Mind precedes all phenomena, mind dominates, mind creates. If one speaks or acts with pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.

The second verse is the exact mirror of the first. Where before there was impure mind (paduṭṭha) and suffering, now there is serene mind (pasanna — clear, luminous, confident) and wellbeing. The parallel structure is deliberate: the Dhammapada teaches in pairs to show that the same law operates in both directions.

Pasanna deserves special attention. In Pāli it designates a state of mind that is at once clear (free of turbidity, like water that has settled), confident, and joyful. It is not the forced happiness of superficial optimism, but the natural serenity of a mind that does not resist what is.

The image of the shadow (chāyā) is beautiful and precise: the shadow cannot separate from the body, requires no effort to follow it, need not be invoked. Thus joy follows naturally from the purified mind, not as reward but as direct expression of its nature.

In contemplative practice, this points toward what yogis call sattva: the luminous quality of mind when tamas and rajas have calmed. Meditation does not create this clarity; it simply allows to emerge what is already there, like the sun that always shines even when covered by clouds.