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The Thirty-Eighth Chapter
263
Always engaging them in meditation for the benefit of the people, and pleasing the ministers and other key officials with respect, gifts, and trust. ||257||
You should protect the people with justice, O kings, those who have submitted to you. If you are inclined towards injustice, your livelihood will surely be lost. ||258||
Justice is of two kinds: the suppression of the wicked and the protection of the righteous. This is the eternal Dharma of the Kshatriyas, which should be protected by the kings. ||259||
The deities presiding over the divine weapons are also worthy of worship according to the scriptures. With their blessings, victory in battle is certain. ||260||
You should diligently follow this royal duty, without sloth, and deal with the people justly. ||261||
He who protects this Dharma becomes victorious in Dharma, for a Kshatriya who has conquered his own self and earns his livelihood justly can conquer the earth. ||262||
By acting justly, one gains fame in this world, great wealth, and the attainment of the earth, and in the next world, one attains liberation, and thus conquers the three worlds. ||263||
Thus, they, the great kings, repeatedly instructed those kings in the ways of protecting the people, and they themselves protected them, constantly contemplating Yoga and Kshema. ||264||
This is their Dharma, called Samajya, a different kind of action, by the practice of which one attains prosperity in this world and the next. ||265||
This is the thirty-seventh Samajya.
Thus, protecting the people and the kings for a long time, when the time came for them to develop discrimination, they became eager to take initiation. ||266||