Esa Dhamme Vusunao Such Is Law Of Sage

Author(s): Colette Caillat
Publisher: Colette Caillat

Page 7

ESA DHAMME VUSĪMAO
Hence the general conclusion, culminating in the last påda of the lecture (1.11.38d):
evam kevalino mayam,
"this is the doctrine of the Kevalin".
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It is in the light of this concluding stanza that the recommendations formulated in 15a (to abstain from all foul behaviour) and the motto esa dhamme vusimao (15b) will be read.28
Despite the gloss (vusimao
samyak-samyamavataḥ, T 201), it is possible to understand the formula used in 15 as an expression equivalent to evam kevalino mayam. The parallel is all the more striking as the same images are used in both contexts: the pious man versed in the Law taught by the Jina is said, in sl. 32, to be able "to cross the dreadful current" of the samsara:
imam ca dhammam ādāya Kasaveņa paveiyam tare soyar maha-ghoram....
while, in 23, he "shows (akhyati) the island" to others:
āghai sāhu tam dīvam.
As for ajjhayana 1.15, it is just as explicit. After the praise of the Leader's (nayaka) omniscience (1-2), slokas 3-4 link knowledge and benevolence: "always he who possesses the truth feels kindness towards his fellow-creatures",
saya saccena'sampanne mettim bhüehl kappae (3c-d; cf. 13).
According to the constant pattern of this ajjhayaṇa, 3d is then echoed by 4a (bhuehim na virujjhejjā), an injunction followed (in 4b) by the motto esa dhamme visimao, which, in turn, gives rise to 4c-d:
vusimam jagam parinnaya assim jîviya-bhāvaṇā,
"the v. knows(-and-renounces)29 the world, and given this (knowledge meditates on the) reflections on life" 30 In the sequence 3c-d- 4a-b, the pada 4b, esa dhamme vusimao, obviously refers to 3c (where truth, sacca, is in evidence). Once more, then, this burden appears to be more or less