Vol. 11 · pages 571–575

552 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES VII brother, Ananda, a brother who is a novice should be called by his name or clan name or by the word ‘friend’ : but by a novice, Ananda, an elder brother should be addressed as ‘Lord’ or ‘ Your reverence.’ 4. “Again, Ananda, if the Order so desires, when I am gone, let it abolish the lesser and minor charges. 5. “You know, Ananda, the brother Channa. How obstinate, perverse and devoid of the sense of discipline he is. 6. “And to him, Ananda, let the extreme penalty be applied when I am gone.” 7. “What, Lord, do you mean by ‘the extreme penalty’?” 8. “The brother Channa, Ananda, whatever he may say, is not to be spoken to, not to be admonished, not to be instructed by the brethren. He should be left alone. It might improve him.” 9. Then the Exalted One addressed the brethren: 10. “It may be, brothers, that in the mind of some one brother there is doubt or perplexity, either about the Buddha, or about the Norm, or the Order, or the Path, or the Way to the Path. If it be so, brothers, do ye ask now. Be not hereafter remorseful at the thought, ‘ Here was our Master face to face with us, and yet we had not the heart to question the Exalted One, though we were in His very presence.’ ” 11. At these words the brethren were silent. 12. Then a second time and yet a third time did the Exalted One address the brethren in the same words. And a third time the brethren were silent. 13. Then said the Exalted One: “ May be, brethren, it is out of respect for the Master that ye ask not. Speak to me, then, as friend to friend, brethren.” 14. Whereat those brethren were silent. 15. Then exclaimed the venerable Ananda to the Exalted One: “ Strange it is, Lord ! A marvel it is, Lord ! Thus assured am I, Lord, of this Order of Brethren. There is not any one brother that has a single doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Norm, the Order, or as to the Path, or the Way to the Path.”

553 HIS END VII 16. “ You speak out of assurance, Ananda. But in the Tathagata there is knowledge of the fact. There is not in any one brother a single doubt or perplexity as to this. Of these five hundred brethren of mine, Ananda, even he who is the most backward is a stream-winner, one who is assured from the Downfall, assured of reaching the Supreme Wisdom.” 17. Then said the Exalted One to the brethren : 18. “Come now, brethren, I do remind ye, ‘Subject to decay are all compounded things.’ Do ye abide in heedfulness.” 19. Those were the last words of the Exalted One. § 4. Ananda in Grief 1. As age advanced the Blessed Lord required a personal attendant to look after him. 2. He first chose Nanda. After Nanda he chose Ananda who served as his personal attendant till his death. 3. Ananda was his constant and dearest companion, not merely an attendant. 4. When the Blessed One came to Kushinara and rested between the Sal trees, he saw that his end was coming near, and felt that it was time he took Ananda into confidence. 5. So he called Ananda and said: “And now this Ananda, at the third watch of the night, in the Uppavana of Kushinara, between the twin Sal trees, the utter passing away of the Tathagata will take place.” 6. And when he had thus spoken the venerable Ananda addressed the Blessed One, and said: “Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain during the Kalpa, O Blessed One!, for the good and the happiness of the great multitudes, out of pity for the world, for the good and the gain and the weal of gods and men.” 7. Three times did Ananda make his plea. “Enough now, Ananda, beseech not the Tathagata ! ” was the reply. “ The time for making such request is past.” 8. “I, Ananda, am now grown old, and full of

