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Dhammapada Verses 155 and 156 - Mahadhanasetthiputta Vatthu[]
Daw Mya Tin Version[]
Acaritva brahmacariyam
aladdha yobbane dhanam
jinnakoncava jhayanti
khinamaccheva pallale.
Acaritva brahmacariyam
aladdha yobbane dhanam
senti capatikhinava
puranani anutthunam.
Verse 155: They, who in youth have neither led the life of Purity nor have acquired wealth, waste away in dejection like decrepit herons on a drying pond deplete of fish.
Verse 156: They, who in youth have neither led the Life of Purity nor have acquired wealth, lie helplessly like arrows that have lost momentum, moaning and sighing after the past.
The Story of the Son of Mahadhana
While residing at the Migadaya wood, the Buddha uttered Verses (155) and (156) of this book, with reference to the son of Mahadhana, a rich man from Baranasi.
The son of Mahadhana did not study while he was young; when he came of age he married the daughter of a rich man, who, like him, also had no education. When the parents on both sides died, they inherited eighty crores from each side and so were very rich. But both of them were ignorant and knew only how to spend money and not how to keep it or to make it grow. They just ate and drank and had a good time, squandering their money. When they had spent all, they sold their fields and gardens and finally their house. Thus, they became very poor and helpless; and because they did not know how to earn a living they had to go begging. One day, the Buddha saw the rich man's son leaning against a wall of the monastery, taking the leftovers given him by the samaneras; seeing him, the Buddha smiled.
The Venerable Ananda asked the Buddha why he smiled, and the Buddha replied, "Ananda, look at this son of a very rich man; he had lived a useless life, an aimless life of pleasure. If he had learnt to look after his riches in the first stage of his life he would have been a top-ranking rich man; or if he had become a bhikkhu, he could have been an arahat, and his wife could have been an anagami. If he had learnt to look after his riches in the second stage of his life he would have been a second rank rich man, or if he had become a bhikkhu he could have been an anagami, and his wife could have been a sakadagami. If he had learnt to look after his riches in the third stage of his life he would have been a third rank rich man, or if he had become a bhikkhu he could have been a sakadagami, and his wife could have been a sotapanna. However, because he had done nothing in all the three stages of his life he had lost all his worldly riches, he had also lost all opportunities of attaining any of the Maggas and Phalas."
Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 155: They, who in youth have neither led the life of Purity nor have acquired wealth, waste away in dejection like decrepit herons on a drying pond deplete of fish.
Verse 156: They, who in youth have neither led the Life of Purity nor have acquired wealth, lie helplessly like arrows that have lost momentum, moaning and sighing after the past.
End of Chapter Eleven: Aging (Jaravagga)
Ven. Weragoda Sarada Maha Thero Version[]
The Story of Mahādhana the Treasurer’s Son
While residing at Isipatana, the Buddha spoke these verses, with reference to Mahādhana (Great-Wealth), the treasurer’s son.
Great-Wealth, it appears, was reborn at Benares, in a household worth eighty billions. Now his mother and father thought to themselves, “We have a vast store of wealth in our house, and there is no necessity that our son should do anything else than enjoy himself according to his own good pleasure.” Accordingly they had him instructed in singing and in the playing of musical instruments, and that was all the instruction he received. Likewise in that same city, in a household worth eighty billion of treasure, a daughter also was born. The same thought occurred to her mother and father also, and they had her instructed only in dancing and singing. When the two reached the proper age, they were married with the customary ceremonies. In the course of time both the mothers and fathers died, and then there were twice eight billion of treasure in the same house.
It was the custom of the treasurer’s son to go thrice a day to wait upon the king. One day a company of knaves who lived in that city thought to themselves, “If this treasurer’s son would only get drunk, it would be a fine thing for us. Let us show him how to get drunk.” Accordingly they procured strong drink, put roast meat, salt, and sugar in the skirts of the clothing, and taking roots and bulbs, seated themselves in a convenient place, watching the path by which he would approach from the royal palace. When they saw him approaching, they began to drink strong drink, placed particles of salt and sugar in their mouths, and took the roots and bulbs in the teeth and chewed them. And they said, “Live for a hundred years, master, treasurer’s son! With your help may we be enabled to eat and drink to our heart’s content!” Hearing the words, the youth asked the little page who followed him, “What are these men drinking?” “A certain drink, master.” “Does it taste good?” “Master, in this world of the living there is no kind of drink that can be compared with this.” “In that case,” said the youth, I must have some too.” So he caused the page to bring him first a little and then a little more, and all this he drank.
Now before long those knaves discovered that he had taken up the habit of drinking. Then they flocked around him. As time went on, the crowd that surrounded him increased in numbers. He would spend a hundred or two hundred pieces of money at a time on strong drink. It became a habit with him after a time, wherever he happened to be, to pile up a heap of coins and call out as he drank, “Take this coin and fetch me flowers! Take this coin and fetch me perfumes! This man is clever at dicing, and this man at dancing, and this man at singing, and this man at the playing of musical instruments! Give this man a thousand and this man two thousand!” Thus did he spend his money.
