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FLOWERS.
46. He who knows that this body is like froth, and has learnt that it is as unsubstantial as a mirage, will break the flower-pointed arrow of Mara, and never see the king of death.
47. Death carries off a man who is gathering flowers and whose mind is distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village.
48. Death subdues a man who is gathering flowers, 1 and whose mind is distracted, before he is satiated in his pleasures.
49. As the bee collects nectar and departs without injuring the flower, or its colour or scent, so let a sage dwell in his yillage.
50. Not the perversities of others, not their sins
whose mind is turned elsewhere, before his desires have been fulfilled.'
Suptam vyâghram mahaugho vâ mrityur âdâya gakkhati,
Sankinvânakam evainam kâmânâm avitriptikam. As a stream (carries off) a sleeping tiger, death carries off this man who is gathering flowers, and who is not satiated in his pleasures.'
This last verse, particularly, seems to me clearly a translation from Pâli, and the kam of sankinvânakam looks as if put in metri causâ.
46. The flower-arrows of Mâra, the tempter, are borrowed from Kâma, the Hindu god of love. For a similar expression see Lalita-vistara, ed. Calc. p. 40, l. 20, mâyâmarîkisadrisâ vidyutphenopamas kapalâh. It is on account of this parallel passage that I prefer to translate marîki by 'mirage,' and not by 'sunbeam,' as Fausböll, or by 'solar atom,' as Weber proposes. The expression,
he will never see the king of death,' is supposed to mean Arhatship by Childers, s. y. nibbâna, p. 270.
47. See Thiessen, Die Legende von Kiságotami, p. 9.
48. Antaka, .death,' is given as an explanation of Mâra in the Amarakosha and Abhidhânappadîpika (cf. Fausböll, p. 210).
49. See Beal, Catena, p. 159, where vv. 49 and 50 are ascribed to Wessabhu, i.e. Visvabhū. See also Der Weise und der Thor, p. 134.
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| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| 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 |