— The Dhammapada, verse 136 (tr. F. Max Müller, 1881)
About this quote
हिन्दी में
मूर्ख को पता ही नहीं चलता कि वह कब बुरे कर्म कर रहा है; पर दुष्ट अपने ही कर्मों से ऐसे जलता है, मानो आग में जल रहा हो।
What it means
The verse splits wrongdoing into two moments. In the first, the fool is genuinely unaware — the line grants him that ignorance, it does not accuse him of pretending. In the second, the burning arrives anyway, and the phrase carrying the weight is by his own deeds: the fire is not sent, it is generated.
It is worth keeping because it removes the usual comfort that a clear conscience at the time of acting means no harm was done. Read as a threat of hellfire it loses its force; the verse names no judge and no sentence, only a man and the consequences he has manufactured and must now live inside.
What it teaches you
Because the line says the wrongdoer feels nothing at the time, your own sense of being fine while you act is not evidence of anything. Where it matters — money, power over someone’s work or wages, a decision inside a family — settle the rule before you are in the situation, and let one person who is willing to disagree with you see what you actually did.
अर्थ और सीख
यह पंक्ति कहती है कि बुरा करते समय मूर्ख को भान ही नहीं होता कि वह क्या कर रहा है, पर इससे परिणाम टलता नहीं — दुष्ट अपने ही कर्मों की आग में जलता है। ध्यान देने की बात यह है कि यहाँ कोई बाहर से दंड देने वाला नहीं है; आग उसी के कर्मों से पैदा होती है। इसलिए सीख यह है कि ‘मुझे तो कुछ ग़लत नहीं लगा’ किसी काम के सही होने का प्रमाण नहीं है।
Where it comes from
This is verse 136 of the Dhammapada, from the chapter called Punishment — the golden rule argued from shared fear of pain and love of life.
The Dhammapada is a collection of 423 verses in Pali, among the oldest and most widely read records of the Buddha’s teaching. This English translation is by F. Max Müller (1881), the pioneering Oxford scholar of Indian texts; the verse number is cited with this quote.
