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1. A wicked wife, a false friend, a saucy servant and living in a house with a serpent सर्प in it are nothing but death.
2. Do not inhabit a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends, or cannot acquire knowledge.
3. Do not stay for a single day where there are not these five persons: a wealthy man, a brahmin well versed in Vedic lore, a king, a river and a physician.
4. Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.
5. Do not put your trust in rivers, men who carry weapons, beasts पशु with claws नाखून or horns , women, and members of a royal family.
6. Separation from the wife, disgrace from one’s own people, an enemy saved in battle, service to a wicked king, poverty गरीबी, and a mismanaged assembly: these six kinds of evils, if afflicting a person, burn him even without fire.
7. Trees on a riverbank, a woman in another man’s house, and kings without counsellors go without doubt to swift destruction.
8. Friendship between equals flourishes, service under a king is respectable, it is good to be business-minded in public dealings, and a handsome lady is safe in her own home.
9. Of a rascal दुर्जन and a serpent सर्प, the serpent is the better of the two, for he strikes only at the time he is destined to kill, while the former at every step.
10. Give up a member to save a family, a family to save a village, a village to save a country, and the country to save yourself.
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