Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 155

144
Minoru Hara
Makaranda
(2-1-2) Two things are contrasted as asāra and sāra. One is recommended to take sāra out of asāra. In the Pāli "Kańha-jātaka” we read,
Asārassa dhanassa dānam sāro, bahu-roga-sādhārana-bhāvena asarassa kāyassa silavantesu abhivādanādi-kammam sāro. aniccatabhibhutassa asārassa jīvatassa aniccādivasena vipassanā-yogo sāro. tasmā asārehi bhogehi sāra-gahanattham dānañ dassāmi (Kanhajātaka 440, J. 4. 7. 23-27)
"Charity is the essence of essenceless wealth. Such actions as respectful greeting to the virtuous, and other things are the essence of body, essenceless because of its being the receptacle of various diseases. The essence of life, essenceless because of its being subject to transitoriness, is one's application to insight by means of transitory(-ness) and others (dukkha and anattā ?). Thus, I practise charity in order to get the essence from essenceless enjoyment."
(2-1-3) We have a Sanskrit verse in a similar tone :
Dānam vittād rtam vācah kīrti-dharmau tathāyusah paropakaranam kāyād asarāt sāram āharet
(IS.2750) - "Man should take from the essenceless the essence; from wealth charity, 13 from speech the truth, from life fame and merit, from the body altruism."14
Here the sāra-s are the act of giving (dāna), truth (rta), fame (kīrti) and religious merit (dharma) and altruism (paropakarana), while the asaras are wealth (vitta), speech (vāc), life (āyus) and body (kāya).15
(2-2) nihsāra and sāra :
(2-2-1) The contrast of wealth and charity is further emphasized :
Dhanasya nihsāra-laghoh sa sāro yad diyate loka-hitonmukhena nidhānatāṁ yāti hi dīyamānam adiyamānam nidhanaika-nistham ||
(JM. 2. 50) "Wealth is a contemptible thing, because it is pithless, yet it has one