Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure
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List of Abbreviations

# appamadarato bhikkhu pamade bhayadassi va

# sajyojanaj anuj thulaj dahaj aggi va gacchati

# (DhP 31)

Sentence Translation:

The monk, who is devoted to conscientiousness and who is fearful of negligence,
advances like a fire, burning the fetters, small or big.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

a+ppamada+rato bhikkhu pamade bhaya+dassi va
| | | | | | | |
neg. N.m. Adj.m. N.m. N.m. N.n. Adj.m. conj.
|_____| Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg. | Nom.Sg. |
|_________| | | |______| |
|_____________| |_________| |
|____________________|_____________|__________________

List of Abbreviations

sajyojanaj anuj thulaj dahaj aggi va gacchati
| | | | | | |
N.n. Adj.n. Adj.n. Adj.m. N.m. part. V.act.in.
Acc.Sg. Acc.Sg. Acc.Sg. Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg. | 3.Sg.pres.
| |_______| | |______| |
|________________| | |_________|
|___________________| |
__________________| |
|__________________________________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

appamadarato: appamadarata-, Adj.:
appamada-, N.m.: conscientiousness, non-negligence. A negated (by the negative
prefix a-) word pamada-, N.m.: negligence. Doubled p is due to the euphonic
combination (a + pamada = appamada).
rata-, Adj.: devoted. It is a p.p. of the verb ram- (to delight in, to be devoted to).
Nom.Sg. = appamadarato.

bhikkhu: bhikkhu-, N.m.: a (Buddhist) monk. Nom.Sg. = bhikkhu.

pamade: pamada-, N.m.: negligence. Loc.Sg. = pamade.

List of Abbreviations

bhayadassi: bhayadassin-, N.m.: seeing an object of fear. A compound of:
bhaya-, N.n.: fear, fright.
dassin-, Adj.: seeing, finding, realizing. Derived from the verb dis- (to see).
Nom.Sg. = bhayadassi. The form bhayadassi is due to the metrical requirements.

va, conj.: or.

sajyojanaj: sajyojana-, N.n.: bond, fetter. For enumeration see the Commentary.
Ac.Sg. = sajyojanaj.

anuj: anu-, Adj.: small, atomic, subtle. Acc.Sg.n. = anuj.

thulaj: thula-, Adj.: massive, big, strong. Acc.Sg.n. = thulaj.

List of Abbreviations

dahaj: dahant-,: Adj.: burning. Derived (a.pr.p.) from the verb root dah- (or dah-; to burn). Nom.Sg.m. = dahaj.

aggi: aggi-, N.n.: fire. Nom.Sg. = aggi. The form aggi is here for metrical purposes.

va, part.: as, like.

gacchati, V.: goes. the verb root gam-. 3.Sg.in.act.pres. = gacchati.

List of Abbreviations

The subject of this sentence is the word bhikkhu (monk, nominative singular) with two attributes, appamadarato (devoted to conscientiousness, nominative singular) and bhayadassi (fearful, nominative singular) with its own attribute pamade (in negligence, locative singular). They are connected by the conjunction va (or). The verb here is gacchati (goes, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense).
There is a clause, sajyojanaj anuj thulaj dahaj (burning the fetter, small and big). Here the subject is still the word bhikkhu from the main sentence, the verb is dahaj (active present participle) and the object is sajyojanaj (the fetter, accusative singular) with two attributes anuj (small, accusative singular) and thulaj (big, accusative singular).
The last clause is aggi va (like a fire), where the subject is aggi (fire, nominative singular) and the verb is the same as in the main sentence (gacchati). The particle va (as, like) connects this clause to the main sentence.

Commentary:

Once there was a monk who received his subject of meditation from the Buddha. He practiced hard, but he made very little progress. So he became very depressed and frustrated. He went to see the Buddha about his problems. But on the way there he saw a big forest fire. He ran to the top of a mountain and observed. While there, he realized that just as the fire burnt up everything around, be it big or small, so the insights from the practice of meditation will burn up all the fetters, big and small.
The Buddha saw this from far away and appeared in front of the monk telling him that he was on the right track and to keep up the idea. The monk did accordingly and attained arahantship very soon.
According to Buddhist philosophy, there are ten fetters (sajyojana). They can be divided into two kinds, five so called "lower" or "big" fetters and five "higher" or "small" fetters.

The five big fetters are:
1) personality belief (sakkaya-ditthi),
2) skeptical doubt (vicikiccha),
3) clinging to rules and rituals (silabbata-paramasa),
4) sensuous craving (kama-raga),
5) ill-will (vyapada).

The five small fetters are:
1) craving for fine-material existence (rupa-raga),
2) craving for immaterial existence (arupa-raga),
3) conceit (mana),
4) restlessness (uddhacca),
5) ignorance (avijja).

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

appamadarato
bhikkhu
pamade
bhayadassi
va
sajyojanaj
anuj
thulaj
dahaj
aggi
va
gacchati