In no long time he squandered all the eighty billion of treasure that formerly belonged to him. Then those knaves said to him, “Master, your wealth is all spent.” “Has my wife no money?” “Yes, master, she has.” “Well, then, fetch that too.” And he spent his wife’s money in precisely the same way. As time went on, he sold his fields and his parks and his gardens and his carriages. He even disposed of the vessels he used at meals, of his coverlets and his cloaks and couches. All that belonged to him, he sold, and the proceeds he spent in riotous living. In old age he sold his house, the property of his family. And those to whom he sold his house took possession of it and straightaway put him out. Thereupon, taking his wife with him, he found lodging near the house-wall of other people’s houses. With a broken pot in his hand, he would go about begging alms. Finally he began to eat the left-overs of other people’s food.
One day he stood at the door of a rest-house, receiving leftovers of food presented to him by novices and probationers. The Buddha saw him and smiled. Thereupon Venerable Ānanda asked him why he smiled. The Buddha explained the reason for his smile by saying, “Ānanda, just look here at Great-Wealth, the treasurer’s son! In this very city he has squandered twice eighty billion of treasure. Now, accompanied by his wife, he is begging for alms. For if, in the prime of life, this man had not squandered his wealth, but had applied himself to business, he would have become the principal treasurer in this very city; and if he had retreated from the world and become a monk, he would have attained arahatship, and his wife would have been established in the fruit of the third path.
If in middle life he had not squandered his wealth, but had applied himself to business, he would have become the second treasurer; and if he had retreated from the world and became a monk, he would have attained the fruit of the third path, and his wife would have been established in the fruit of the second path. If in the latter years of his life he had not squandered his wealth, but had applied himself to business, he would have become the third treasurer; and if he had retreated from the world and become a monk, he would have attained the fruit of the second path, and his wife would have been established in the fruit of conversion. But now he has fallen away from the wealth of a layman and he has likewise fallen away from the estate of a religious person. He has become like a heron in a dried-up pond.
Explanatory Translation (Verse 155)
brahmacariyaṃ acaritvā yobbane dhanaṃ aladdhā
khīṇamacche pallale jiṇṇakoñcā iva jhāyanti
brahmacariyaṃ acaritvā: not having led the higher life; yobbane: in the days of one’s youth; dhanaṃ [dhana]: wealth; aladdhā: not accumulating; khīṇamacche: fish-less; pallale: in a lake; jiṇṇakoñcā iva: like emaciated and flightless herons; jhāyanti: waste away
In youth they did not lead the higher spiritual life. Nor did they acquire wealth when they were young. Now they are old and incapable. They are similar to those emaciated, old, flightless storks who are sighing away at the banks of a lake without fish. As the lake is fish-less, these storks have no food thus making them emaciated. The fish are gone because others have caught them. Because they are old and weary they cannot fly away. They can only sigh.
Explanatory Translation (Verse 156)
brahmacariyaṃ acaritvā yobbane dhanaṃ aladdhā
cāpā ātikhīnā iva purāṇāni anutthunaṃ senti
brahmacariyaṃ acaritvā: not having led the higher life; yobbane: in the days of one’s youth; dhanaṃ [dhana]: wealth; aladdhā: not accumulating; cāpā: (like) off the bow; ātikhīnā iva: like shot arrows (spent arrows); purāṇāni: for the past (glory); anutthunaṃ [anutthuna]: sighing; senti: regret
In youth they did not lead the higher spiritual life. Nor did they acquire wealth when they were young. Now they are old and incapable. They are similar to those emaciated, old, flightless storks who are sighing away at the banks of a lake without fish. As the lake is without fish, these storks have no food thus making them emaciated. The fish are gone because others have caught them. Because they are old and weary, they cannot fly away. They can only sigh.
Commentary and exegetical material (Verse 155-156)
jinnakoñcā iva: like old, flightless, herons. This image of an old man of wasted youth is among the most telling in Dhammapada. The pond, on which he has to depend, is fish-less. But, the old heron cannot fly over to a fish-rich lake, as he is flightless. The futility of the aged person who has wasted his youth is portrayed here. This verse captures a situation that is universally true. Most people tend to spend their youth squandering the precious days with no thought about the inevitable old-age that will overtake them. Youth is allowed to slip by without having garnered either material or spiritual wealth. The Buddha’s admonition to mankind in this stanza is that they must, in time, become mindful of the passage of time and the speedy fading of the glamour of youth. The Tibetan Buddhist scholar Milarepa has captured this evanescence in one of his lyrical writings.
This passage is like a poetic commentary of these two stanzas:
“Youth is like a summer flower–
Suddenly it fades away.
Old age is like a fire spreading
Through the fields–suddenly it’s at your heels.
The Buddha once said:
“Birth and death
Are like sunrise and sunset
Now come, now go.”
Sickness is like a little bird
Wounded by a sling.
Know you not, health and strength
Will in time desert you?
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