z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 02.indd MK SJ+YS 4 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 83
THE BUDDHA AND HIS PREDECESSORS
83
then to derive from it this world as a whole by giving it an inherent power of movement. If water be the primitive substance which is endowed with the inherent principle of change, we have yet to account for that from which water derived its being, and derived the motive power, the generating principle, the elemental forces, the laws and all the rest.
Vishvakarman held the view that it was God which was the motive power. God is first and God is last. He is earlier than the visible universe ; he had existed before all cosmic forces came into being. He is the sole God who created and ordained this universe. God is one, and the only one. He is the unborn one (aja) in whom all the existing things abide. He is the one who is mighty in mind and supreme in power. He is the maker—the disposer. As father he generated us, and as disposer he knows the fate of all that is.
The Buddha did not regard all the Vedic Sages as worthy of reverence. He regarded just ten Vedic Rishis as the most ancient and as the real authors of the Mantras.
But in the Mantras he saw nothing that was morally elevating.
In his view the Vedas were as worthless as a desert.
The Buddha, therefore, discarded the Mantras as a source from which to learn or to borrow.
Similarly, the Buddha did not find anything in the philosophy of the Vedic Rishis. They were groping to reach the truth. But they had not reached it.
Their theories were mere speculations not based on logic nor on facts. Their contributions to philosophy created no social values.
He therefore rejected the philosophy of the Vedic Rishis as useless.
§2. Kapila-The Philosopher
- Among the ancient philosophers of India the most pre-eminent was Kapila.
I