Chanakya Niti — Governance and Policy, Shloka 14
यदीच्छसि वशीकर्तुं जगदेकेन कर्मणा ।
पुरा पञ्चदशास्येभ्यो गां चरन्ती निवारय ॥
yadīcchasi vaśīkartuṃ jagad ekena karmaṇā |
purā pañcadaśāsyebhyo gāṃ carantīṃ nivāraya ||
Jika ingin menaklukkan dunia dengan satu tindakan, maka terlebih dahulu kendalikan sapi yang sedang merumput dari tarikan lima belas mulut.
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.