Vol. 11 · pages 261–265

242 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III § 6. To believe that Karma is the instrument of Moral Order is Dhamma 1. There is an order in the physical world. This is proved by the following phenomenon. 2. There is a certain order in the movements and actions of the starry bodies. 3. There is a certain order by which seasons come and go in regular sequence. 4. There is a certain order by which seeds grow into trees and trees yield fruits and fruits give seeds. 5. In Buddhist terminology these are called Niyamas, laws which produce an orderly sequence such as Rutu Niyam, Bija Niyam. 6. Similarly is there a moral order in Human Society. How is it produced ? How is it maintained? 7. Those who believe in the existence of God have no difficulty in answering the question. And their answer is easy. 8. Moral order, they say, is maintained by Divine Dispensation. God created the world and God is the Supreme Governor of the world. He is also the author of moral as well as of physical law. 9. Moral law, according to them, is for man’s good because it ensues from Divine will. Man is bound to obey God who is his maker and it is obedience to God which maintains the moral order. 10. Such is the argument in support of the view that the moral order is maintained by Divine Dispensation. 11. The explanation is by no means satisfactory. For if the moral law has originated from God, and if God is the beginning and end of the moral order and if man cannot escape from obeying God, why is there so much moral disorder in the world ? 12. What is the authority of the Divine Law? What is the hold of the Divine Law over the individual ? These are pertinent questions. But to none of them is there any satisfactory answer from those who rely on Divine Dispensation as the basis for the moral order.

243 WHAT IS DHAMMA ? III 13. To overcome these difficulties the thesis has been somewhat modified. 14. It is said : no doubt creation took effect at the command of God. It is also true that the cosmos entered upon its life by his will and by his direction. It is also true that He imparted to the cosmos once for all the energy which served as the driving power of a stupendous mechanism. 15. But God leaves it to Nature to work itself out in obedience to the laws originally given by him. 16. So that if the moral order fails to work out as expected by God, the fault is of Nature and not of God. 17. Even this modification in the theory does not solve the difficulty. It only helps to exonerate God from his responsibility. For the question remains, why should God leave it to Nature to execute His laws ? What is the use of such an absentee God ? 18. The answer which the Buddha gave to the question,—“How is moral order maintained?” is totally different. 19. His answer was simple. “It is the Kamma Niyam and not God which maintains the moral order in the universe.” That was the Buddha’s answer to the question. 20. The moral order of the universe may be good or it may be bad. But according to the Buddha the moral order rests on man and on nobody else. 21. “Kamma means man’s action and Vipaka is its effect. If the moral order is bad it is because man does Akusala (Bad) Kamma. If the moral order is good it is because man does Kusala (Good) Kamma. 22. The Buddha was not content with merely speaking of Kamma. He spoke of the law of Kamma which is another name for Kamma Niyam. 23. By speaking of the law of Kamma what the Buddha wanted to convey was that the effect of the deed was bound to follow the deed, as surely as night follows day. It was like a Niyam or rule. 24. No one could fail to benefit by the good effects of a Kusala Kamma and no one could escape the evil effects of Akusala Kamma.

244 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III 25. Therefore, the Buddha’s admonition was: Do Kusala Kamma so that humanity may benefit by a good moral order which a Kusala Kamma helps to sustain ; do not do Akusala Kamma for humanity will suffer from the bad moral order which an Akusala Kamma will bring about. 26. It may be that there is a time interval between the moment when the Kamma is done and the moment when the effect is felt. It is so, often enough. 27. From this point of view, Kamma is either (1) Ditthadamma Vedaniya Kamma (Immediately Effective Kamma) ; (2) Upapajjavedaniya Kamma (Remotely Effective Kamma); and (3) Aporapariya Vedaniya Kamma (Indefinitely Effective Kamma). 28. Kamma may also fall into the category of Ahosi Kamma, i.e., Kamma which is non-effective. This Ahosi Kamma comprises all such Kammas which are too weak to operate, or which are counteracted by a more Kamma, at the time when it should have worked. 29. But making allowance for all these considerations, it does not in any sense derogate from the claim made by the Buddha that the law of Kamma is inexorable. 30. The theory of the law of Kamma does not necessarily involve the conception that the effect of the Kamma recoils on the doer of it and there is nothing more to be thought about it. This is an error. Sometimes the action of one affects another instead of the doer. All the same it is the working of the law of Kamma because it either upholds or upsets the moral order. 31. Individuals come and individuals go. But the moral order of the universe remains and so also the law of Kamma which sustains it. 32. It is for this reason that in the religion of the Buddha, Morality has been given the place of God. 33. Thus the Buddha’s answer to the question— “How the moral order in the universe is sustained?” is so simple and so irrefutable. 34. And yet its true meaning is scarcely grasped.

245 WHAT IS DHAMMA ? III Often, almost always, it is either misunderstood or misstated or misinterpreted. Not many seem to be conscious that the law of Kamma was propounded by the Buddha as an answer to the question— “How the moral order is maintained ?” 35. That, however, is the purpose of Buddha’s Law of Kamma. 36. The Law of Kamma has to do only with the question of general moral order. It has nothing to do with the fortunes or misfortunes of an individual. 37. It is concerned with the maintenance of the moral order in the universe. 38. It is because of this that the law of Kamma is a part of Dhamma.