228 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
not open to blame in the world. And whosoever should blame such a one, his rebuke would be unjustifiable, not in accord either with the facts or with the truth, without good ground.’
- And when he had thus spoken, Lohikka the Brahman said to the Exalted One:
‘Just, Gotama, as if a man had caught hold of a man, falling over the precipitous edge of purgatory, by the hair of his head and lifted him up safe back on the firm land—just so have I, on the point of falling into purgatory, been lifted back on to the land by the Venerable Gotama. Most excellent, O Gotama, are the words of thy mouth, most excellent? Just as if a man were to set up what has been thrown down, or were to reveal what has been hidden away, or were to point out the right road to him who has gone astray, or were to bring a light into the darkness so that those who had eyes could see external forms—just even so has the truth been made known to me, in many a figure, by the Venerable Gotama. And I, even I, betake myself to the Venerable Gotama as my guide, to the Doctrine and to the Order. May the Venerable Gotama accept me as a disciple; as one who, from this day forth as long as life endures, has taken him as his guide!’
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