Shloka 5
Family and Relationships — Chanakya Niti
निःस्पृहो नाधिकारी स्यान् नाकामो मण्डनप्रियः ।
नाविदग्धः प्रियं ब्रूयात्स्पष्टवक्ता न वञ्चकः ॥
niḥspṛho nādhikārī syān nākāmo maṇḍanapriyaḥ |
āvidagdhaḥ priyaṁ brūyāt spaṣṭavaktā na vañcakaḥ ||
One without desire is unfit for office; one without aims loves no adornment; one without shrewdness speaks no pleasing words; one who speaks plainly is no deceiver.
FAQs
In the broader nītiśāstra milieu, such verses function as compact observations about courtly and administrative life, where motivation (kāma/aspiration), strategic speech, and the management of appearances are treated as socially consequential traits within hierarchical institutions and royal courts.
The verse frames desire/aspiration (spṛhā/kāma) as a marker associated with participation in office and public roles, implying that complete disinterest is traditionally viewed as incompatible with the pursuit and maintenance of authority within an administrative setting.
The construction uses paired negatives (na…/nā…) to set up aphoristic equivalences, and it juxtaposes social performance (maṇḍana, ornament/adornment) and speech-ethics (spaṣṭavaktṛ vs. vañcaka) to classify character-types; the phrasing suggests a period idiom in which rhetorical clarity is contrasted with deception as mutually exclusive traits.