Dhammapada verse 17
Chapter 1, Pairs (Yamakavagga) · verses 1–20
“Here they’re tormented, <j>hereafter they’re tormented, an evildoer is tormented in both places. They’re tormented <j>thinking of bad things they’ve done; when gone to a bad place, <j>they’re tormented all the more.”
Idha tappati pecca tappati, Pāpakārī ubhayattha tappati; “Pāpaṁ me katan”ti tappati, Bhiyyo tappati duggatiṁ gato.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 17 mean?
Verse 17 belongs to chapter 1, Pairs (Yamakavagga), which gathers verses 1–20 on the paired verses that open the book. It is filed under good & evil. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 16 and verse 18 are part of the same passage.
The opening chapter works in pairs: twenty verses arranged as ten twin verses, each pair holding the same situation in two forms and repeating the same refrain. It opens with the line that sets up the whole book — intention is the leader of things — and then runs the contrast through blame and forgiveness, hatred and its ending, and the difference between a mind that is guarded and one that is not.
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