Dhammapada 131

Beings seek happiness

Beings seek happiness. If you hurt them with the rod while seeking your own happiness, after death you do not find happiness.

Translated from the Pāli by Banya

In plain words

Someone who seeks their own happiness by striking beings who also want happiness does not obtain happiness after death. The verse explicitly places this consequence after death.

Key words

pecca

after death — The consequence cannot be reduced to immediate remorse.

The story behind the verse

A company of boys

In the commentary, the Buddha was entering Sāvatthi for alms. By the road he saw boys beating a snake with a stick, and he asked what they were doing. They explained that they feared the snake would bite them, and the Buddha told them that harming another being to secure their own happiness would not bring happiness after death. He taught both the consequence of striking and the value of refraining from harm, and the two verses belong to this same encounter.

Retold by Banya from the traditional commentary, after E. W. Burlingame, Buddhist Legends (1921).

Explanation by Banya. Traditional readings vary.