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 75

16
DHAMMAPADA.
CHAP. IV.
CHAPTER IV.
FLOWERS? 44. Who shall overcome this earth, and the world of Yama (the lord of the departed), and the world of the gods? Who shall find out the plainly shown path of virtue, as a clever man finds out the (right) flower ?
45. The disciple will overcome the earth, and the world of Yama, and the world of the gods. The disciple will find out the plainly shown path of virtue, as a clever man finds out the (right) flower.
* See Beal, Dhammapada, p. 75.
44, 45. If I differ from the translation of Fausböll and Weber, it is because the commentary takes the two verbs, vigessati and pakessati, to mean in the end the same thing, i.e. sakkhi-karissati,
he will perceive. I have not ventured to take vigessate for viganissati, though it should be remembered that the overcoming of the earth and of the worlds below and above, as here alluded to, is meant to be achieved by means of knowledge. Pakessati, he will gather' (cf. vi-ki, Indische Sprüche, 4560), means also, like 'to gather' in English, he will perceive or understand,' and the dhammapada, or 'path of virtue,' is distinctly explained by Buddhaghosa as consisting of the thirty-seven states or stations which lead to Bodhi. (See Burnouf, Lotus, p. 430; Hardy, Manual, p. 497.) Dhammapada might, no doubt, mean also a law-verse,' and sudesita, well taught,' and this double meaning may be intentional here as elsewhere. Buddha himself is called Mârga-darsaka and Mârga-desika (cf. Lal. Vist. p. 551). There is a curious similarity between these verses and verses 6540-41, and 9939 of the Sântiparva:
Pushpânîva vikinvantam anyatragatamanasam,
Anavâpteshu kâmeshu mrityur abhyeti mânavam. Death approaches man like one who is gathering flowers, and
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