Dhammapada verse 414
Chapter 26, Brahmins (Brāhmaṇavagga) · verses 383–423
“They’ve got past this grueling swamp of delusion, transmigration. Meditating in stillness, free of indecision, they have crossed over to the far shore. They’re quenched by not grasping: that’s who I declare a brahmin.”
Yomaṁ palipathaṁ duggaṁ, saṁsāraṁ mohamaccagā; Tiṇṇo pāraṅgato jhāyī, anejo akathaṅkathī; Anupādāya nibbuto, tamahaṁ brūmi brāhmaṇaṁ.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 414 mean?
Verse 414 belongs to chapter 26, Brahmins (Brāhmaṇavagga), which gathers verses 383–423 on the true brahmin. It is filed under the path. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 413 and verse 415 are part of the same passage.
Forty-one verses on the true brahmin, and the final and longest chapter. Its argument is a sustained redefinition: you are not a brahmin by birth, by hair or by ancestry, but by what you have done and given up. It closes the book by taking the highest title available and handing it to the person who has ended the work.
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