⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑− Vaṁśastha
makheṣu
vā veda-vidhāna-saṁsktau na daṁpatī paśyati dīkṣitāv-ubhau
|
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−
samaṁ bubhukṣū
parato 'pi tat-phalaṁ tato 'sya jāto
mayi dharma-matsaraḥ || 8.63
8.63
Or
else he fails to see that, during sacrificial oblations,
Both
husband and wife are consecrated,
both
being sanctified through Vedic rites,
And
both wishing thereafter to enjoy together
the
fruit of that sanctification –
Out
of such blindness is born
the
besotted stinginess with dharma that he has shown towards me.
COMMENT:
Freedom
can exist inside and outside of a house or a temple and inside and
outside of marriage. But religious dharma as a rule is all about the opposite
of freedom; namely, fixing.
That
being so, Yaśodharā as I hear her is expressing in her lament the very
thing that the Buddha-to-be wishes to get the hell away from.
Similarly
when Dogen asserted that the Buddha-dharma is just to sit and just to
sit is the Buddha-dharma, what he was pointing to, as I hear him, is not necessarily a religious dharma, but quite possibly a totally
irreligious dharma.
Because
what has the act of sitting got to do with religion? And what has the
direction “Let the head go forward and up, while letting the back
lengthen and widen” got to do with religion?
That
act and that dharma-direction, in my book, are the essence of the
Buddha-dharma whose relation to the dharma of religious rites is like
the relation between the sun and darkness.
Still, the 4th pāda of today's verse remains a difficult one to translate. A literal
translation would be something like:
“Thence
is born in him towards me this dharma-selfishness/stinginess.”
EBC
translated: “he therefore grudges me a
share in his merit.”
EHJ:
“therefore he has become miserly of dharma towards me.”
PO:
“That's the reason why he acts selfishly with respect to dharma
concerning me.”
Matsaraḥ
is given in the dictionary as selfishness, envy, jealousy, but it
probably derives from the root √mad, and therefore has connotations of
exhilaration or intoxication, so dharma-matsaraḥ might be
translated “besotted stinginess with dharma” – or, more simply,
“selfishness about dharma.” At time of writing this comment, I
still haven't decided which translation to opt for.
“Besotted
stinginess with dharma” might have the advantage of bringing out
the irony in Yaśodharā's words, since she might truly be the blindly besotted one, who would like to bind her husband to herself using the mouldy old rope of a religious conception of dharma.
The
main point of today's verse, then, as I read it, is to cause us to
reflect further on the Venn diagram wherein there might be some
superficial overlap between two conceptions of dharma, but also, more
importantly, a vast area that Yaśodharā hasn't glimpsed even in her
dreams.
Thus,
if we substitute for “dharma” the English words Nature or
Direction, EBC's translation could become “he
therefore grudges me a share in Nature”
and EHJ's could become something like “therefore he
has become miserly towards me in the matter of the Direction of the Universe.”
Insofar as the Buddha-dharma might be wider still than even Nature, or Direction, to represent it with a closed circle in a Venn diagram, on reflection, might be to insult it. Many arrows pointing away from the old conception of dharma might be more like it.
The
point, in conclusion, is that Yaśodharā's lament is rooted in a
very limited appreciation of dharma which is all bound up with
ancient Indian thinking.
A prevailing current in the ocean of
Buddhist studies is that Aśvaghoṣa sought to portray the
Buddha-dharma as a teaching that evolved out of the ancient Indian
conception of dharma. I think Yaśodharā, on the evidence of the
present series of verses, would have found herself in agreement with
that line of thought. But the dharma of the Buddha himself and of
Aśvaghoṣa himself might be to abandon that idea -- to cut that conception out, by the dharma of directed sitting.
VOCABULARY
makheṣu
(loc. pl. m.): mfn. jocund , cheerful , sprightly , vigorous ; m.
jocund , cheerful , sprightly , vigorous ; m. a sacrifice ,
sacrificial oblation
vā:
or
veda-vidhāna-saṁskṛtau
(acc. dual): initiated into the performance of Vedic rites
veda:
m. (fr. √vid, to know) knowledge , true or sacred knowledge or lore
, knowledge of ritual ; N. of certain celebrated works which
constitute the basis of the first period of the Hindu religion (these
works were primarily three , viz. 1. the ṛg-veda , 2. the
yajur-veda 3. the sāma-veda)
vidhāna:
n. order , measure , disposition , arrangement , regulation , rule ,
precept , method , manner ; n. performance (esp. of prescribed acts
or rites) , execution , making , doing , accomplishing
saṁskṛta:
mfn. put together , constructed , well or completely formed ,
perfected; made ready , prepared , completed , finished ; purified ,
consecrated , sanctified , hallowed , initiated
na:
not
dampatī
(acc. dual): " the two masters " , husband and wife
dampati:
the lord of the house
paśyati
= 3rd pers. sg. paś: to see (with na " to be blind
")
dīkṣitau
(acc. dual): mfn. consecrated
ubhau
(acc. dual): both
samam:
ind. in like manner , alike , equally , similarly ; ind. together
with or at the same time with
bubhukṣū
(acc. dual): mfn. (fr. Desid. of √bhuj) desirous of enjoying
bubhukṣu:
mfn. wishing to eat , hungry ; desirous of worldly enjoyment (opp.
to mumukṣu)
bhuj:
to enjoy , use , possess , (esp.) enjoy a meal
parataḥ:
ind. farther , far off , afterwards
api:
also
tat-phalam
(acc. sg.): the fruit of that
phala:
n. fruit (met.) , consequence , effect , result , retribution (good
or bad) , gain or loss , reward or punishment , advantage or
disadvantage ; benefit
tataḥ:
ind. thence, from that
asya
(gen. sg.): of this one, in him
jātaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. born
mayi
(loc. sg.): towards me
dharma-matsaraḥ
(nom. sg. m.): selfishness in relation to dharma
matsara:
mfn. (prob. fr. √ mad) , exhilarating , intoxicating ; selfish ,
greedy ; m. the exhilarater , gladdener (soma) ; m. selfishness ,
envy , jealousy , hostility
梵志祠祀典 夫妻必同行
同行法爲因 終則同受報
汝何獨法慳 棄我而隻遊
同行法爲因 終則同受報
汝何獨法慳 棄我而隻遊
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