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Dhammapada 19

Dhammapada 19

Language
Pāli

19

Bahumpi ce saṃhita bhāsamāno,
Na takkaro hoti naro pamatto;
Gopova gāvo gaṇayaṃ paresaṃ,
Na bhāgavā sāmaññassa hoti.

The thoughtless man, even if he can recite a large portion (of the law), but is not a doer of it, has no share in the priesthood, but is like a cowherd counting the cows of others.
[16. Like klishta in the preceding verse, visuddhi in the present has a technical meaning. One of Buddhaghosa's most famous works is called Visuddhi-magga. See Burnouf, Lotus, p. 844; Beal, Dhammapada, p. 67.
17, 18. 'The evil path and the good path' are technical expressions for the descending and ascending scale of worlds through which all beings have to travel upward or downward, according to their deeds; see Bigandet; Life of Gaudama, p. 5, note 4, and p. 449; Burnouf, Introduction, p. 599; Lotus, p. 865, l. 7; l. 11. Fausböll translates 'heaven and hell,' which comes to the same; cf. vv. 126, 306.

Friedrich Max Müller 1881, The Dhammapada (Sacred Books of the East 10.1)

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