Shloka 7
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
मनसा चिन्तितं कार्यं वाचा नैव प्रकाशयेत् ।
मन्त्रेण रक्षयेद्गूढं कार्ये चापि नियोजयेत् ॥
manasā cintitaṁ kāryaṁ vācā naiva prakāśayet |
mantreṇa rakṣayed gūḍhaṁ kārye cāpi niyojayet ||
What you have conceived in the mind, do not disclose in speech. Guard the plan in secrecy through counsel, and employ it in the execution of the task.
FAQs
In the broader niti (policy/ethics) literature of early and medieval South Asia, secrecy (gūḍha) and controlled speech are recurrent themes associated with courtly politics, diplomacy, and the management of rivals. This verse reflects a common political-ethical motif: plans and intentions are treated as vulnerable resources within competitive environments such as royal courts and administrative settings.
Here, mantra functions in its political-literary sense of counsel, deliberation, or strategic consultation rather than a purely ritual formula. The verse frames counsel as a mechanism for safeguarding a contemplated undertaking—suggesting a tradition in which planning is protected through controlled deliberation and selective disclosure.
The verse contrasts manas (internal cognition) with vāc (external speech), a classical Sanskrit pairing used to mark the boundary between intention and public expression. The term gūḍha (“hidden”) indicates a technical register of secrecy found across Sanskrit political discourse, while kārya (“undertaking”) is a polyvalent term spanning administrative action, personal enterprise, and statecraft operations.