Dhammapada - Chapter 10 - The Rod

The 10th Chapter of Dhammapada is based on the concept of punishment. All are frightened of being hurt or any threat to one's life. To all life is dear. Seeing that others see the same way as oneself, equating others to oneself, refrain from harming or killing. People who like to be happy are in search of pleasure hurt others through various acts of violence for their own happiness. These victims too want to be happy as much as those who inflict pain on them. Those who inflict pain do not achieve happiness even in their next birth.

To know further read the verses that follow. There are 17 verses in this chapter:

Verse 129

All tremble at the rod,

all are fearful of death.

Drawing the parallel to yourself,

neither kill nor get others to kill.

Verse 130

All tremble at the rod,

hold their life dear.

Drawing the parallel to yourself,

neither kill nor get others to kill.

Verse 131

Whoever takes a rod

to harm living beings desiring ease,

when he himself is looking for ease,

will meet with no ease after death.

Verse 132

Whoever doesn't take a rod

to harm living beings desiring ease,

when he himself is looking for ease,

will meet with ease after death.

Verse 133

Speak harshly to no one,

or the words will be thrown

right back at you.

Contentious talk is painful,

for you get struck by rods in return.

Verse 134

If, like a flattened metal pot

you don't resound,

you have attained an Unbinding;

in you there's found

no contention.

Verse 135

As a cowherd with a rod

drives cows to the field,

so ageing and death

drive the life of living beings.

Verse 136

When doing evil deeds,

the fool is oblivious.

The dullard is tormented

by his own deeds,

as if burned by a fire.

Verse 137-140

Whoever, with a rod,

harasses an innocent man, unarmed,

quickly falls into any of the ten things:

harsh pains, devastation, a broken body,

grave illness, mental derangement, trouble 

with the government, violent slander, relatives lost,

property dissolved, houses burned down.

At the break-up of the body

this one with no discernment,

reappears in hell.

Verse 141

Neither nakedness nor matted hair

nor mud nor the refusal of food

nor sleeping on the bare ground

nor dust and dirt nor squatting austerities

cleanses the mortal

who's not gone beyond doubt.

Verse 142

If, though adorned, one lives in tune

with the chaste life

-calmed, tamed and assured-

having put down the rod towards other beings,

he's a contemplative, a brahmin, a monk.

Verse 143

Who in the world

is a man constrained by conscience,

who awakens to censure

like a fine stallion to whip.

Verse 144

Like a fine stallion

struck with a whip,

be ardent and chastened.

Through conviction, virtue,

persistence, concentration, judgment,

consummate in knowledge and conduct,

mindful,

you will abandon this non-insignificant pain.

Verse 145

Irrigators guide the water.

Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.

Carpenters shape the wood.

Those of good practices control themselves.

For further reading:

The Dhammapada: With Introductory Essays, Pali Text, English Translation and Notes (Oxford India Paperbacks)
Dhammapada
The Still Point Dhammapada: Living the Buddha's Essential Teachings
The Voice of the Buddha: The Dhammapada and other key Buddhist teachings
The Book Of The Books: Discourses On The Dhammapada Of Gautam The Buddha (Book of the Books)

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