11. The Śramana (UV-KG11)

Cast off desires, O Brāhmana, stop the stream (of birth) by thy earnestness; he who is not able to cast away all desires cannot find the one (perfect state).

The irresolute and careless Parivrādjakas only heap up sins again and again; he who is diligent and earnest knows how to do that which ought to be done.

An irresolute act, badly performed penance, an unrighteous life, bring no great profit.

If an arrow is badly grasped, it cuts the hand; the Śramana who performs his duties badly is on the way to hell.

If an arrow is properly grasped, it does not cut the hand; in like manner, the Śramana who exactly performs his duties is on the way to nirvāṇa.

The ignorant Śramana, who finds it hard to cross (the stream), hard to be patient, who is filled with the many sorrows that his faint-heartedness brings him:

The Śramana whose life is like this, is subject to the ever-recurring grief, of which he cannot free himself, of one who is filled with indecision.

He who is a bad priest, who delights in sin, and who, as a layman, is given to sinful deeds, addicted to everything that is bad, he lays up for himself the wretchedness of regeneration.

Many of those who wear the patched saffron-coloured gown are unrestrained and delight in wickedness; these bad men go to perdition.

He who, breaking all his vows, (is held) as is a sāla-tree by a creeper, brings himself to that state to which his enemy would like to bring him.

Though one's hair may be grey, one is not for that reason admitted among the elders; he has reached old age, but he is called “Old-in-vain.”

He who is virtuous, who has cast off sin, who is a Bramachārin, and free of all (impurities), he is called “an elder.”

He whose conduct is bad and who speaks lies, though his head be shaven, is not a Śramana. They who live in ignorance and lust, how can they be Śramanas?

He whose conduct is bad and who speaks lies, though his head be shaven, is not a Śramana ; he who has “quieted” sin, him the wise know to be a Śramana.

He whose conduct is bad and who speaks lies, though his head be shaven, is not a Śramana; but he who, having distinguished all sins, great and small, does keep away from them and does “quiet” sin, he is called “a Śramana.”

He who has “cast off sin” is a Brāhmana ; he who does “quiet” sin is a Śramana; he who has cast off all his impurities is for that reason called a priest.

Chapter on “The Śramana,” the Eleventh.

Translated by Woodville Rockhill.

1975, Udânavarga: a collection of verses from the Buddhist canon compiled by Dharmatrâta, Oriental Press, Amsterdam (reprint of original from 1883).

Translated (into Tibetan) by the Indian Pandit Vidyaprabhakara and the Lotsāva Bande-rin-tchen-mtchog; revised and arranged by the corrector, the Lotsāva Bande-dpal-brtsegs.

Original taken from University of Oslo, faculty of humanities.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Yasoj and Ayya Vimala.