Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 114

HAPPINESS.
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204. Health is the greatest of gifts, contented-1 yie ness the best riches; trust is the best of relationships, Nirvâna the highest happiness.
205. He who has tasted the sweetness of solitude and tranquillity, is free from fear and free from sin, while he tastes the sweetness of drinking in the
law.
206. The sight of the elect (Arya) is good, to live with them is always happiness ; (if a man does not see fools, he will be truly happy.)
207. He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way; company with fools, as with an enemy, is always painful; company with the wise is pleasure, like meeting with kinsfolk.? 26
208. Therefore, one ought to follow the wise, the intelligent, the learned, the much enduring, the dutiful, the elect; one ought to follow a good and wise man, as the moon follows the path of the stars.
and less technical meaning, being used in the sense of conceptions, plans, desires, as, for instance, in verse 368, where sankhârânam khayam is used much like tamhâkhaya. Again, in his comment on verse 75, Buddhaghosa says, upadhiviveko sankhârasanganikam vinodeti; and again, upadhiviveko ka nirupadhînâm puggalânam visakharagatầnâm.
For a similar sentiment, see Stanislas Julien, Les Avadanas, vol. i. p. 40, 'Le corps est la plus grande source de souffrance,' &c. I should say that the khandhas in verse 202 and the sankhâras in verse 203 are nearly, if not quite, synonymous. I should prefer to read gigakkhâ-paramâ as a compound. Gigakkhâ, or as it is written in one MS., digakkhâ (Sk. gighatsa), means not only hunger,' but 'appetite, desire.'
204. Childers translates,'the best kinsman is a man you can trust.' 205. Cf. Suttanipata, v. 256. 208. I should like to read sukho ka dhîrasamvâso.
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