Don’t delay doing good deeds, death could come any day anytime
Dhammapada verse 286
By Dr. Ari Ubeysekara
Introduction
Lord Gautama Buddha lived and preached in India during the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Throughout the ministry of forty five years from enlightenment at the age of thirty five to passing away at the age of eighty, Lord Gautama Buddha, through compassion for other beings, travelled from place to place mainly in North Eastern India, teaching the path out of suffering to a diverse range of people. Since the first Buddhist council that was held three months after the passing away of the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings were categorised into the now well-known Pāli Canon consisting of the three baskets. The teaching of the Gautama Buddha which is believed to consist of around 84,000 items is contained in the three baskets (tipitaka).
- Basket of the disciplinary rules for the monastic community (vinaya pitaka)
- Basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka)
- Basket of the Buddha’s higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka)
The basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka) consists of:
- Collection of long discourses (dīgha nikāya)
- Collection of middle length discourses (majjhima nikāya)
- Collection of connected discourses (samyutta nikāya)
- Collection of numerical discourses (anguttara nikāya)
- Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikāya)
Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikāya) consist of 15 divisions of a variety of small discourses and others. The second division is the Dhammapada, the other divisions being Khuddaka pātha, udāna, itivuttaka, sutta nipātha, vimānavatthu, petavatthu, thera-gāthā, theri-gāthā, jātaka stories, niddesa, patisambhidā magga, apadāna, Buddhavamsa and cariya pitaka.
The Pāli word “Dhamma” seems to have several meanings such as the natural law, natural phenomena, objects of the mind, religious doctrines and specifically the Lord Gautama Buddha’s teachings. The word “Pada” means path, step, word or the foot. So, the word Dhammapada has been described as the “Path of Righteousness”. The Dhammapada containing a collection of the sayings of the Buddha in verse form, is one of the best known books in Buddhism familiar to almost all of the practising Buddhist disciples universally as well as to others who study the teachings of the Buddha.
Dhammapada contains 423 verses said by the Buddha in different contexts. Most of the verses have been taken from the discourses of the Buddha. It has been noted that more than two thirds of the verses are taken from the discourses contained in the two collections of the Buddha’s discourses known as the Samyutta Nikāya and Anguttara Nikāya. The 423 verses are divided into 26 chapters or vaggas each with a particular heading. The twentieth chapter is named “Magga vagga” meaning the chapter on “The path”, which contains 17 verses said by the Buddha. The back ground story of the 286th verse, which is the fourteenth verse of the Magga vagga is about a merchant named Mahadhana who was planning to stay at a certain place and sell his goods for a whole year, without knowing that he will face death in seven days.
Background story of verse 286
At one time, the Buddha was staying at the Jetavana monastery in Sāvatti which was donated to the Buddha by the chief benefactor named Anāthapindika.
Once, there was a certain festival in the city of Sāvatti. A merchant named Mahadhana from the city of Baranasi, came with five hundred carts fully loaded with textiles and other merchandise hoping to sell his goods at the festival. On his way to Sāvatti, he had to cross a river. But when he reached the river bank near Sāvatti, he discovered that the river was flooding and was unable to cross the river with his five hundred cart loads. He was held up at the river bank for seven days as it rained for seven days and as a result the water in the river did not subside. There was no need for him to cross the river anyway, as the festival in Sāvatti was over by then.
Since he had travelled a long distance to come from Baranasi to Sāvatti, he did not want to return to Baranasi with his five hundred carts loaded with unsold merchandise. He decided to stay on near the river bank for the next three seasons: the rainy season, the cold season and the hot season, hoping to sell his goods and said so to his assistants who were accompanying him. On that day, the Buddha was on his morning alms round in Sāvatti and when the Buddha saw the merchant , the Buddha knew of the merchant’s decision to stay on for one year and smiled. Venerable Ānanda was accompanying the Buddha on his alms round and when he saw the Buddha smile, he inquired as to why the Buddha smiled. The Buddha replied:
“Ānanda, do you see that merchant? He is planning to stay here for the whole year and sell his goods. He does not know that he is going to die here in seven days.”
“What should be done, should be done today,
who would know that one would die tomorrow?
we have no date fixed with the King of Death,
for one who is mindful by day or by night,
who is not disturbed by moral defilements and is energetic,
to live for just one night is a well spent life.”
Then the Buddha sent Venerable Ānanda to go and speak to the merchant. Venerable Ānanda went and explained to the merchant that time was running out for him and hence he should practise mindfulness instead of being negligent. When the merchant came to know about his impending death in seven days, he became alarmed and frightened. So, for the next seven days, he invited the Buddha and the monks and offered alms food. On the seventh day, the Buddha delivered a short sermon to him in appreciation of offering alms food to the Buddha and the accompanying monks. Then the Buddha recited the following verse which is recorded as the 286th verse of the Dhammapada.
“Idha vassaṁ vasissāmi,
idha hemantagimhisu,
iti bālo vicinteti,
antarāyaṁ na bujjhati.”
“Here shall I live in the rainy season,
here shall I live in the cold season and the hot season,
so imagines the fool,
not realising the danger (of approaching death).”
It is recorded that at the end of this short sermon by the Buddha, the merchant attained the supra mundane stage of Stream Enterer (Sotāpañña). As the Buddha was leaving, the merchant followed the Buddha for some distance and returned. Soon afterwards, he developed a severe headache and passed away. He is believed to have been reborn as a deity in the heavenly world named Tusita.
References
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