Dhammapada, Dhamma Verses (KN 2)

1: The Chapter about the Pairs – 14
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā,
Mind precedes thoughts, mind is their chief, (their quality is) made by mind,
manasā ce pasannena bhāsati vā karoti vā,
if with pure mind one speaks or acts,
tato naṁ sukham-anveti chāyā va anapāyinī. [2]
through that happiness follows him like a shadow which does not depart.
“Akkocchi maṁ, avadhi maṁ, ajini maṁ, ahāsi me”,
“He abused me, he struck at me, he overcame me, he robbed me,” 1
ye ca taṁ upanayhanti veraṁ tesaṁ na sammati. [3]
those 2 who bear ill-will towards this their hatred is never appeased.
“Akkocchi maṁ, avadhi maṁ, ajini maṁ, ahāsi me”,
“He abused me, he struck at me, he overcame me, he robbed me,”
ye taṁ na upanayhanti veraṁ tesūpasammati. 3 [4]
those who do not bear ill-will towards this their hatred is appeased.
Na hi verena verāni sammantīdha kudācanaṁ,
For not by hatred do hatreds cease at any time in this place,
averena ca sammanti, esa dhammo sanantano. 4 [5]
they only cease with non-hatred, this truth is (surely) eternal. 5
Pare ca na vijānanti mayam-ettha yamāmase,
The others do not understand that we should restrain ourselves here,
ye ca tattha vijānanti tato sammanti medhagā. [6]
but (for) those 6 here who do understand, through that, (their) dissensions do cease.
1
Presumably me is ablative, he took from me, he robbed from me.
2
We might have expected the genitive, not the nominative, form here, yesaṁ, for those..., the line
could easily be rewritten to fit the metre: yesañ-ca upanayhanti, and in the next line: yesaṁ na
upanayhanti.
3
This is an unexpected formation here, we either have tesaṁ + upasammati giving sandhi tesūpa-,
or the locative is being used tesu + upasammati; if it is the former, then we might have expected
tesañ-ca sammati, to match the verb in the preceding verse.
4
Interestingly an alternative name for what is now known as Hinduism is the sanātana (variant
form of sanantana) Dharma; this is the earliest use of the phrase I know of.
5
This verse and the one that follows do not form a pair, but seem to have been attracted into the
collection at this point by word collocation on vera.
6
As in verse three the genitive would have made more sense here: yesaṁ tattha vijānanti..., for
those who do understand...