110 In pāda a, I read paṅkaīṃ with Be and Ee1 as against saṅgaīṃ (“tie”) in Se and Ee2. Spk states that the abandoning of the human body implies the eradication of the five lower fetters and the celestial bond (dibbayoga) signifies the five higher fetters.
111 I follow the spelling of the names in Se. Upaka is the former Ājı̄vaka ascetic whom the newly enlightened Buddha met while en route to Isipatana (MN I 170,33-171, 20). Later, after an unhappy marriage, he entered the Saṅgha: see DPPN 1:386. The story of Pukkusāti is related in MN No. 140 and Ps V 33-63; see too DPPN 2:214-16. Piṅgiya here may be identical with the pupil of Bāvarı̄ whose verses occur at Sn 1131-49, though this remains uncertain. The identity of the other bhikkhus cannot be established.
112 I read pāda a with Be and Se kusalī bhāsasi tesaṃ. Spk: Kusalan ti idaṃ vacanaṃ imassa atthīti kusalī; tesaṃ therānaṃ tvaṃ kusalaṃ anavajjaṃ bhāsasi.
113 On “where name-and-form ceases” see above n. 46. Spk paraphrases the next to last line: “Those elders (did so) having understood that Dhamma here in your dispensation.”
114 Bhaggava was the potter’s name, possibly a clan name.
115 Spk says that the concluding verse was added by the redactors of the texts. The statement that both were inwardly developed (bhāvitattānaṃ) and were bearing their final bodies (sarīrantimadhārinaṃ) implies that after his rebirth in the Pure Abodes, Ghaṭı̄kāra too had become an arahant.
116 Se and Ee2 read corehi ʹhāriyaṃ, Be corehyahāriyaṃ. Both are orthographical attempts to salvage a text that appears to assert the exact opposite of the meaning required. Without such editorial moulding corehi hāriyaṃ (the reading of Ee1) would mean, “What is it that thieves should bear away?” —the rendering used at KS 1:51. Spk offers no help.
117 Reading in pāda a (in the next verse too) pavasato with Be, Se, and Ee2, as against pathavato in Ee1.
118 Spk: Sons are the support (vatthu) of human beings because they care for their parents in old age. A wife is the best companion because one can confide to her one’s most personal secrets.
119 Spk: The deviant path (uppatha) is a nonpath (amagga) for going to heaven and Nibbāna. Undergoes destruction day and night (rattindivakkhaya): it is destroyed by the days and nights or during the days and nights. Women are the stain of the holy life: by washing off an external stain one can become clean, but if one is defiled by the stain of women it is not possible to make oneself pure. Austerity (tapa) is a name for restraint, the ascetic practices (dhutaṅgaguṇa), energy, and extreme asceticism (dukkarakārika); all these except extreme asceticism (i.e., self-mortification) are practices that burn up the defilements. The holy life (brahmacariya ) is abstinence from sexual intercourse.On “the bath without water” see vv. 646, 705. To appreciate this expression one must remember that for the brahmins in the Buddha’s time (as for many Hindus today) ritual bathing was a way to wash away one’s sins. The Buddha replaced this with the “internal bath” of the mind; see 7:21 below and MN I 39,1-2, 280,18-20.
120 Spk: Metre is the scaffolding of verses (chando nidānaṃ gāthānaṃ): Metres, beginning with the gāyatti, are the scaffolding of verses; for one beginning the preliminary verses first considers, “In which metre should it be?” Syllables constitute their phrasing (akkharā tāsaṃ viyañjanaṃ): For syllables make up words, and words make up a verse, and a verse reveals the meaning. Verses rest on a base of names: One composing a verse composes it by relying on some name such as “the ocean” or “the earth.” The poet is the abode where verses dwell: The abode (āsaya) of verses is their support (patiṭṭhā); verses come forth from the poet, and thus he is their support.
121 In pāda a, I read addhabhavi with Be and Ee1 & 2, as against anvabhavi in Se. Addhabhavi is aorist of adhibhavati, to overcome, to overpower; see CPD, s.v. addhabhavati. Spk: There is no living being or entity that is free from a name, whether the name be natural or fabricated. Even a tree or stone with no known name is still called “the nameless one.”
