The final chapter of the Dhammapada is its most socially transgressive, offering a pointed critique of the hierarchical distinctions between caste groups and the arbitrary exaltation of the Brahmin caste. The Buddha draws attention to the Spiritual Consequences for Daily Actions by claiming it is spiritual devotion, and not wealth or status, that makes someone elite. Very blatantly, the Buddha rejects notions of hereditary power, telling the reader, “But I don’t call someone a Brahmin / Because he’s born of a / Brahmin womb or mother: / If he owns anything / He’s just a man who says ‘good sir’ / One who owns nothing, without clinging / Him I call a Brahmin” (v. 396). This indicates that one must earn an elite status through the hard work of following the Dhamma, rather than simply receiving that status through the random lottery of birth. Verses like this make it clear how radical the egalitarian teachings of the Buddha were in his society, which had accepted the hierarchical way of life encouraged by Vedic Hinduism for centuries. 

In the Buddha’s life story, this hierarchical tradition and egalitarianism are emblemized by the Buddha’s father, who desperately wants him to become a conqueror and does everything in his power to prevent his son from becoming an ascetic. The Buddha’s renunciation—which entails a great deal of material loss because of the high caste that he was born into—is a thorough rejection of his father’s hierarchical ideals. Although other chapters of the Dhammapada offer similar rejections of hierarchy, the direct critique of the Brahmin caste is the most daring in the text, and a particularly forceful note on which to end the text.

Chapter 22, “Hells,” offers a closer look at Buddhist cosmology than any of the other chapters, once more invoking The Nature of Opposing Universal Forces. While the cycle of rebirth and death is referenced at various points in various chapters, this one is the only one devoted entirely to any realm other than the earthly one. Although the verses often refer to the hell realms euphemistically (“From taking up wrong views / Beings go to a bad destination”), the urgency with which the Buddha warns readers to protect themselves from going to a hell realm is meant to heighten the terror of hell and the consequences of bad spiritual and ethical practices (v.316). 

In a particularly scathing verse, the text takes aim at monks who engage in misconduct: “Many with the yellow robe on their backs / Are of evil character and uncontrolled / Through their evil actions, the evil / Are reborn in a hell world” (v. 307). This is another prime example of the anti-hierarchical leanings of the text: Even members of the sangha (i.e., monastic community) who claim to follow the Buddha are not above reproach. For early readers who might have been concerned about abuses of power by their local sangha, assurance from the Buddha that those monks would remain trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth would have likely been comforting.

The Dhammapada thus ends with some chapters that are particularly forceful in tone. Despite its aspirations to end suffering through detachment from material concerns, Buddhism was forged within the specific social context of 5th-century BCE India, and the concerns of that society made their way into the religion, and by extension, its scriptures. While the egalitarianist themes of the text may ring true for modern audiences, the critique of the Brahmin caste, and the disavowal of poorly-behaved monks, would have had a potent, immediate meaning to the communities that the Buddha traveled in, because abuse of power amongst religious leaders had caused broader societal instability for them. By keeping this historical context in mind, the Buddha’s words in the Dhammapada take on a more concrete meaning than a reading of the text that treats the verses as purely philosophical.