[20] 10.
All tremble at the rod (daṇḍa); all fear death.
Making oneself the example, one should neither kill nor cause to kill.
All tremble at the rod; to all life is dear.
Making oneself the example, one should neither kill nor cause to kill.
Whoever, seeking happiness for himself, harms with the rod
beings that desire happiness — he, when he has passed away, does not obtain happiness.
Whoever, seeking happiness for himself, does not harm with the rod
beings that desire happiness — he, when he has passed away, obtains happiness.
Speak harshly to no one: those spoken to may answer you back;
for contentious speech is painful, and rods in return may touch you.
If you do not make yourself resound, like a gong that is broken,
you have attained Nibbāna: contention (sārambha) is not found in you.
As a cowherd with his rod drives the cattle to pasture,
so aging (jarā) and death (maccu) drive on the life of living beings.
And while doing evil deeds the fool does not understand;
the witless one is tormented by his own deeds, as one burnt by fire.
Whoever with the rod offends against those without rods, the inoffensive,
comes right quickly to one of ten states:
he may meet with harsh feeling (vedanā), with loss,
and with the breaking of the body,
or with grave illness too,
or with derangement of mind,
or with trouble from the king,
or with cruel calumny,
or with the perishing of relatives,
or with the ruin of possessions;
or else the blazing fire burns his houses —
and with the breakup of the body, that man of weak wisdom arises in hell (niraya).
Not going naked, nor matted locks, nor mud,
nor fasting, nor lying on the bare ground,
nor dust and dirt, nor striving in the squatting posture,
can purify a mortal who has not crossed beyond doubt (kaṅkhā).
Though adorned, if he should fare evenly —
at peace, tamed, assured, one living the holy life (brahmacārī) —
having laid down the rod toward all beings,
he is a brahmin (brāhmaṇa), he is an ascetic (samaṇa), he is a bhikkhu.
Is there found in the world any man restrained by shame (hiri),
one who shakes off sleep as a fine horse the whip?
As a fine horse touched by the whip,
be ardent (ātāpī) and stirred with urgency (saṃvega).
By faith (saddhā), by virtue (sīla), and by energy (vīriya),
by concentration (samādhi) and by discernment of the Dhamma (dhammavinicchaya),
perfect in true knowledge and conduct (vijjācaraṇa), mindful,
you will abandon this suffering (dukkha), which is not small.
Irrigators indeed lead the water;
fletchers bend the arrow shaft;
carpenters bend the timber;
those of good vows tame themselves.
The Chapter on the Rod, the tenth.
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The Verses of the Dhammapada: the eleventh chapter, the Chapter on Aging (Jarāvagga).
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.