122 The verb in pāda b is passive. Spk to v. 246 glosses the active parikassati as parikaḍḍhati, to drag around. Spk: Those who come under the control of the mind are subjected to total obsession. Spk-pṭ: The sutta speaks of those who have not fully understood reality. But those who have fully understood the aggregates and abandoned the defilements do not come under control of the mind; rather, it is the mind that comes under their control.
123 Spk glosses vicāraṇa in pāda b by pādāni, feet, explaining that the singular should be understood as a plural. In doctrinal contexts the cognate vicāra means examination, and is regularly coupled with vitakka to describe the thought process, e.g., in the formula for the first jhāna. Here, however, the point seems to be that thought can travel over vast distances without physical locomotion.
124 I read with Be, Se, Ee1, and Spk (Be) kissa dhūpāyito, as against kissā dhūmāyito in Ee2, SS, and Spk (Se). The verse is also at Th 448 with dhūpāyito. Norman (at EV I, n. to 448) contends this word means “perfumed” or “obscured (by smoke),” but Spk glosses as āditto; see too v. 542, where padhūpito must mean “burning.”
125 Spk: The world is ensnared by craving (taṇhāya uḍḍito) because the eye, caught withthe rope of craving, is ensnared on the peg of forms; so too with the ear and ensnared on the peg of forms; so too with the ear and sounds, etc. The world is shut in by death (maccunā pihito): Even though the kamma done in the last life is only one mind-moment away, beings do not know it because they are shut off from it, as if by a mountain, by the strong pains occurring at the time of death.
126 See above n. 57. Following a suggestion of VĀT, I take upādāya in pāda c to be an absolutive with the literal meaning “clinging,” completed by the finite verb vihaññati in pāda d; loko in v. 221c thus becomes a mere metrical filler. Spk, however, has adopted an alternative solution, supplying a suppressed finite verbandinterpreting upādāya in the extended sense of “depending on” thus: upadaya in the extended sense of “depending on” thus: tāni yeva ca upādāya āgamma paṭicca pavattati; “It occurs dependent on, contingent on, in dependence on them.” Pj II 210,27-28, commenting on Sn 168, takes a similar approach, though with a different finite verb.The Hemavata Sutta itself, however, suggests that upādāya should be taken in the literal sense of “clinging to.” For after the Buddha has replied at Sn 169 with an answer identical to that in the present sutta, at Sn 170 the yakkha asks: Katamaṃ taṃ upādānaṃ yattha loko vihaññati?, “What is that clinging wherein the world is harassed?”—a question which surely refers back to that same upādāya.
Spk: The “six” in the question should be understood by way of the six internal sense bases, but it may also be interpreted by way of the six internal and external bases. For the world has arisen in the six internal bases, forms intimacy with the six external bases, and by clinging to (or depending on) the six internal bases, it is harassed in the six external bases.
The verse offers a solution to the problem posed below at 2:26, on how the world exists and arises in this very body endowed with perception and mind. On the origination of the world in the six internal bases, see 12:44 (= 35:107). Norman discusses the verses from a philological angle at GD, pp. 181-82, n. to 168.
127 Se, Ee2 jhatvā is certainly the correct reading, chetvā in Be and Ee1 a normalization. The gloss in Spk, vadhitvā, supports jhatvā, and G-Dhp 288-89 has jatva, the Gāndhārı̄ Prakrit counterpart. See Brough, Gāndhārī Dharmapada, pp. 164, 265-66. Jhatvā is also found in the SS reading of v. 94b.
128 Spk: Anger has a poisoned root (visamūla) because it results in suffering. It has a honeyed tip (madhuragga) because pleasure arises when one returns anger with anger, abuse with abuse, or a blow with a blow.
129 Spk: A token is that by which something is discerned (paññāyati etenā ti paññāṇaṃ) A standard is the token of a chariot because a chariot, seen from a distance, is identified by its stand
ard as belonging to such and such a king. A married woman, even the daughter of a universal monarch, is identified as Mrs. So-and-So; hence a husband is the token of a woman. On the standard (dhaja) as the token of a chariot, see 11:2 and n. 611.
