Dhammapada verse 195
Chapter 14, The Buddhas (Buddhavagga) · verses 179–196
“When a person venerates the worthy— the Buddha or his disciple, who have transcended proliferation, and have left behind grief and lamentation,”
Pūjārahe pūjayato, buddhe yadi va sāvake; Papañcasamatikkante, tiṇṇasokapariddave.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 195 mean?
Verse 195 belongs to chapter 14, The Buddhas (Buddhavagga), which gathers verses 179–196 on the Buddhas and the awakened. It is filed under suffering & grief, the buddha & teachers. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 194 and verse 196 are part of the same passage.
Eighteen verses on the Buddhas, the awakened, and what makes a teacher worth following. It is the chapter that gives the famous line about not doing evil, doing good and purifying the mind, and it treats the awakened person as the one case in which a teacher is beyond reproach.
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