Treasury of Truth (Dhammapada) Chapter 7, The Saints

Verse 90. Passion’s Fever Gone

With journey finished and sorrowless,
from everything completely free,
for one who has loosened all the ties
passion’s fever is not found.

Explanation: The are at the journey’s end - their quest for liberation has succeeded. They are sorrowless and totally released in mind. They have got rid of all knots and no bonds bind them. In them no anxiety exists.

Verse 91. Saints Are Non-Attached

Mindful Ones exert themselves,
in no abode do they delight,
as swans abandoning their lake
home after home they leave behind.

Explanation: Those mindful ones make the effort to keep their attentiveness always in trim. They are not at all attached to abodes or settlements. Giving up all places of settled living, they leave like the swans who fly away free in mind.

Verse 92. Blameless Is The Nature Of Saints

For those who don’t accumulate,
who well reflect upon their food,
they have as range the nameless and
the void of perfect freedom too.
As birds that wing through space,
hard to trace their going.

Explanation: With full understanding that nature is empty and objectless the mind is free of craving and leaves no trace of its whereabouts like the paths of birds in flight.

Verse 93. Arahat’s State Cannot Be Traced

For whom pollutions are destroyed,
not attached to any food,
he has as range the nameless and
the void of perfect freedom too.
As birds that wing through space,
hard to trace his going.

Explanation: If one is totally free of influences, internal or external, that motivates human behaviour, and is not attached even to food, that kind of individual focuses his mind on emptiness, objectlessness and freedom of thought. The path of such saints is difficult to be traced, like the path of birds flying through the sky.

Verse 94. The Gods Adore Arahats

Whose faculties are pacified
as steeds by charioteers well-tamed,
with pride abandoned, unpolluted,
to even devas this One’s dear.

Explanation: Those who senses are calmed as a horse trained by a horse-tamer, who have fully given up judgment, who is free of influences, the sight of those mentally stable ones please even the gods.

Verse 95. Arahats Are Noble

Like earth is one who’s well-behaved,
secure and not resentful,
as city-post, as filth-free lake,
no wanderings-on for One Who’s Thus.

Explanation: The noble Arahats never lose their temper whatsoever is done to them. They are firm and unshaken as the gate-pillars that secure the city gates. They are as lucid and tranquil as the ocean and the lakes devoid of mud. That kind of person ceases to wander in the round of existence - samsara.

Verse 96. The Tranquillity Of The Saints

Peaceful his mind and peaceful
his speech and actions too,
perfect in knowledge of freedom,
One Thus is of utmost peace.

Explanation: A noble arahat, who is freed by ‘disknowing’, or freedom from knowing, is calm and unshaken by the impact of changing circumstances. His mind is at peace. His words are peaceful. His actions are peaceful.

Verse 97. Exalted Are The Unblemished

With no beliefs, the Unmade known,
with fetters finally severed,
with kammas cut and craving shed,
attained to humanity’s heights.

Explanation: He has no faith in anybody but in himself. He is aware of deathlessness - the unconditioned. He is a breaker of connections, because he has severed all worldly links. He has destroyed all the opportunities for rebirth. He has given up all desires. Because of these, the arahat, is a truly noble person.

Verse 98. Dwelling Of The Unblemished Is Alluring

Whether in town or woods,
whether in vale, on hill,
wherever dwell the Arahats
so pleasing there the earth.

Explanation: Whether in the village, in the forest, in a valley or in the plain, wherever arahats - noble saints - dwell, that place is alluring in the extreme.

Verse 99. The Passionless Delight In Forests

Delightful are the forests
where folk do not delight,
there the Passionless delight,
they’re not pleasure-seekers.

Explanation: Those fascinating forests that do not capture the mind of the worldly masses and in which they do not take worldly delight are attractive to the passionless ones. The Arahats take delight in the forests, because they are not pursuers of sensual pleasures.