Vol. 11 · pages 541–545

522 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES VI holder died, and the loss made the father neglect his business and his meals. 2. He was always going to the charnel ground and wailing aloud saying, “Where are you, my son, where are you ? ” 3. The bereaved father came to the Blessed Lord and after due salutations sat on one side. 4. Seeing that his mind was absolutely vacant showing no interest in anything, not telling the purpose for which he had come, the Blessed Lord, noticing his condition, said “You are not yourself; your mind is all awry.” 5. “How could my mind not be awry, sir, when I have lost my darling and only son?” 6.“ Yes, householder; our dear ones bring sorrow and lamentation, pain, suffering and tribulation ?” 7.“Who sir can entertain such a view ?”, said the angry householder, “Nay, our dear ones are a joy and happiness to us.” 8. And with these words the householder, rejecting the Lord’s pronouncement, indignantly got up and departed. 9. Hard by, there were a number of gamblers having a game with dice; and to them came the householder with his story of how he had related his sorrows to the recluse Gotama, how he had been received and how he had indignantly departed. 10. You were quite right, said the gamblers, for our dear ones are a source of joy and happiness to us. So the householder felt he had got the gamblers on his side. 11. Now all this, in due course, penetrated to the private apartments of the palace where the king told Queen Mallika that her recluse Gotama had stated that dear ones bring sorrow and lamentation, pain, suffering and tribulation. 12. “Well, sir, if the Lord said so, so it is.” 13. “Just as a pupil accepts all his master tells him, saying, ‘So it is, sir; so it is’—just in the same way Mallika, you accept all the recluse Gotama says with

523 FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS VI your ‘If the Lord said so, so it is’; away with you and begone ! ” 14. Then the queen told the Brahmin Nali Dhyan to go to the Lord and in her name, to bow his head at the Lord’s feet and, after asking after his health, to enquire whether he had really said what was attributed to him. 15. “And be careful,” she added, “to tell me exactly what the Lord answers.” 16. In obedience to the queen’s commands the Brahmin went off and duly asked the Lord whether he had really said so. 17. “Yes, Brahmin; our dear ones do bring sorrow and lamentation, pain, suffering, and tribulation. Here is the proof. 18. “Once, here in Shravasti, a woman’s mother died and the daughter, crazed and beside herself, went about from street to street, from cross-road to crossroad, saying: ‘Have you seen my mother? Have you seen my mother?’ 19. “Another proof is a woman of Shravasti who lost her father—a brother—a sister—a son—a daughter —a husband. Crazed and beside herself, the woman went about from street to street and from cross-road to cross-road, asking if anyone had seen the dear ones she had lost. 20. “Another proof is a man of Shravasti who lost his mother—his father—a brother—a sister—a son —a daughter—a wife, crazed and beside himself, the man went about from street to street and from cross- road to cross-road, asking if anyone had seen the dear ones he had lost. 21. “Another proof is the woman of Shravasti who visited her people’s home; and they wanted to take her from her husband and marry her to someone else whom she did not like. 22. “She told her husband about it, whereupon he cut her into two and then killed himself, so that they might both die together. 23. “All this the Brahmin Nali Dhyan duly reported to the queen.

524 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES VI 24. “The queen then went to the king and asked: , ‘ Are you fond, sir, of your only daughter, the princess Vajira.’ ‘Yes, I am,’ replied the king. 25. “ ‘If anything happened to your Vajira would you feel sorry or not?’ ‘If anything happened to her, it would make a great difference to my life.’ ” 26. “ ‘Are you fond, sir, of me,’ asked Mallika. ‘ Yes, I am.’ 27. “ ‘If anything happened to me would you feel sorry or would you not ?’ ‘ If anything happened to you it would make a great difference to my life.’ 28. “ ‘Are you fond, sir, of the people of Kasi and Kosala?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the king. ‘If anything happened to them would you be sorry or not ?’ 29. “ ‘If anything happened to them, it would make great difference—how could it be otherwise?’ 30. “ ‘Did the Blessed Lord say anything different?’ ‘No Mallika,’ said the king in repentance.” § 4. The Ardent Wish of a Pregnant Mother 1. Once when the Lord was staying in the Bhagga country at Sumsumara-gira in the Bhesakala grove, in the deer-park there, Prince Bodhi’s palace, called the Lotus, had just been finished but had not as yet been inhabited by recluse, Brahmin or any other person. 2. Said the prince to a young Brahmin named Sankika-putta: “Go to the Lord and in my name bow your head at his feet, ask after his health and invite him to be so good as to take his meal with me tomorrow and to bring his confraternity with him.” 3. The message was delivered to the Lord who, by silence, signified acceptance—as was duly reported to the prince. 4. When night had passed, the prince, having ordered an excellent meal-to be got ready in his palace and a carpeting of white cloth to be laid to the foot of the stairs of the Lotus palace, told the young Brahmin to announce to the Lord that all was ready.

