z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 03.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 147
CONVERSION OF THE HIGH AND THE HOLY
147
who was married to the guild master of Rajagraha.
When he arrived he found the guild master preparing a meal for the Lord and his monks on so great a scale that he thought that a wedding was in progress or that the king had been invited.
On learning the truth he became very eager to visit the Lord and he set out in the very night to meet the Blessed One.
And the Blessed One saw at once the sterling quality of Anathapindika’s heart and greeted him with words of comfort. After taking his seat Anathapindika expressed a desire to hear a discourse on some religious subject.
The Blessed Lord responding to his wishes raised the question, “Who is it that shapes our lives ? Is it Ishavara, a personal creator ? If Ishavara be the maker, all living things should have silently to submit to their maker’s power. They would be like vessels formed by the potter’s hand. If the world had been made by Ishavara there should be no such thing as sorrow, or calamity, or sin ; for both pure and impure deeds must come from him. If not, there would be another cause beside him, and he would not be the self-existent one. Thus, you see, the thought of Ishavara is overthrown.
“Again, it is said that the Absolute cannot be a cause. All things around us come from a cause as the plant comes from the seed; how can the Absolute be the cause of all things alike ? If it pervades them, then certainly it does not make them.
“Again, it is said that self is the maker. But if self is the maker, why did he not make things pleasing? The cases of sorrow and joy are real and objective. How can they have been made by self ?
“Again, if you adopt the argument, there is no maker, or fate in such as it is, and there is no causation, what use would there be in shaping our lives and adjusting means to an end ?
“Therefore, we argue that all things that exist are not without cause. However, neither Ishavara, nor the Absolute, nor the self, nor causeless chance, is
II