Thus Spoke Chanakya

by Radhakrishnan Pillai

Ancient Wisdom for Daily Inspiration

“CONQUER YOURSELF TO REMAIN UNBEATABLE. On your path to success, both the biggest hurdle and the biggest support is your own mind – depending on how you have trained it.”
– CHANAKYA

No school or university teaches us how to make friends, have a successful career, maintain a healthy married life, run a family or live life in general. How many times have we wished for a roadmap to navigate the confusing landscape of dailylife, to have a guidebook to show us the way?

In his muchawaited book Thus Spoke Chanakya, bestselling author Radhakrishnan Pillai decodes ancient texts from the illustrious Kautilya’s Arthashastra within the context of modern times and doles them out in short, crisp passages for everyday practice and use.

A perfect read for those who yearn to master the teachings of Chanakya for overall success.

Radhakrishnan Pillai is the bestselling author of Corporate Chanakya, Chanakya’s 7 Secrets of Leadership, Chanakya in You and Katha Chanakya. He has a PhD in Kautilya’s Athashastra and a Master’s degree in Sanskrit. A renowned management consultant and speaker, he heads the Leadership Center at the University of Mumbai.

Genres: Self Help, Business, Nonfiction

453 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 4, 2018

Reviews

[Sahar Ashraf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chanakya, one of the wittiest and most intelligent man that India has ever produced, has been primarily known for his intellect and cunning strategies. It was he who set up the Mauryan empire, bringing the Nanda dynasty to an end to avenge his insult by being an ally to Chandragupta Maurya. Most of us have known the book 'Arthashastra', which is Chanakya's book that serves an excellent treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy. Though the book is most relevant to those times, yet, the ideas, situations and conditions are still relevant even in the present tech-dominated, fast-paced world. 'Thus Spoke Chanakya' is an attempt of Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai to show Chanakya's ideas' relevance in today's world, at which he is indeed successful. It is a self-help book, telling us what our outlook should be to different situations and ways to overcome our shortcomings. If you want to change your perspective towards difficult situations, in a calmer and most logical way, this book is just for you. On reading, you find that there is so much to absorb and contempate upon each idea written. Pillai, in his own words, draws analogy of situations and conditions that existed then and now, making it so relevant and relatable at a personal level despite a difference of a few millenia. From time management and self-management to being a leader, this book makes a wholesome read.
The best way to get most of the book is to read few passages on a daily basis and to implement it in your daily lives. And no, this book is definitely not a one-time read. You will find that everytime you re-read a passage, you will have a different positive takeaway and over the time you will have imbibed it without realizing. Happy reading!

[Rakhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chanakya and Arthashastra have been studied and written about a lot. Author himself has written quite a few books on the same. But most of the books were about management and business. From the author of 'Corporate Chanakya' nothing more would be expected and hence the readers would be all decked up to read another self-help management book. Surprisingly, this time author has changed the tide and used the verses of Arthashastra and decodes it to suit the everyday life in this era.


Ditching the conventional format, the book is not divided into chapters. It is a one huge collection of quotes by Kautilya, which could be applied in everyone's life.


The book kicks off with quotes about leadership, teamwork, planning and hardwork. Apart from this author also tells us what is written in Arthashastra about marriage, about the need to study everyday, about the need to rest and about every small-big things applicable in our lives. The part about the teachers is also interesting.


It would be a folly on the readers' end to approach the book as an easy read. One need to read it fully first and then read each verse a day and mull over it the whole day. Slowly and steadily the book will change your life forever. It is one book you can carry with you forever in your life. Nonetheless, the book might leave you wanting more since the further explanation about the verses are so short as if the readers are given a glimpse of what is given in which chapter. Hopefully an extension to the book about the daily life Chanakya would be coming in future.

Overall the book is an all-in-one capsule for problems in life.

[Sanjeev Kotnala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chanakya has been a subject of many studies, and his teachings still have relevance. The author of Kautilya’s ArthShastra had such an intense process orientation. Chanakya’s dedication and focused approach to the ultimate objective has been discussed in many forums.

Radhakrishnan Pillai is one author who has written many books on Chanakya and his teaching. He has a PhD in Kautilya’s Arthshastra and has a master’s degree in Sanskrit.

