Original recording of The Mother’s recitations of the Dhammapada and her Explanations in French language
Music by Michel Montecrossa: ‘Brilliance Of The Soul’, ‘The Soul’s Look’
1 August 1958
As the elephant on the battlefield endures the arrow shot from the bow, so also shall I patiently bear insult, for truly there are many of evil mind in the world.
It is a tamed elephant that is led to the battlefield; one whom the Raja rides. The best among men is he who patiently bears insult.
Trained mules are excellent, as also the thoroughbreds of Sindh and the mighty tuskers. Better yet is the man who has brought himself under control.
Not by mounting one of these animals does one attain the unexplored path, but by mastering oneself. By that mastery one attains it.
In the mating season it is difficult to control the mighty elephant Dhanapalako. When he is chained he refuses to eat, he yearns only to be once more a wild elephant of the forest.
When a man is slothful and gluttonous, always sleepy and rolling from side to side like a fat hog in the mud – this fool is compelled to be born over and over again.
Once this mind wandered where it would from one thing to another, according to its pleasure, but now I shall master it completely as the mahout with his goad masters the elephant in rut.
Delight in vigilance, guard carefully your mind. Lift yourself out of evil as the elephant sunk in a swamp.
If for company you find a prudent friend, who leads a good life, who is intelligent and self-controlled, overcoming all obstacles, do not hesitate to set out with him joyfully and courageously.
And if you do not meet with such a friend, who leads a good life, who is intelligent and self-controlled, then like a king renouncing a kingdom he has conquered, or like a solitary elephant in the forest follow your path alone.
It is better to live alone, for one cannot take a fool as a companion. It is better to live alone and do no evil, carefree, like the elephant in the jungle.
It is good to have friends when need arises. It is good to be satisfied with what one has. It is good, at the hour of death, to have acquired merit. It is good to leave all grief behind you.
In this world it is a joy to respect one’s mother; it is a joy to respect one’s father; it is a joy to honour the monks; it is a joy to revere the Brahmins.
It is a joy to live purely throughout one’s life. It is a joy to have a steadfast faith. It is a joy to acquire wisdom. It is a joy to abstain from all evil.
Dhammapada
“True sincerity consists in advancing on the way because you cannot do otherwise, to consecrate yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise, to seek to transform your being and come out into the light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the purpose of your life.
When it is like that you may be sure that you are on the right path.”
Mira Alfassa – The Mother
Tracks:
- 1.8.1958 ‘The Elephant’
- Brilliance Of The Soul
- The Soul’s Look
