Be like a good horse when touched by a whip - strenuous and anxious.
By faith, virtue, effort and concentration, by investigation of truth,
by having knowledge and conduct, by being mindful abandon this big suffering.

asso        yathā       bhadro kasā+niviṭṭho  ātāpino saṃvegino bhavātha
|                  |               |         |         |             |             |               |
N.m.      Rel.Adv.   Adj.m.  N.f.  Adj.m.    Adj.m.   Adj.m.      V.act.
Nom.Sg.      |         Nom.Sg.   |   Nom.Sg. Nom.Pl. Nom.Pl.   2.Pl.imp.
|__________|________|          |_____|             |_______|               |
                   |      |_____________|                        |____________|
                   |__________|                                               |
                             |_______________________________|

List of Abbreviations

saddhāya sīlena   ca  vīriyena ca samādhinā dhamma+vinicchayena ca
|                  |        |         |        |         |               |               |             |
N.f.          N.n.  conj.   N.n.  conj.  N.m.        N.m.        N.m.       conj.
Ins.Sg.    Ins.Sg.   |     Ins.Sg.   |     Ins.Sg.          |          Ins.Sg.        |
|                  |____|          |____|          |               |________|             |
|                      |                  |              |                       |___________|
|____________|__________|________|___________________|_______________

List of Abbreviations

sampanna+vijjā+caraṇā   patissatā jahissatha dukkham  idaṃ   anappakaṃ
|                   |         |             |              |              |            |             |
Adj.           N.f.   N.m.     Adj.m.    V.act.        N.n.     Pron.n.   Adj.n.
|                   |    Nom.Pl. Nom.Pl. 2.Pl.imp.   Acc.Sg.  Acc.Sg.  Acc.Sg.
|                   |_____|             |              |              |_______|_______|
|_____________|                  |              |                      |___|
           |_________________|               |                         |
_______________|_________________|                         |
                           |                |______________________|
                           |____________________|

asso: assa-, N.m.: horse. Nom.Sg. = asso.

yathā, Rel.Adv.: as, just like.

bhadro: bhadra-, Adj.: good. Nom.Sg.m. = bhadro.

kasāniviṭṭho: kasāniviṭṭha-, Adj.: whipped, touched by a whip. It is a compound of:
    kasā-, N.f.: whip.
    niviṭṭha-, Adj.: touched, "put down on". It is a p.p. of the verb root vis- (to enter)
with the prefix ni- (down).
Nom.Sg.m. = kasāniviṭṭho.

ātāpino: ātāpin-, Adj.: ardent, zealous, active, strenuous. It is the word ātāpa-, N.m.: endeavor, zeal, activity, with the possessive suffix -in. Nom.Pl.m. = ātāpino.

saṃvegino: saṃvegin-, Adj.: anxious, agitated (by contemplating miseries of this world). It is the word saṃvega-, N.m.: agitation, anxiety, with the possessive suffix -in. Nom.Pl.m. = saṃvegino.

List of Abbreviations

bhavātha, V.: be. The verb root is bhū-. 3.Pl.act.imp. = bhavatha. The form bhavātha is sometimes used in poetry.

saddhāya: saddhā-, N.f.: trust, confidence, faith. Ins.Sg. = saddhāya.

sīlena: sīla-, N.n.: virtue. Ins.Sg. = sīlena.

ca, conj.: and.

vīriyena: viriya-, N.n.: energy, vigor, effort. The form vīriya- is used because of metrical requirements. Ins.Sg. = vīriyena.

ca, conj.: and.

samādhinā: samādhi-, N.m.: concentration, firmness of mind. It is derived from the verb root dhā-, to put, with the prefixes saṃ-, together and ā-, towards. Ins.Sg. = samādhinā.

