Conquer Yourself
The story
King Nami of Mithila has just given up his throne to become a monk. The god Indra comes to him disguised as a Brahmin and tests him with a king's duties, one after another. When Indra tells him to bring every prince who defies him into subjection, Nami answers with this verse. A few lines later he adds that when the self is conquered, everything is conquered.
Uttarādhyayana Sūtra, Lecture 9 ("The Pravragyâ of King Nami"), verse 34; tr. Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East 45 (1895), p. 38
The same moment, today
A driver gets cut off in traffic on the way home from work. He lays on his horn and yells at the other car. For the next three miles, he rehearses every sharp thing he could've shouted. His knuckles are white on the steering wheel, and his pulse is racing. The other car took the exit two miles ago and isn't thinking about him at all. The driver won the argument in his head, but he's the only one who feels miserable.
When King Nami turns down the throne, he makes this exact shift. He says beating an army of enemies doesn't matter if you can't rule yourself. The word Jain comes from Jina, which means conqueror, but the fight is against anger, pride, and greed. It's always tempting to defeat someone in an argument, but it's much harder to cool your own temper. During the festival of Paryushan, Jains practice this by fasting and asking everyone for forgiveness to pull down their own pride.
The lesson
The next time someone provokes you, don't focus on putting them in their place. Watch what happens inside your own chest instead.
Where this comes from
Hermann Jacobi, 1895
This verse comes from the Uttaradhyayana Sutra, an ancient text in the Svetambara canon. Svetambara tradition treats it as a record of Mahavira's final sermons, compiled over several centuries. Digambara Jains don't accept this book as scripture, because they believe the earliest texts were lost, but they share the exact same view on conquering yourself. The English lines here come from Hermann Jacobi's 1895 translation for the Sacred Books of the East series. The setting for Nami's talk was Mithila, which was a real royal capital in eastern India.
A small reminder, on your notebook or your desk, that the toughest opponent you'll face today isn't across the table from you.
$3.50
2.5 inches vinyl · weatherproof · ships in 1–3 days
Mix & save: 3 for $9 · 5 for $14 · 10 for $25· free shipping at ten
- Weatherproof vinyl
- Ships from Wayzata in 1–3 business days
- Secure checkout
If anything is wrong, we'll refund or replace it. Read the policy