Udanavarga 2.5

2.5

「多作寶華，結步搖綺，廣積德香，
所生轉好。琦草芳華，不逆風熏，
近道敷開，德人逼香。栴檀多香，
青蓮芳花，雖曰是真，不如戒香。
華香氣微，不可謂真，持戒之香，
到天殊勝。戒具成就，行無放逸，
定意度脫，長離魔道。」

“As many kinds of flowers when waived to and fro scatter their scent far and wide, so wide is the renown of his accumulated merits, who once is born and lives as he ought. The scent of the Vassikī flowers does not travel against the wind, but the (odour) of those who live religiously spreads far and wide—the fame of the virtuous man pervades all places. The scent of sandal-wood and the Tagara, of the Lotus and Vassikī flower, although real and sensible, is not as the fragrance of (him who walks according to) the precepts. Mean and false in comparison is the scent of the rarest flowers with the fame of him who holds by virtue, the excellency of whose conduct rises to heaven. He who thus lives in perfect agreement with the precepts, who walks circumspectly, and who by fixed thought has obtained release, he has far out-distanced the way of Māra.”