Vol. 11 · pages 256–260

237 WHAT IS DHAMMA ? III is quite clear if one examines the language of the fire sermon. 45. The fire sermon does not say that life is burning and death is extinction. It says passions are on fire. 46. The fire sermon does not say that the passions must be extinguished completely. It says do not add fuel to the flame. 47. Secondly, critics have failed to make a distinction between Nibbana and Parinibbana. 48. As the Udana says: “Parinibbana occurs when the body becomes disintegrated, all perceptions become stopped, all sensations die away, the activities cease and consciousness goes away. Thus Parinibbana means complete extinction.” 49. Nibbana can never have this meaning. Nibbana means enough control over passion so as to enable one to walk on the path of righteousness. It was not intended to mean, anything more. 50. That Nibbana is another name for righteous life is made clear by the Buddha himself to Radha. 51. Once the venerable Radha came to the Exalted One. Having done so he saluted the Exalted One and sat down at one side. So seated the venerable Radha thus addressed the Exalted One: “Pray Lord, what for is Nibbana?” 52. “Nibbana means release from passion” replied the Lord. 53. “But Nibbana, Lord,—what is the aim of it?” 54. “Rooted in Nibbana, Radha, the righteous life is lived. Nibbana is its goal. Nibbana is its end.” 55. That Nibbana does not mean extinction is also made clear by Sariputta in the following sermon: 56. “Once the Blessed Lord was staying at Shravasti in Anathpindika’s Arama where Sariputta was also staying. 57. “The Lord, addressing the brethren, said : ‘Almsmen, be ye partakers not of the world’s goods but of my doctrine; in my compassion for you all I am anxious to ensure this.’

238 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III 58. “Thus spoke the Lord, who thereupon rose and passed to his own cell. 59. “Sariputta remained behind and the brethren asked him to explain what is Nibbana. 60. “Then Sariputta in reply to the brethren said : ‘Brethren, know ye that greed is vile, and vile is resentment. 61. “ ‘ To shed this greed and this resentment, there is the Middle Way which gives us eyes to see and makes us know, leading us on to peace, insight, enlightenment and Nibbana. 62. “ ‘ What is this Middle Way ? It is naught but the Noble Eightfold Path of right outlook, right aims, right speech, right action, right means of livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration; this, almsmen is the Middle Way. 63. “ ‘ Yes, sirs: anger is vile and malevolence is vile, envy and jealousy are vile, niggardliness and avarice are vile, hypocrisy and deceit and arrogance are vile, inflation is vile, and indolence is vile. 64. “ ‘ For the shedding of inflation and indolence there is the Middle Way—giving us eyes to see, making us know, and leading us on to peace, insight, enlightenment. 65. “ ‘ Nibbana which is naught but that Noble Eightfold Path.’ ” 66. Thus spoke the revered Sariputta—Glad at heart, the almsmen rejoiced at what he had said. 67. That the idea underlying Nibbana is that it is the path of righteousness. No one will mistake Nibbana for anything else. 68. Complete annihilation is one extreme and Parinibbana is another extreme. Nibbana is the Middle Way. 69. So understood all confusion about Nibbana will disappear. § 4. To Give up Craving is Dhamma 1. In the Dhammapada the Buddha says: “There is no greater benefit that, health and there is

239 WHAT IS DHAMMA ? III nothing more valuable than the spirit of contentment.” 2. This spirit of contentment is not to be understood to mean meekness or surrender to circumstances. 3. Because that would be quite contrary to the other teachings of the Buddha. 4. The Buddha has not said, “Blessed are they who are poor.” 5. The Buddha has not said that the sufferer should not try to change his condition. 6. On the other hand, he has said that riches are welcome and instead of listless suffering he taught Virya which is energetic action. 7. What the Buddha meant when he said that contentment is the highest form of wealth is that man should not allow himself to be overpowered by greed which has no limits. 8. As the Bhikku Rathapala has said: “Rich men I see who, folly-led, never give, but still amass, athirst for pleasures new; the king whose conquests to the sea extend, for sway over empires overseas will pine, still craving, kings and subjects pass away; lacking, still lacking, they their bodies quit; never on earth can pleasures’ measure be filled.” 9. In the Maha-Nidan-Suttanta the Buddha has explained to Ananda the necessity of controlling greed. This is what he said. 10. “This it is, Ananda, that craving comes into being because of desire for gain, when desire for gain becomes a passion for possession when the spirit of possession gives rise to tenacity of possession it becomes avarice. 11. “Avarice or possession due to uncontrolled acquisitive instinct calls for watch and ward. 12. “Why is this craving or greed to be condemned? Because of this,” said the Buddha to Ananda, “many a bad and wicked state of things arises—blows and wounds, strife, contradiction and retorts ; quarrelling, slander and lies.” 13. That this is the correct analysis of class struggle there can be no doubt.

240 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III 14. That is why the Buddha insisted upon the control of greed and craving. § 5. To believe that all compound things are impermanent is Dhamma 1. This doctrine of impermanence has three aspects. 2. There is the impermanence of composite things. 3. There is the impermanence of the individual being. 4. There is the impermanence of the self nature of conditioned things. 5. The impermanence of composite things has been well explained by the great Buddhist philosopher Asanga. 6. “All things,” says Asanga, “are produced by the combination of causes and conditions and have no independent noumenon of their own. When the combination is dissolved, their destruction ensures. 7. “The body of a living being consists of the combination of four great elements, viz., earth, water, fire and air, and when this combination is resolved into the four component elements, dissolution ensues. 8. “This is what is called the impermanence of a composite entity.” 9. Impermanence of the living individual is best described by the formula—being is becoming. 10. In this sense a being of a past moment has lived, but does not live nor will he live. The being of a future moment will live but has not lived nor does he live ; the being of the present moment does live but has not lived and will not live. 11. In short, a human being is always changing, always growing. He is not the same at two different moments of his life. 12. The third phase of the doctrine of impermanence is somewhat difficult for a common man to follow. 13. To realize that every living being will die sometime or other is a very easy matter to understand.

241 WHAT IS DHAMMA ? III 14. But it is not quite so easy to understand how a human being can go on changing—becoming— while he is alive. 15. “How is this possible?” The Buddha’s answer was, “This is possible because all is impermanent.” 16. This later on gave rise to what is called Sunnya Vad. 17. The Buddhist Sunnyata does not mean nihilism out and out. It only means the perpetual changes occurring at every moment in the phenomenal world. 18. Very few realize that it is on account of Sunnyata that everything becomes possible ; without it nothing in the world would be possible. It is on the impermanence of the nature of all things that the possibility of all other things depends. 19. If things were not subject to continual change but were permanent and unchangeable, the evolution of all of life from one kind to the other and the development of living things would come to a dead stop. 20. If human beings died or changed but had continued always in the same state what would the result have been ? The progress of the human race would have come to a dead halt. 21. Immense difficulty would have arisen if Sunnya is regarded as being void or empty. 22. But this is not so. Sunnya is like a point which has substance but neither breadth nor length. 23. All things are impermanent was the doctrine preached by the Buddha. 24. What is the moral of this doctrine of the Buddha ? This is a much more important question. 25. The moral of this doctrine of impermanence is simple. Do not be attached to anything. 26. It is to cultivate detachment, detachment from property, from friends, etc., that he said “All these are impermanent.”