Answer: This quote is attributed to Swami Vivekananda, who emphasized on the right spirit as a tool to not only empower oneself in material and spiritual sense, but also for social and national development. The spirit is a part that is not physical and that consists of a person’s character and feelings. It is the thinking, motivating, and feeling part of a person that gets reflected in the attitude with which an action is being performed. If soul is once trained, it has the potential to transform people’s lives, society, and the country for the better as the following examples show:

• Right spirit as source of self-confidence: During the colonial rule, people were low on confidence and lacked the belief to change their present situation of slavery, poverty and deprivation. An ignited spirit inspired the masses to lift themselves up from their current state and gave birth to the national freedom struggle.
• Creates a moral society and leads to social upliftment: The right spirit strengthens the character of a person and prevents social degradations such as broken homes, immorality, violence, crime, etc. in modern society and focuses upon human relationships, and makes life meaningful and worth living.
• Right spirit as a source of justice: When laws and policies are made by the people in the right spirit, they don’t only follow the procedures but also follow the principles of natural justice; thus, improving the quality of life for all, especially the disadvantaged people.
• Better administration and service delivery: Administrators guided by the right spirit would naturally abide by the rules and regulations and thus ensure that rights and entitlements are enjoyed by the intended people. This would also reduce temptation and corruption. Once the feeling of compassion and a sense of equality and justice becomes the guiding factors of economic decisions, the socio-economic inequalities will also get reduced.
• Resolving national, international conflicts: The motivating factor of assertion and power projection are attributed to the rise of conflicts at national and international levels that can be avoided all together or resolved if a sense of brotherhood and welfare of all is the principle governing one’s actions.
• Better care for the environment: When people and society are guided by the right spirit and care for not only each other but for the future generations, long pending issues of climate negotiations, consumption patterns would transform for better.

Right spirit can be cultivated by the right education that builds the right character, right personality and gives tools to bring meaningful changes in one’s and other’s life. It has to be coupled with mindful analysis of self’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Answer: The teachings of Kautilya have been primarily derived from his book on statecraft i.e., the Arthashastra, which was written around 3rd century BC, primarily as a book of codes for efficient administration. It includes various learnings with regard to ethical administration that remain relevant to public services in India in the 21st century, which are given below:

• Concept of Welfare State (Yogakshema): Kautilya highlighted the crucial role of the State for ensuring material well-being of the nation and its people. According to him, the king is responsible to his subjects. He says, “In the happiness of the subjects lies the happiness of the king; in their welfare his welfare”. His idea of a welfare state is relevant in view of rising bureaucratic apathy towards people and the need for good governance in India.
• Ideals of ethical conduct: He prescribed ideals of ethical conduct for each individual, to whichever social class he may belong, the duties of ahimsa (refraining from injury), satya (truthfulness), sauca (purity), anasuya (freedom from malice), anrsamsya (compassion) and kshama (forgiveness). These values hold relevance for an ethical administration, which upholds transparency and justice in India.
• Maintenance of social order: For a society steeped in social hierarchy, poverty, deep ethnic cleavages, deep-rooted religious fragmented population, widespread illiteracy, the success of democracy in India can be traced to Kautilyan doctrine of orderly rule and recognition of regional diversity. This is relevant for maintaining “rule of law”.
• Views on corruption: He highlighted the endemic invisibility of corruption in administration. He compared corrupt administrators with an analogy of “like a fish in water who cannot be caught when it drinks water”. This is particularly relevant in the context of scams, bribes taken by public servants etc.
• Relevance of Mandala theory: While the Mandala theory as propagated in Arthashastra is often considered merely as an arrangement of states in concentric circles, the idea essentially was one of inter-state linkages with its own complex degree of friendliness or animosity or in modern parlance of having allies and adversaries. This holds relevance for a polarised world order and need for multilateralism for India. This can be linked with the principle of subsidiarity and delegation of power as well as bringing administration closer to the people.

Thus, Kautilya’s teachings are a synthesis of ‘hybridisation’ of the ancient wisdom with the modern knowledge, which remains relevant to Indian public services of the 21st century.