130 SS record a v.l. sādhutaraṃin pāda c, but Spk’s gloss madhutaraṃ indicates that the reading available to the commentator here was sādutaraṃ. However, Spk recognizes the same v.l. in connection with the identical vv. 846-47. See n. 597.Spk: A householder who lives by wisdom (paññājīvī) is one who becomes established in the Five Precepts and offers regular almsfood, etc.; one gone forth who lives by wisdom uses his requisites with proper reflection, takes up a meditation subject, sets up insight, and attains the noble paths and fruits.
131 Spk: The former deva had asked the Buddha these questions, but the second deva interrupted, saying, “Why ask the Buddha? I’ll answer you,” and then offered his own ideas. But the first deva rebuked him for intruding and again addressed the questions to the Buddha.Spk: Seed of the seven kinds of grain is the best of things that rise up because, when seed rises, food becomes plentiful and the country is secure. Rain from a rain cloud excels among things that fall down for this ensures a plentiful crop. Cattle are the best of things that go forth, that walk about on foot, because they produce the five kinds of dairy products (milk, curd, butter, ghee, and cream-of-ghee) by which people sustain their health. A son is the most excellent of speakers because he does not say anything harmful to his parents in the royal court, etc.
It should be noted that pavajamānānaṃ in pāda c is the present participle of pavajati or pabbajati, which, in a religious context, signifies the act of leaving the household life to become a monk (pabbajjā). Hence the Buddha’s reply in the next verse.
132 Spk: Knowledge (vijjā) is the knowledge of the four paths; ignorance (avijjā) is the great ignorance at the root of the round. The Saṅgha is the best of things that go forth because it is a rich field of merit. The Buddha is the best of speakers because his teaching of the Dhamma helps release many hundred thousands of beings from bondage.
133 Maggo c’ anekāyatanappavutto. Spk: He says, “The path is explained by many methods (kāraṇehi), by way of the thirty-eight meditation objects. Such being the case, why have these people become frightened and grasped hold of the sixty-two views?” The thirty-eight meditation objects (aṭṭhatiṃārammaṇa) are identical with the classical forty kammaṭṭhāna (e.g., in Vism) except that the list of kasiṇas is drawn from the Nikāyas (e.g., MN II 14,29-15,2), in which the last two (the space kasiṇa and the consciousness kasiṇa) are the same as the first two formless attainments (āruppa) and hence are not reckoned twice. In the Vism system these two are replaced by the limited space kasiṇa and the light kasiṇa, which brings the number up to forty.
134 The last line should be read with Be, Se, and Ee2 as dhamme ṭhito paralokaṃ na bhāye. Ee1 omits dhamme ṭhito, apparently by oversight. Spk interprets “rightly directed speech and mind” and “doing no evil deeds with the body” as the preliminary factors of purification, and takes the four qualities mentioned in pāda d to be the “four things” on which one should stand. But it also suggests another interpretation: right bodily, verbal, and mental conduct are the first three things, and the four qualities in pāda d taken together are the fourth. The first alternative sounds more plausible.
135 The Pāli terms for the six fissures (chiddāni) are: ālassa, pamāda, anuṭṭhāna, asaṃama, niddā, tandi. Spk-pṭ: These six things are called fissures because they do not give an opportunity for wholesome states of mind to occur.
136 Spk: A woman is called the best of goods because a woman is an article that should not be given away (avissajjanīyabaṇḍattā ); or else she is so called because all bodhisattas and wheel-turning monarchs are conceived in a mother’s womb. Spk-pṭ: Even the most precious jewel is not called “the best of goods” because it still falls into the category of things that might be given away; but a woman who has not abandoned the family customs should not be relinquished to anyone, and hence she is called the best of goods. Further, a woman is the best of goods because she is a mine for the best of gems, that is, because (her body) is the place for the birth of the human thoroughbreds (i.e., Buddhas and arahants).
137 Abbuda (“plague”) is glossed by Spk as vināsakāraṇa, a cause of destruction. The word also occurs in v. 591 as an extremely high number, in 6:10 as the name of a hell, and at v. 803 as a stage in the development of the fetus.
138 Spk: One should not give oneself away by becoming the slave of another, but an exception is made of all bodhisattas. So too, except for all bodhisattas, one should not relinquish oneself to lions and tigers, etc.