What Stephen King is to horror, Amish Tripathi is to fictionalised re-telling of ancient stories, Devdutt Pattanaik is to mythology, John Grisham is to Legal, Robin Cook to Medical, Radhakrishnan Pillai is to Chanakya. As far as books are concerned, Pillai is strongly associated with Chanakya, as Dr Chandra Prakash Dwivedi is associated with Chanakya on TV and Manoj Joshi as Chanakya in theatre.
to read more - https://sanjeevkotnala.com/thus-spoke...

[Deepali Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should be read one page at a time.
The witty chankya has been famous for his principles and how he dealt with life.
His stories are famous all over the world.

This book is also based on his sayings.

Starting of with the cover the cover is yellow with a tinch of black. Reminding about the Tilak over Chanakyas forehead. the cover is also shows the picture of chanaykas famous pandit look.

The book consists of chankya Neeti explained rule by rule in simple and easy language on various topics such as life, war, decisions, love, relationship and on how one should have some principles in their life. The book is given in an easy to understand manner. The book will definitely leave you with alot of information that will guide you through.
Book has been beautifully crafted and is definitely worth the read and money.

Overall -4/5.

[Dr E Ravishankar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

The book captures many salient points from Arthashastra. This is a sincere work and needs to be appreciated as it brings out the ancient Indian way of ‘managing self’, which is one of the main contents in Arthashastra. In the age when public maddeningly read and follow western writers in management of self, bringing to light how good was ancient writing on this subject is a great service for India.

[Suraj · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ideologies that have been passed on to the readers in a very digestive manner, especially considering that the source of it is Huge- The Arthashastras.

I'd imagine the writer, Mr Radhakrishnan Pillai is a deep follower of what has been portrayed in the book and it is evident with the strength at which the things are told.
I however would have liked for it have more analogies of the intercepts from the days of Chanakya, which I felt was a let down. More practical happenings of the time would have certainly ascertained a better understanding of the ideologies. All in All, besides the fact that it tends to be a little repetitive(Which the writer claims at the very beginning of the book on the count of emphasis on a particular concept), Certainly a decent read.

[Pransu Khakurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gave me mixed feeling while it gives clearer insights on leadership theory of Chanakya and its applications in real life, a lot of examples and thoughts seem to be repeated time and again, making it slightly boring to read it in one go. Wanted more analogies about Chanakya from this book as Dr. Pillai presents in podcasts. But yes, a read that will indeed motivate you whenever you want with daily motivation.

Certainly a 3/5

[Somesh Mathur · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book starts off well but gets mind numbingly tedious as you progress. The English is easy to understand with occasional mistakes. The book comprises of ideas of Chanakya's followed a by paragraph explaining the same. After a point the explanations become a useless drag of poorly presented words and just dampens the mood. My suggestion would be to avoid this book.

[Srivatsan V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read

Decent read with nuggets of wisdom but many wisdom are too repetitive either within this book or from the author's earlier books. Apart from the things repeated, this was a good book worth reading

[Srividhya G · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read for those aspiring to become leaders or even who are already leaders ... The book gives pointers and leaves the rest for the reader to ponder and implement. A must read for leadership skills.

[Hemant Thapa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole book is a summary of chanakya's other books.The writer keeps giving reference to the original book in every wisdom without giving any detail.This resulted in not being connected to this book itself.Not much of help for ppl looking for the detailed wisdom of chanakya.

[sharad Khadilkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read who want to succed in modern days management

Thought full insights and beautiful coreelation with modern day management practices. One should know how rich is our ancient indian culture

[Akhil Reddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a routine daily life motivation book not have much to learn personally recommend for beginner readers. There is lot about leadership qualities how to behave bla bla bla an all its there in every motivation books around

[Movva Jaswanth]

Ok

[Karan Khatri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fist 40% I was able to read. But then things started repeating. I skipped all that was repeated. But, after 60% too most of the things were repeating. So I stop reading the book.

[Vish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impactful message delivered in the most simplest way

[Srikanth P · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about daily ideas, about how to think in a logical, practical and lawful way. Whenever in doubt this critical thinking helps us.

[Jaya]

I am going to read this book

[sekhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repetitive and not so great

[Ejjigiri Nagaraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

One verse every day, will make you chanakya.

[Inkpagewhisperer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daily motivation !!

[Praveen Menon · Rating 3 out of 5]

GOOD.

[Raja Sunkara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book acts like a primer for those who want to go on to read the actual Kautliya's Arthashastra. Though interesting, I found some lessons to be repetitive.

[Pranali]

Amazing book