Vol. 3 · pages 196–200

183 REFORMERS AND THEIR FATE (6) Auguries from the marks on cloth gnawed by mice. (7) Sacrificing to Agni. (8) Offering oblations from a spoon. (9-13) Making offerings to gods of husks, of the red powder between the grain and the husk, of husked grain ready for boiling, of ghee and of oil. (14) Sacrificing by spewing mustard seeds, &c., into the fire out of one’s mouth. (15) Drawing blood from one’s right knee as a sacrifice to the gods. (16) Looking at the knuckles, &c., and, after muttering a charm, divining whether a man is well born of luck or not. (17) Determining whether the site, for a proposed house or pleasance, is lucky or not. (18) Advising on customary law. (19) Laying demons in a cemetery. (20) Laying ghosts. (21) Knowledge of the charms to be used when lodging in an earth house. (22) Snake charming. (23) The poison craft. (24) The scorpion craft. (25) The mouse craft. (26) The bird craft. (27) The crow craft. (28) Foretelling the number of years that a man has yet to live. (29) Giving charms to ward off arrows. (30) The animal wheel. Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts.” 22. Or he might say: “Whereas some recluses and Brahmans while living on food provided by the faithful, earn their living by wrong means of livelihood, by low arts, such as these: Knowledge of the signs of good and bad qualities in the following things, and of the marks in them denoting the health or luck of their owners: to wit, gems, staves, garments, swords, arrows, bows, other weapons, women, men, boys, girls, slaves, slave-girls, elephants, horses, buffaloes, bulls, oxen, goats, sheep, fowls, quails, iguanas, herrings, tortoises, and other animals. Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts.” 23. Or he might say: “Whereas some recluses and Brahmans, while living on food provided by the faithful, earn their living by

184 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES wrong means of livelihood by low arts, such as soothsaying to the effect that: The chiefs will march out. The home chiefs will attack, and the enemies retreat. The enemies’ chiefs will attack, and ours will retreat. The home chiefs will gain the victory, and ours will suffer defeat. The foreign chiefs will gain the victory on this side, and ours will suffer defeat. Thus will there be victory on this side, defeat on that. Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts.” 24. Or he might say: “Whereas some recluses and Brahmans, while living on food provided by the faithful, earn their living by wrong means of livelihood, by such low arts as foretelling: (1) There will be an eclipse of the Moon. (2) There wilt be an eclipse of the Sun. (3) There will be an eclipse of a Star (Nakshatra). (4) There will be aberration of the Sun or the Moon. (5) The Sun or the Moon will return to its usual path. (6) There will be aberrations of the Stars. (7) The Stars will return to their usual course. (8) There will be a fall of meteors. (9) There will be a jungle fire. (10) There will be an earthquake. (11) The God will thunder. (12-15) There will be rising and setting, clearness and dimness of the Sun or the Moon or the stars, or foretelling of each of these fifteen phenomena that they will betoken such and such a result.” Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts. 25. Or he might say: “Whereas some recluses and Brahmans, while living on food provided by the faithful, earn their living by wrong means of the livelihood, by low arts, such as these: Foretelling an abundant rainfall. Foretelling a deficient rainfall. Foretelling a good harvest. Foretelling scarcity of food. Foretelling tranquility. Foretelling disturbances. Foretelling a pestilence. Foretelling a healthy season. Counting on the fingers. Counting without using the fingers. Summing up large totals.

185 REFORMERS AND THEIR FATE Composing ballads, poetizing. Casuistry, sophistry. Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts.” 26. Or he might say: “Whereas some recluses and Brahmans, while living on food provided by the faithful, earn their living by wrong means of livelihood, by low arts, such as: (1) Arranging a lucky day for marriages in which the bride or bridegroom is brought home. (2) Arranging a lucky day for marriages in which the bride or bridegroom is sent forth. (3) Fixing a lucky time for the conclusion of treaties of peace (or using charms to procure harmony) (4) Fixing a lucky time for the outbreak of hostilities (or using charms to make discord). (5) Fixing a lucky time for the calling in of debts (or charms for success in throwing dice). (6) Fixing a lucky time for the expenditure of money (or charms to bring ill luck to an opponent throwing dice). (7) Using charms to make people lucky. (8) Using charms to make people unlucky. (9) Using charms to procure abortion. (10) Incantations to keep a man’s jaws fixed. (11) Incantations to bring on dumbness. (12) Incantations to make a man throw up his hands. (13) Incantations to bring on deafness. (14) Obtaining oracular answers by means of the magic mirror. (15) Obtaining oracular answers through a girl possessed. (16) Obtaining oracular answers from a god. (17) The worship of the Sun. (18) The worship of the Great One. (19) Bringing forth flames from one’s mouth. (20) Invoking Siri, the goddess of Luck. Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts.” 27. Or he might say: “Whereas some recluses and Brahmans, while living on food provided by the faithful, earn their living by wrong means of livelihood, by low arts, such as these: (1) Vowing gifts to a god if a certain benefit be granted. (2) Praying such vows. (3) Repeating charms while lodging in an earth house. (4) Causing virility. (5) Making a man impotent. (6) Fixing on lucky sites for dwellings.

