Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure |
Vocabulary&Grammar | Commentary | Pronunciation |
Month by month can a fool eat his food with a blade of
the kusa grass,
he is not worth a sixteenth part of those, who have realized
the Dharma.
mase mase
kusa+aggena balo
bhubjeyya bhojanaj
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N.m. N.m. N.m.
N.n. N.m. V.act.
N.n.
Loc.Sg. Loc.Sg. |
Ins.Sg. Nom.Sg. 3.Sg.opt. Acc.Sg.
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List of Abbreviations
na so
savkhata+dhammanaj
kalaj agghati
solasij
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neg. Pron.m. Adj.
N.m. N.f.
V.act.in. Num.f.
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Acc.Sg. 3.Sg.pres. Acc.Sg.
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mase: masa-, N.m.: month. Loc.Sg. = mase.
kus'aggena: kus'agga-, N.n.: the blade of
the kusa grass. It is a compound of:
kusa-, N.m.: a kind of sacred
grass.
agga-, N.n.: tip, uppermost
part.
Euphonic combination: kusa- + agga- = kus'agga-.
Ins.Sg. = kus'aggena.
balo: bala-, Adj.: childish, young. As an N.m.: "like a child", fool, ignorant person. Nom.Sg. = balo.
List of Abbreviations
bhubjeyya, V.: may eat. The verb root is bhuj- (to eat). 3.Sg.act.opt. = bhubjeyya.
bhojanaj: bhojana-, N.n.: food, meal. Acc.Sg. = bhojanaj.
na, neg.: not.
so: tat-, Pron.n.: it. Nom.Sg.m. = so.
List of Abbreviations
savkhatadhammanaj:
savkhatadhamma-,
N.m.: one who has realized the Dharma.
It is a compound of:
savkhata-,
Adj.: calculated, reckoned, considered. It is a p.p. of the verb savkhayati
(to calculate, to consider). The verb
root is khya- (to count) with the prefix
sam- (together).
dhamma-, N.m.: dhamma-,
N.m.: Buddha's Teaching. The Law. Derived from the verb
dha-, to hold. Thus dhamma
"holds the world together".
Gen.Pl. = savkhatadhammanaj.
kalaj: kala-, N.f.: a small part, a fraction. Acc.Sg. = kalaj.
agghati, V.: to be worth, to have value of. The verb root is arah- or aggh-. 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = agghati.
solasij:
solasi-, Num.f.: sixteenth. Acc.Sg.
= solasij.
List of Abbreviations
Two lines of this verse form two separate
sentences.
In the first sentence, the subject
is the noun balo (fool, nominative
singular). The noun is bhubjeyya (can
eat, 3rd person, singular, active, optative). It has two attributes,
the compound kus'aggena (with the tip of the kusa grass,
instrumental singular) and the noun phrase mase
mase (month by month, both words in locative
singular). The object is the noun bhojanaj
(food, accusative singular).
In the second sentence, the subject
is the personal pronoun so (he, nominative singular). The verb agghati
(deserves, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present
tense) is negated by the negative particle na (not). The object
is the noun kalaj (part, accusative
singular). It has two attributes, the cardinal numeral solasij
(sixteenth, accusative singular) and the compound savkhatadhammanaj
(of those, who have realized the Dharma, genitive plural).
In the city of Savatthi
there lived a young man of a rich family. His name was Jambuka. He had
very strange habits. He would sleep only on the floor and eat his own excrements.
When he grew up, his parents sent him to the ascetics. But even those ascetics
felt his habits were too disgusting so they sent him away. After that he
lived alone in the forest. During the day he would stay on one leg (as
he said, he was to heavy for the earth to bear him) and with his mouth
open (he boasted that he lived only on air). He also used to say that he
never sits down and never sleeps. But at night he slept on the floor and
ate his own excrements.
Many people started to count themselves
as his followers; they would bring him food and gifts. But he did not take
anything, only sometimes he would take a little bit of food and eat it
with the tip of the kusa grass, which was quite common practice for ascetics.
Thus he lived many years.
Once the Buddha came to where he was
staying and asked for a place to spend the night. Jambuka let him sleep
in the nearby cave. At night, many gods and supernatural beings came to
pay homage to the Buddha. Jambuka saw this and asked the Buddha what happened.
When the Buddha told him that these
beings were gods, Jambuka was impressed. He told the Buddha that he must
be a very holy person, because although he himself spent years standing
on one leg and eating only air, no god ever came to pay homage to him.
The Buddha told him that he could not be fooled. He said that he knew very
well that Jambuka slept on the ground every night and ate his excrements.
The Buddha also explained, that during
one of his previous existences Jambuka had prevented a certain monk to
go obtain alms food and how he threw away the food that was sent with him
for that very monk. As a result of these actions he was born with these
strange habits.
Jambuka realized his mistakes and
paid respects to the Buddha. The Buddha delivered a discourse, at the end
of which Jambuka attained arahantship and became one of the Buddha's monks.
When Jambuka's followers arrived they
were surprised to see their teacher with the Buddha. Jambuka announced
that he was now a member of Buddha's Sangha, the Order and a disciple of
the Buddha. The Buddha explained that the cruelest austerities practiced
for a long period of time are not worth even one-sixteenth of understanding
of the true Dharma.
Word pronunciation:
mase
kus'aggena
kusa
aggena
balo
bhubjeyya
bhojanaj
na
so
savkhatadhammanaj
savkhata
dhammanaj
kalaj
agghati
solasij