Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure
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List of Abbreviations

# asare saramatino sare c'asaradassino

# te saraj n'adhigacchanti micchasavkappagocara

# (DhP 11)

Translation:

Thinking to be essential, what is not, seeing no essence in what is essential,
they, feeding on wrong thoughts, do not discover the essence.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

a+ sare sara+matino sare ca a+sara+dassino
| | | | | | | | |
neg. N.n. N.n N.m. N.n. conj. neg. N.n. N.m.
| Loc.Sg. | Nom.Pl. Loc.Sg. | | | Nom.Pl.
|_____| |_____| | | |___| |
|____________| | | |_______|
| |______|_________|
| |_____|
|_________________________|
|___________________________________________

te saraj na adhigacchanti miccha+savkappa+gocara List of Abbreviations
| | | | | | |
Pron. N.n. neg. V.act.in. Adv. N.m. N.m.
Nom.Pl. Acc.Sg. | 3.Pl.pres. |________| Nom.Pl.
| | |_______| |___________|
| |_________| |
|_______________|__________________________|
_____| |
|_____________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

asare: asara-, N.n.: non-essence. Negated (by the negative prefix a-) word sara-, N.n.: essence, substance. Loc.Sg. = asare.

saramatino: saramatin-, thinking [to be] the essence. A compound of:
sara-, N.n.: see above
matin-, N.m.: having imagined. Derived from the word mata- (p.p. of man-, to think,
to imagine) by the way of adding the possessive suffix -in.
Nom.Pl. of the compound = saramatino.

sare: sara-, N.n.: essence (see also above). Loc.Sg. = sare.

ca, conj.: and.

List of Abbreviations

asaradassino: asaradassin-, Seeing the non-essence. A compound of:
asara-, N.n.: see above.
dassin-, N.m.: having seen. Derived from the verb das- (to see) by adding the
denominative suffix -in.
Nom.Pl. of the compound = asaradassino.

te, pron.: tad-, Pron.n.: it. Masculine form sa-. Nom.Pl. = te (they).

saraj: sara-, : see above. Acc.Sg. = saraj.

na, neg.: not.

List of Abbreviations

adhigacchanti, V.: discover, obtain. The verb gam- (to go) with the prefix adhi- (above, towards). 3.Pl.act.pres.in. = adhigacchanti.

micchasavkappagocara: micchasavkappagocara-, N.m.: having pasture for wrong thoughts. A compound of:
micchasavkappa-, N.m.: wrong thought, wrong intention. This can be further analyzed as:
miccha, Adv,: wrongly.
savkappa-, N.m.: thought, intention.
gocara-, N.m.: pasture, sphere. This can be further analyzed as:
go-, N.m.: cow
cara-, N.m.: going, walking. Derived from the verb car- (to walk, to roam).
Nom.Pl. of the whole compound = micchasavkappagocara.
List of Abbreviations

The subject of this sentence is te (they). It is in nominative plural. Its corresponding verb is adhigacchanti (realize, discover), in 3rd person, plural, active, indicative and present tense. It is negated by the particle na (not). The object is sara.m (the essence), which is in accusative singular. The subject has three attributes: asare saramatino (thinking to be essential, what is not), sare asaradassino (seeing no essence in what is essential) and micchasavkappagocara (feeding on wrong thoughts).
The first of them is asare saramatino (thinking to be essential, what is not). The actual attribute here is saramatino (thinking to be essential), which is in nominative plural to agree with the subject. The word asare (in the non-essence) forms an attribute to the word saramatino. It is in locative singular.
Next one is sare asaradassino (seeing no essence in what is essential). Again, the actual attribute is the word asaradassino (seeing no essence), which is in nominative plural. This word has itself an attribute, sare (in the essence), which is in locative singular. The conjunction ca (and) connects this attribute to the previous one.
Last of the attributes is micchasavkappagocara (feeding on wrong thoughts). It is a compound and it is in nominative plural, because it has to agree with the subject.

Commentary:
One can of course never expect to understand, or get close to, the "essence", the heart of the problem, if one keeps looking in the wrong direction. This is true in every field of our endeavor. Therefore this rule necessarily applies also to spiritual efforts. This verse says that if we mistake the essential things for nonsense and think that there is some essence in things that are actually empty of it, we can not ever get even close to the reality. All kinds of superstition fall into this category, various activities that (although they look nice and can be even pleasant) do not bring us closer to the goal, which is the purification of mind. As the verse notes, this is the "pasture for wrong thoughts". As the cows on the pasture, the thoughts, wandering in this direction, will grow stronger and will multiply. The only problem is - it will not help us on our way at all.

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

asare
saramatino
sare
ca
saradassino
te
saraj
na
adhigacchanti
micchasavkappagocara
miccha
savkappa
gocara