Shloka 14
Governance and Policy — Chanakya Niti
यदीच्छसि वशीकर्तुं जगदेकेन कर्मणा ।
पुरा पञ्चदशास्येभ्यो गां चरन्ती निवारय ॥
yadīcchasi vaśīkartuṃ jagad ekena karmaṇā |
purā pañcadaśāsyebhyo gāṃ carantīṃ nivāraya ||
If you wish to bring the world under control by a single act, first restrain the grazing cow—from the fifteen mouths.
FAQs
In the historical milieu of Sanskrit nīti literature, governance and self-mastery are frequently taught through rural and household imagery familiar to agrarian societies. The cow functions as an everyday reference point, and the verse frames control over larger systems (society/world) as beginning with the ability to manage a smaller, immediate, and practically challenging task.
Here, 'control' (vaśīkartuṃ) is presented as a capacity demonstrated through practical restraint and management. The verse implies that claims of wide authority are tested by competency in concrete, proximate situations—an evaluative principle rather than a metaphysical definition.
The expression 'fifteen mouths' (pañcadaśāsyebhyaḥ) is a hyperbolic/figurative idiom emphasizing multiplicity of pulls or demands; it intensifies the difficulty of restraining something that is actively 'grazing' (carantīm). The metaphor leverages a familiar scene to suggest that mastery over the many begins with discipline over the one, using vivid, compressed Sanskrit phrasing typical of nīti aphorisms.