Dhammapada

I just got to flip through one of the books of Buddhist literature called "Dhammapada". After going through a few pages of it, I realized it is not just another book to glance through, but a piece of precious knowledge to be studied deeply. It is a must read for not only the spiritually inclined people but also a common man. It is a boon for the one who studies it deeply and practices it ardently. For the spiritually inclined it is a spiritual guide, for the rest, it is an ethical guide.

Just to give a brief introduction of the book - Dhammapada is an anthology of verses attributed to Buddha. It is considered to be one of the masterpiece of Buddhist literature. The title Dhammapada is a combination of two words "Dhamma" and "Pada". The word Dhamma can be referred to the Buddha's doctrine, or an eternal truth, or righteousness and the word Pada means foot and in this context it can be taken to mean path. The Dhammapada is available in lot of versions such as Gandhari Dharmapada, Patna Dharmapada, but the Pali version is the best-known.

The Pali version of Dhammapada contains 423 verses categorized into 26 chapters.

1. Pairs
2. Heedfulness
3. The Mind
4. Blossoms
5. Fools
6. The Wise
7. Arahants
8. Thousands
9. Evil
10. The Rod
11. Ageing
12. Self
13. Worlds
14. Awakened
15. Happy
16. Dear Ones
17. Anger
18. Impurities
19. The Judge
20. The Path
21. Miscellany
22. Hell
23. Elephants
24. Craving
25. Monks
26. Brahmins

As I travel through each of the chapters, I will post my thoughts on the same in the next series of blog posts.

Bookmark this post:

I'm reading: Dhammapada ~