— The Dhammapada, verse 132 (tr. F. Max Müller, 1881)
About this quote
हिन्दी में
जो अपना सुख चाहता है और सुख चाहने वाले प्राणियों को न दंड देता है न मारता है, वह मृत्यु के बाद सुख पाता है।
What it means
The reasoning here is symmetry, not commandment. The verse does not begin by declaring harm forbidden; it begins with your own pursuit of happiness and points out that the creature before you is engaged in the same pursuit. The reason sits in the other being’s wanting, which is something you can observe directly rather than something you must be told.
Note the verb punish standing beside kill. Punishment is the violence a person believes they are entitled to — the deserved kind — and the line pointedly refuses to exempt it. Note also that the reward is placed after death only. The verse does not promise that a harmless life will be comfortable now, and readings that turn it into a formula for present-day peace of mind are adding something it does not say.
What it teaches you
Examine the harm you consider justified rather than the harm you already condemn — the reprimand you are sure was earned, the retaliation you are owed, the killing done out of your sight on your behalf. That is where this verse is actually aimed, since it grants no exemption for deserved punishment, and the test it gives is simply whether the one on the receiving end wants the same thing you do.
अर्थ और सीख
यह श्लोक आदेश से नहीं, समानता से तर्क करता है — तुम सुख चाहते हो, सामने वाला प्राणी भी वही चाहता है, और यह बात तुम स्वयं देख सकते हो। ध्यान देने योग्य है कि यहाँ मारने के साथ दंड भी जुड़ा है, यानी वह हिंसा भी जिसे हम जायज़ मानते हैं। साथ ही फल मृत्यु के बाद कहा गया है — श्लोक यह वादा नहीं करता कि अहिंसक जीवन तत्काल आरामदेह होगा, इसलिए परखिए उस हिंसा को जिसे आप उचित मानते हैं।
Where it comes from
This is verse 132 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.
