Indra became the chief of the gods through heedfulness. Heedfulness is ever praised, and heedlessness ever despised.

The Buddha closes the first ten verses of the Heedfulness chapter — and thus the first month of the Dhammapada Daily program — with a Vedic figure. Indra (Maghavā) was already, at the time of the Buddha's teaching, the chief of the older Indian pantheon. The verse co-opts his ascension as evidence: even Indra became Indra by heedfulness. The teaching reaches across the religious lines of the Buddha's era to make the same point. Whatever your tradition: attention is the substance that lifts.