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 ||
મનમાં વિચારેલું કાર્ય વાણીથી પ્રગટ ન કરવું; મંત્રણા વડે તેને ગુપ્ત રાખી પછી કાર્યમાં લગાવવું.
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.