Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure
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List of Abbreviations

# sukarani asadhuni attano ahitani ca

# yaj ve hitaj ca sadhuj ca taj ve paramadukkaraj

# (DhP 163)

Sentence Translation:

Easy done are deeds, that are wrong and harmful to oneself.
What is beneficial and good, that is indeed most difficult to do.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

sukarani asadhuni attano ahitani ca
| | | | |
Adj.n. N.n. N.n. Adj.n. conj.
Nom.Pl. Nom.Pl. Gen.Sg. Nom.Pl. |
| | |_______| |
| |__________| |
| |______________|
|______________________|

List of Abbreviations

yaj ve hitaj ca sadhuj ca taj ve parama+dukkaraj
| | | | | | | | | |
Rel.Pron.n. part. Adj.n. conj. Adj.n. conj. Pron.n. part. Adj. Adj.n.
Nom.Sg. | Nom.Sg. | Nom.Sg. | Nom.Sg. | | Nom.Sg.
| | |_____| |_____| | | |________|
| | |___________| |______|________|
|___________|______________| |
|_________________________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

sukarani: sukara-, Adj.: easy to do. It is the word kara-, Adj.: doing (derived from the verb root kar-, to do), with the prefix su- (well, good). Nom.Pl.n. = sukarani.

asadhuni: asadhu-, Adj.: bad, wrong, not meritorious. As an N.n.: bad deed, wrong action. It is the word sadhu-, Adj.: good, meritorious, with the negative prefix a-. Nom.Pl. = asadhuni.

attano: attan-, N.m./Pron.: self, oneself. Gen.Sg. = attano.

ahitani: ahita-, Adj.: harmful, not beneficial, bad. It is the word hita-, Adj.: beneficial, good, useful; with the negative prefix a-. Nom.Pl.n. = ahitani.

ca, conj.: and.

yaj: yat-, Rel.Pron.: that, which. Nom.Sg.n.: yaj.

ve, part.: indeed.

List of Abbreviations

hitaj: hita-, Adj.: beneficial, good, useful. Nom.Sg.n. = hitaj.

ca, conj.: and.

sadhuj: sadhu-, Adj.: good, meritorious. Nom.Sg.n. = sadhu.

ca, conj.: and.

taj: tad-, Pron.: that. Nom.Sg.n. = taj.

ve, part.: indeed. 151

paramadukkaraj: paramadukkara-, Adj.: most difficult to do. It is a compound of:
parama-, Adj.: most, highest, absolute.
dukkara-, Adj.: difficult to do. It is the word kara-, Adj.: doing (derived from the verb root kar-, to do), with the prefix du- (bad, wrong). Euphonic combination: du- + kara- = dukkara-.
Nom.Sg.n. = paramadukkaraj.

List of Abbreviations

This verse consists of two syntactically separate sentences. They are:
1) sukarani asadhuni attano ahitani ca (easy done are deeds, that are wrong and harmful to oneself). This sentence has two subjects, the adjective/noun asadhuni (bad deeds, nominative plural) and the adjective ahitani (harmful, nominative plural). This last word has an attribute, the noun attano (to oneself, genitive singular). The two subjects are connected by the conjunction ca (and). The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". The object is the adjective sukarani (easy to do, nominative plural).
2) yaj ve hitaj ca sadhuj ca taj ve paramadukkaraj (what is beneficial and good, that is indeed most difficult to do). This can be further analyzed into two segments:
a) yaj ve hitaj ca sadhuj ca (what is beneficial and good). The subject is the relative pronoun yaj (what, nominative singular). The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". There are two objects, the adjectives hitaj (beneficial, nominative singular) and sadhuj (good, nominative singular). They are connected by two conjunctions ca (and). The particle ve (indeed) serves mainly for metrical purposes.
b) taj ve paramadukkaraj (that is indeed most difficult to do). The subject is the pronoun taj (that, nominative singular). The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". The object is the adjective compound paramadukkaraj (most difficult to do, nominative singular). The particle ve (indeed) serves mainly for metrical purposes.

Commentary:

The Buddha had a cousin Devadatta. He also became a monk but he was vicked. He envied the Buddha and wanted to take his place as the head of the Buddhist community. He went to see the Buddha and suggested, that since the Buddha is getting old, he, Devadatta should from now on be the leader of the Buddhist Order. The Buddha refused. Devadatta then tried to kill the Buddha three times, but he was not successful.
Later Devadatta had another plan. He went to see the Buddha and suggested five new rules for all monks to follow: 1) to live only in forests, 2) to eat only almsfood, 3) to wear only robes they make themselves from discarded pieces of cloth found on rubbish heaps, 4) to sleep under trees, 5) not to eat any meat (including fish).
The Buddha told him that, whoever wants to follow these rules, can do so. But they will not become binding for all the monks, because they are too strict and the Buddha's teaching teaches the Middle Path.
Devadatta was angry and tried to find some more followers. Indeed, he found some young monks who thought the rules of Devadatta were much better than those, introduced by the Buddha.
The Buddha questioned Devadatta about his intentions and the later admitted ha was trying to create a schism in the Community. The Buddha tried to explain him that to create a schism is a very bad deed, but Devadatta did not care. He took his followers and departed for the place called Gayasisa where he established a new Order. Two prominents disciple of the Buddha, Sariputta and Moggallana were able to make most of the Devadatta's followers realize their mistake and make them come back to the Buddha.
The Buddha commented the situation with this verse, saying that good and beneficial deeds are very difficult to perform, whereas an evil deed is done very quickly and without any difficulty.

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

sukarani
asadhuni
attano
ahitani
ca
yaj
ve
hitaj
sadhuj
taj
paramadukkaraj
parama
dukkaraj