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46
DHAMMAPADA. CHAP. XII.
164. The foolish man who scorns the rule of the venerable (Arahat), of the elect (Ariya), of the virtuous, and follows false doctrine, he bears fruit to his own destruction, like the fruits of the Katthaka reed.
165. By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.
166. Let no one forget his own duty for the sake of another's, however great; let a man, after he has discerned his own duty, be always attentive to his duty.
164. The reed either dies after it has borne fruit, or is cut down for the sake of its fruit.
Ditthi, literally view,' is used even by itself, like the Greek "hairesis,' in the sense of heresy (see Burnouf, Lotus, p. 444). In other places a distinction is made between mikkhâditthi (vv. 167, 316) and sammâditthi (v. 319). If arahatam ariyânam are used in their technical sense, we should translate the reverend Arhats,'Arhat being the highest degree of the four orders of Ariyas, viz. Srotaâpanna, Sakadâgâmin, Anâgâmin, and Arhat. See note to verse 178.
166. Attha, lit. 'object,' must here be taken in a moral sense, as duty' rather than as advantage.' Childers rendered it by
spiritual good.' The story which Buddhaghosa tells of the Thera Attadattha gives a clue to the origin of some of his parables, which seem to have been invented to suit the text of the Dhammapada rather than vice versa. A similar case occurs in the commentary to verse 227.
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