525 FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS VI 5. This was done, and early that day the Lord, duly robed and bowl in hand, came to the palace where the prince was awaiting him, outside the portals. 6. Seeing the Lord approaching, the prince advanced and saluted him and moved in his train towards the palace. 7. At the foot of the stairs the Lord stood still. Said the prince: “I beg the Lord to step up on the carpeting; I beg the Blessed One to do this,—to my abiding weal and welfare.” But the Lord kept silent. 8. A second time did the prince appeal, and still the Lord kept silent. A third time he appealed, and now the Lord looked towards Ananda. 9. Ananda understood what the trouble was and asked that the carpeting should be rolled up and removed for the Lord would not tread upon it as he is looking to those that shall follow hereafter. 10. So the prince ordered the carpeting to be rolled up and removed, after which he ordered seats to be set out upstairs in the palace. 11. The Lord then proceeding upstairs, sat down on the seat set for him, with the confraternity. 12. The prince with his own hand served that excellent meal without stint to the Lord and the confraternity. 13. The Lord’s meal over and done, Prince Bodhi, seating himself on a low seat to one side, said to the Lord: “ My view, sir, is that true weal must be sought not through things pleasant but through things unpleasant.” 14. “In days gone by, Prince,” said the Blessed One, “ I too held the same view in the days before my enlightenment. Time was when being quite young—with a wealth of coal-black hair and in all the beauty of my early prime—despite the wishes of my parents who wept and lamented, I cut off hair and beard, donned the yellow robes and went forth from home to homelessness as a pilgrim. A pilgrim now, in quest of the Good and in search for the road to that utter peace which is beyond all compare.

526 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES VI 15. “Now I hold a different view. If a man knows the Doctrine he will find the destruction of all ills.” 16. Said the prince to the Lord: “What a doctrine! What an exposition of doctrine ! It is so easy to understand.” 17. Here the young Brahmin Sankika-putta observed to the prince that, though he had testified thus, yet he had not gone on to say that he sought as a refuge the Lord and his doctrine and his confraternity as he should have. 18. “Say not so, my friend; say not so” said the Prince: “for, I have heard from the lips of my lady mother, how, when once the Lord was staying at Kosambi in the Ghosita pleasance, she, being then pregnant, came to the Lord, saluted him and took a seat to one side, saying: ‘Be it a boy or be it a girl that I carry in my womb, my child unborn seeks refuge with the Lord and his doctrine and his confraternity; and I ask the Lord to accept the child as a follower who has found an abiding refuge from this time forth while life lasts.’ 19. “Another time, when the Lord was staying here in this Bhagga country at Sumsumara-gira, in the Bhesakala grove, in the deer park there, my nurse carried me to the Lord, and standing before him, said: ‘Here is Prince Bodhi who seeks refuge with the Lord and his doctrine and his confraternity.’ 20. Now, in person, for the third time I seek such refuge and ask the Lord to accept me as a follower who has found an abiding refuge while life lasts.” § 5. Keniya’s Welcome 1. There was living at Apanath a Brahmin, Sela, who was versed in all three Vedas, was accomplished in ritual with the glosses thereon, in phonology, and in etymology, with chronicles as a fifth branch; he knew exegesis, and was learned in casuistry and in the signs that mark a superman; he had three hundred young brahmins to whom he taught the runes. 2. Keniya the fire-worshipper was an adherent