Chanakya Niti — Human Nature, Shloka 7
अनागतविधाता च प्रत्युत्पन्नमतिस्तथा ।
द्वावेतौ सुखमेधेते यद्भविष्यो विनश्यति ॥
anāgatavidhātā ca pratyutpannamatistathā |
dvāv etau sukham edhete yadbhaviṣyo vinaśyati ||
能筹谋未至之事者，与当下决断明敏者，二者易得安成；唯倚“将来”者，终至败亡。
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In the wider Nītiśāstra tradition, such couplets function as didactic summaries of practical reasoning valued in courtly and administrative settings, where foresight (planning for contingencies) and immediate situational judgment were treated as complementary skills within premodern South Asian political and social organization.
The verse frames prudence through two capacities: (1) provisioning for what is not yet present (anāgatavidhātā), and (2) effective discernment in immediate circumstances (pratyutpannamati). It contrasts these with a figure characterized as merely ‘future-oriented’ (bhaviṣyaḥ), presented as lacking actionable planning or present efficacy.
The diction juxtaposes temporal registers—anāgata (‘not yet come’) and pratyutpanna (‘arisen in the present’)—and uses the growth verb-root √edh (‘to thrive, increase’) to depict prosperity as a kind of flourishing. The term bhaviṣyaḥ is semantically flexible, allowing either ‘the future’ or ‘a person fixated on what will be,’ which supports the aphoristic contrast between actionable foresight and passive expectation.
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