself unto
those that deserve punishment and those that deserve
worship, unto those that are dear to thee and those
that thou likest not? O son of Pritha, seekest
thou to cure bodily diseases by medicines and fasts,
and mental illness with the advice of the aged?
I hope that the physicians engaged in looking after
thy health are well conversant with the eight kinds
of treatment and are all attached and devoted to thee.
Happeneth it ever, O monarch, that from covetousness
or folly or pride thou failest to decide between the
plaintiff and the defendant who have come to thee?
Deprivest thou, through covetousness or folly, of
their pensions the proteges who have sought thy shelter