Dhammapada verse 213
Chapter 16, The Beloved (Piyavagga) · verses 209–220
“Sorrow springs from attachment, fear springs from attachment; one free from attachment has no sorrow, let alone fear.”
Pemato jāyatī soko, pemato jāyatī bhayaṁ; Pemato vippamuttassa, natthi soko kuto bhayaṁ.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 213 mean?
Verse 213 belongs to chapter 16, The Beloved (Piyavagga), which gathers verses 209–220 on the beloved, and the grief that follows. It is filed under craving & attachment, suffering & grief. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 212 and verse 214 are part of the same passage.
Twelve verses on the beloved, and this is the chapter that explains grief. Its argument is that sorrow follows from affection — the one you love, the thing you cannot lose — and it does not tell the reader to love less so much as to see what they have taken on. Verses 209–211 are the ones most often quoted.
More verses on this