Dhammapada verse 107
Chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga) · verses 100–115
“Rather than serve the sacred flame in the forest for a hundred years, it’s better to honor for a single hour a personage who has developed themselves. That offering is better than the hundred year sacrifice.”
Yo ca vassasataṁ jantu, aggiṁ paricare vane; Ekañca bhāvitattānaṁ, muhuttamapi pūjaye; Sāyeva pūjanā seyyo, yañce vassasataṁ hutaṁ.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 107 mean?
Verse 107 belongs to chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga), which gathers verses 100–115 on comparisons with a thousand. It is filed under good & evil, giving & merit. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 106 and verse 108 are part of the same passage.
Sixteen verses that keep comparing one thing to a thousand. A single meaningful saying beats a thousand meaningless ones, one day of the disciplined life beats a hundred years of the undisciplined, and the chapter turns that arithmetic toward what a person does rather than what they recite.
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