List of Abbreviations

dhammavinicchayena: dhammavinicchaya-, N.m.: investigation of truth. It is a compound of:
    dhamma-, N.m.: here can mean either generally "thing", "phenomenon", "truth" or more specifically the teaching of the Buddha.
    vinicchaya-, N.m.: thorough knowledge, firm opinion, investigation, analysis.
Ins.Sg. = dhammavinicchayena.

ca, conj.: and.

sampannavijjācaraṇā: sampannavijjācaraṇa-, Adj.: endowed with knowledge and conduct. It is a compound of:
    sampanna-, Adj.: endowed with, possessed of. P.p. of the verb pad- (to go to, to fall to) preceded by the prefix sam- (denoting "together" or "completely").
    vijjācaraṇa-, N.n.: knowledge and conduct. This is itself a compound of:
        vijjā-, N.f.: knowledge, higher knowledge. Derived from the verb root vid- (to know, to find out).
        caraṇa-, N.n.: conduct, behavior, acting. Derived from the verb root car- (to move, to go behave).
Nom.Pl.m. of the whole compound = sampannavijjācaraṇā.

List of Abbreviations

patissatā: patissata-, Adj.: mindful, conscientious, recollecting. Nom.Pl.m. = patissatā.

jahissatha, V.: abandon, leave behind. The verb root is hā-. 2.Pl.act.imp. = jahissatha.

dukkham: dukkha-, N.n.: suffering. Acc.Sg. = dukkham.

idaṃ: idaṃ-, Pron.: this. Acc.Sg.n. = idaṃ.

anappakaṃ : anappaka-, Adj.: big, "not little". It is the word appaka-, Adj.: little, few, with the negative prefix an-. Acc.Sg.n. = anappakaṃ.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of two independent sentences. They are:
    1) asso yathā bhadro kasāniviṭṭho ātāpino saṃvegino bhavātha (be like a good horse when touched by a whip - strenuous and anxious). This sentence can be further analyzed into two parts:
    a) ātāpino saṃvegino bhavātha (be strenuous and anxious). This is the main sentence. The subject is omitted, implying the second person plural pronoun. The verb is bhavātha (be, 2^nd person, plural, active, imperative). There are two objects, adjectives ātāpino (strenuous, nominative plural) and saṃvegino (anxious, nominative plural).
    b) asso yathā bhadro kasāniviṭṭho (like a good horse when touched by a whip). This is a clause to the main sentence. The subject is the noun asso (horse, nominative singular) with two attributes, the adjective bhadro (good, nominative singular) and the compound kasāniviṭṭho (touched by a whip, nominative singular). The verb is omitted; the verb bhavātha from the main sentence is implied.
    2) saddhāya sīlena ca vīriyena ca samādhinā dhammavinicchayena ca sampannavijjācaraṇā patissatā jahissatha dukkham idaṃ anappakaṃ (by faith, virtue, effort and concentration, by investigation of truth, by having knowledge and conduct, by being mindful abandon this big suffering). The subject is omitted, the verb implying the second person plural pronoun. It has two attributes, the adjectives sampannavijjācaraṇā (endowed with knowledge and conduct, nominative plural) and patissatā (mindful, nominative plural). The verb is jahissatha (abandon, 2^nd person, plural, active, imperative). It has five attributes: saddhāya (by faith, instrumental singular), sīlena (by virtue, instrumental singular), vīriyena (by effort, instrumental singular), samādhinā (by concentration, instrumental singular) and dhammavinicchayena (by investigation of truth, instrumental singular). Three of them (sīlena, vīriyena and dhammavinicchayena) are connected to the other ones by the conjunction ca (and). The object is the noun dukkham (suffering, accusative singular). It has two attributes, the pronoun idaṃ (this, accusative singular) and the adjective anappakaṃ (big, accusative singular).

    The story for this verse is identical with the story for the previous one (DhP 143).
    There is no reason to whip a good horse - it knows what to do and how to do it. In the same way there is no need to blame a good person, he is not acting in a way that has to be blamed.
    The good horse needs only to be touched by the whip and then it knows what to do. So it is with a good person. He is "touched" by the suffering and immediately starts to make effort to escape it forever.

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

asso
yathā
bhadro
kasāniviṭṭho
kasā
niviṭṭho
ātāpino
saṃvegino
bhavātha
saddhāya
sīlena
ca
vīriyena
samādhinā
dhammavinicchayena
dhamma
vinicchayena
sampannavijjācaraṇā
sampanna
vijjā
caraṇā
patissatā
jahissatha
dukkham
idaṃ
anappakaṃ