554 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES VII years, my journey is drawing to a close. I have reached my sum of days. I am turning eighty years of age; and just as a worn-out cart must give way some day, methinks, the same must happen to the body of the Tathagata.” Hearing this, Ananda left. 9. Not seeing Ananda, the Blessed One called the brethren, and said: “Where then is Ananda?” “ The venerable Ananda is gone and is weeping,” said the brethren. 10. And the Blessed One called a certain brother and said: “ Go now brother, and call Ananda in my name and say, ‘ Brother Ananda, the Master calls for thee’.” 11. “Even so, Lord!” said that brother. 12. When Ananda came back he took his seat by the side of the Blessed One. 13. Then the Blessed One said to Ananda : “ Enough, Ananda! Do not weep! Have I not already, on former occasions, told you that it is in the very nature of things most near and dear unto us that we must divide ourselves from them, leave them, sever ourselves from them? 14. For a long time, Ananda, you have been very near to me by acts of love, kind and good, beyond all measure. 15. “You have done well, Ananda! Be earnest in effort and you too shall be free from the great evils— from sensuality, from individuality, from delusion, and from ignorance.” 16. Then addressing the brethren about Ananda the Blessed One said: “ He is a wise man, brethren, is Ananda. 17. “He knows when it is the right time to come and visit the Tathagata, and when it is the right time for brethren and sisters of the Order, for devout men and devout women, for a king, or for a king’s ministers, for other teachers and disciples, to visit the Tathagata. 18. “Brethren, there are these four special things about Ananda. 19. “All are happy to visit Ananda. They are

555 HIS END VII filled with joy on beholding him; they are happy to hear him. They are ill at ease when Ananda is silent.” 20. After this Ananda again returned to the subject of the passing away of the Tathagata. Addressing the Blessed One, he said: “Let not the Blessed One die in this wattled and daub town in the midst of the jungle. For Lord there are great cities, such as Champa, Rajagraha, Savathi, Saketa, Kosambi and Benares. Let the Blessed One die in one of them.” 21. “Say not so, Ananda! Say not so, Ananda. This Kushinara, Ananda, was the capital of king MahaSudassana under the name of Keshavati.” 22. Thereafter the Blessed One gave Ananda two errands. 23. He told Ananda to see that belief does not spread that the Blessed One died as a result of the food given to Him by Chunda. He feared that Chunda might suffer. He asked Ananda to disabuse the mind of the public on this score. 24. The second thing he told Ananda was to inform the Mallas of Kushinara that the Blessed One had arrived there and would pass away in the last watch of the night. 25. “Give no occasion to reproach yourself. The Mallas may say : ‘ In our own village the death of our Tathagata took place and we did not know and had no opportunity of seeing him in his last hours.’ ” 26. Thereafter the venerable Anurudha and the venerable Ananda spent the rest of the night in religious discourse. 27. And in the third part of the night, as previously announced, the Blessed One breathed his last. 28. When the Blessed One died, the brethren and Ananda stretched out their arms and wept, and some even fell headlong on the ground, rolling to and fro in anguish, saying: “Too soon has the Blessed One died! Too soon has the Happy One passed away from existence ! Too soon has the Light gone out of the world ! ” 29. It was at midnight on Vaishakha Paurnima

556 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES VII that the Blessed Lord breathed his last. The year of his death was 483 B.C. 30. As the Pali text truly says: Diva tapati addicco Ratin abhati candima; Sannaddho khathio tapati Jhayi tapati brahamano; Atha Sabbain ahorattain Buddho tapati tejasa. 31. “The sun shines only in the day and the moon makes bright the night. The warrior shines when he is in his armour. And the Brahmin when he is meditating. But the Buddha shines over all by day as well as by night by his own glory. 32. “He was beyond question the light of the world.” § 5. The Lament of the Mallas and the Joy of a Bhikkhu 1. As desired by the Blessed One, Ananda went and informed the Mallas of the event. 2. And when they heard of this the Mallas, their wives, their young men and maidens were grieved and sad and afflicted at heart. 3. Some of them wept, dishevelling their hair, and stretched forth their arms and fell prostrate on the ground. 4. Then the Mallas, with their young men and maidens and their wives, went to the Sala grove in the Upavaana to have the last look of the Blessed One. 5. Then the venerable Ananda thought: “If I allow the Mallas of Kushinara one by one it will take a long time for them to pay homage to the dead body of the Blessed One.” 6. So he decided to arrange them in groups, family by family. Each family then bowed humbly at the feet of the Blessed One and parted. 7. Now at the time the venerable Maha Kassapa was journeying along the high road from Pava to Kushinara with a great company of the brethren.