139 I interpret pāda c, in both the question and the reply, with the aid of Spk, which paraphrases only the reply: Gāvo kamme sajīvānan ti kammena saha jīvantānaṃ gāvo va kamme kammasahāyā kammadutiyakā nāma honti; “For those who live together with work, cattle are called the work-companions, the work-partners, in work; for the work of ploughing, etc., is accomplished along with a team of cattle.”In pāda d, sītassa (Ee2: sīta ’ssa) should be resolved sītaṃ assa. Spk takes assa to refer to “the mass of beings” (or of people: sattakāyassa) and explains iriyāpatha, “the course of movement” (or “mode of deportment”), as the means of livelihood (jīvitavutti); it glosses sīta (furrow) with naṅgala (plough). The purport is that the activity of ploughing is the essential means for sustaining human life.
140 Spk: Firmly established in virtue.2. Devaputtasaṃyutta
141 Devaputta means literally “son of the devas,” but since devas are depicted as arising in their celestial abodes by way of spontaneous birth, I translate the compound simply as “young deva.”Spk: They are reborn in the laps (aṅka) of devas. The males are called sons of the devas (devaputtā); the females, daughters of the devas (devadhītaro). When they are not known by name it is said, “a certain devatā” (as in the preceding saṃyutta); but those who are known by name are referred to as “a son of the devas named So-and-So” (as here). Spk-pṭ: This last statement is made only as a generalization, for the identity of several devatās is known.
142 Spk: When the Buddha taught the Abhidhamma in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven during the seventh rains retreat after his enlightenment, this young deva heard him give a description of the bhikkhu (as at Vibh 245-46), but did not hear his instruction to the bhikkhu, his exhortation to the bhikkhu, “Think in this way, not in that way; attend in this way, not in that way; abandon this, enter and dwell in that” (as at DN I 214,18-21). He speaks with reference to this.
143 Taññev’ ettha paṭibhātu. Lit. “Let it occur to you yourself in regard to this.” Throughout this work I have rendered this peculiar Pāli idiom, and its variants, in ways that best accord with natural English diction.
144 Well-spoken counsel (subhāsitassa). Spk interprets this to mean that one should train oneself in just the fourfold good conduct of speech (see below 8:5; also MN I 288,1-22), (and in talk) concerning the Four Noble Truths, the ten suitable topics of discussion (see MN III 113,25-31), and the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment. It seems to me more likely the purport is that one should train in accordance with good counsel.Spk offers two interpretations of samaṇupāsana in pāda b: (i) that which is to be attended to by an ascetic, namely, one of the thirty-eight meditation subjects (see n. 133); and (ii) attending upon an ascetic, i.e., serving learned bhikkhus in order to increase one’s wisdom. The first seems more plausible. The calming of the mind (cittūpasama) is the training by way of the eight meditative attainments (aṭṭhasamāpatti).
145 In pāda b, I read ce with Be, Se, and Ee2, as against ca in Ee1. I construe the convoluted syntax of this verse in accordance with Spk. Spk explains that he should be liberated in mind (vimuttacitto) through (temporary) liberation by devotion to the meditation subject [Spk-pṭ: liberation by insight and jhāna, which are temporary types of liberation, since at this point
he has not yet attained arahantship, the final liberation of mind]. The heart’s attainment (hadayassānupatti) is arahantship, which is also the advantage (ānisaṃsa) on which he should be bent.
146 Spk: Māgha is a name for Sakka, who asks the same set of questions below and receives the same reply (at vv. 939-40). It is a derivative of the name Magha, by which he was known during his life as a human being. He is called Vatrabhū because he attained rulership among the devas by overcoming others with his conduct (vattena aññe abhibhavati ), or because he overcame the asura named Vatra. Neither of these names is mentioned among Sakka’s names at 11:12.
147 By “brahmin” he refers to the arahant. Spk: This young deva believed that there was no end to the arahant’s duties and that the arahant must continue striving even after reaching arahantship. The Buddha spoke the rejoinder to correct him. The Buddha’s verse is unique (asaṅkiṇṇā) in the Tipiṭaka, for nowhere else does the Buddha criticize the arousing of energy, but here he speaks thus to show that there is a conclusion to the arahant’s duty.
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha Page 39