186 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES (7) Consecrating sites. (8) Ceremonial rinsings of the mouth. (9) Ceremonial bathings. (10) Offering sacrifices. (11-14) Administering emetics and purgatives. (15) Purging people to relieve the head (that is by giving drugs to make people sneeze). (16) Oiling people’s ears (either to make them grow or to heal sores on them). (17) Satisfying people’s eyes (soothing them by dropping medicinal oils into them). (18) Administering drugs through the nose. (19) Applying collyrium to the eyes. (20) Giving medical ointment for the eyes. (21) Practising as an oculist. (22) Practising as a surgeon. (23) Practising as a doctor for children. (24) Administering roots and drugs. (25) Administering medicines in rotation. Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such low arts.” ‘These brethren, are the trifling matters, the minor details of morality, of which the unconverted man, when praising the Tathagata, might speak.’ ….. Here end the Long Paragraphs on Conduct. III This was indeed the highest standard for a moral life for an individual to follow. So high a standard of moral life was quite unknown to the Aryan Society of his day. He did not stop merely with setting an example by leading a life of purity. He also wanted to mould the character of the ordinary men and women in society. For their guidance he devised a form of baptism which was quite unknown to the Aryan Society. The baptism consisted in the convert to Buddhism undertaking to observe certain moral precepts laid down by Buddha. These precepts are known as Panch Sila or the five precepts. They are; (1) Not to kill, (2) Not to steal, (3) Not to lie, (4) Not to be unchaste and (5) Not to drink intoxicants. These five precepts were of the laity. For the Monks there were five additional precepts: (6) Not to eat at forbidden times, (7) Not to dance, sing, or attend theatrical or other spectacles, (8) To abstain from the use of garlands, scents, and ornaments, (9) To abstain from the use of high or broad beds, and (10) Never to receive money.

187 REFORMERS AND THEIR FATE These Silas or precepts formed the moral code which it was intended should regulate the thoughts and actions of men and women. Of these the most important one was the precept not to kill. Buddha took care to make it clear that the precept did not merely mean abstension from taking life. He insisted that the precept must be understood to mean positive sympathy, good will, and love for everything that breathes…… He gave the same positives and extended content to other precepts. One of the Buddha’s lay followers once reported to him the teaching of a non-Buddhist ascetic, to the effect that the highest ideal consisted in the absence of evil deeds, evil words, evil thoughts, and evil life. The Buddha’s conment upon this is significant. “If, said he, “this were true, then every suckling child would have attained the ideal of life….. life is knowledge of good and evil; and after that the exchange of evil deeds, words, thoughts, and life, for good ones. This is to be brought about only by a long and determined effort of the will”……. Buddha’s teachings were not merely negative. They are positive and constructive. Buddha was not satisfied with a man following his precepts. He insisted upon encouraging others to follow them. For example in the Auguttara Nikaya the Buddha is quoted as distinguishing between a good man and a very good man by saying that one who abstains from killing, stealing, unchastity, lying and drunkenness may be called good; but only he deserves to be called very good who abstains from these evil things himself and also instigates others to do the like…… As has been well said the two cardinal virtues of Buddhism are love and wisdom. How deeply he inculcated the practice of love as a virtue is clear from his own words. “As a mother at the risk of her life watches over her own child, her only child, so also let every one cultivate a boundless loving mind towards all beings. And let him cultivate good will towards, all the world, a boundless (loving) mind above and below and across, unobstructed, without hatred, without enmity. This way of living is the best in the world.” So taught Buddha 1. “Universal pity, sympathy for all suffering beings, good will to every form of sentient life, these things characterized the Tathagath (Buddha) as they have few others of the sons of men; and he succeeded in a most surprizing degree in handing on his point of view to his followers.” 2 1 Sutta Nipata. 2 Pratt—Buddhism, p. 49.