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 141

82
DHAMMAPADA. CHAP. xxiv.
5. 345. Wise people do not call that a strong fetter
which is made of iron, wood, or hemp ; far stronger is the care for precious stones and rings, for sons and a wife.
346. That fetter wise people call strong which drags down, yields, but is difficult to undo; after having cut this at last, people leave the world, free from cares, and leaving desires and pleasures behind.
347. Those who are slaves to passions, run down with the stream (of desires), as a spider runs down the web which he has made himself; when they have cut this, at last, wise people leave the world,
free from cares, leaving all affection behind. b. 348. Give up what is before, give up what is
behind, give up what is in the middle, when thou goest to the other shore of existence ; if thy mind is altogether free, thou wilt not again enter into birth and decay.
349. If a man is tossed about by doubts, full of strong passions, and yearning only for what is delightful, his thirst will grow more and more, and he
will indeed make his fetters strong. g. 350. If a man delights in quieting doubts, and,
always reflecting, dwells on what is not delightful
345. Apekhâ, apekshâ, care;' see Manu VI, 41, 49 ; Suttanipâta, v. 37; and Gâtaka, vol. ii. p. 140.
346. Paribbag, i. e. parivrag; see Manu VI, 41.
347. The commentator explains the simile of the spider as follows: 'As a spider, after having made its thread-web, sits in the middle, and after killing with a violent rush a butterfly or a fly which has fallen in its circle, drinks its juice, returns, and sits again in the same place, in the same manner creatures who are given to passions, depraved by hatred, and maddened by wrath, run along the stream of thirst which they have made themselves, and cannot cross it,' &c.
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