z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 04.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 238
238 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
- “Thus spoke the Lord, who thereupon rose and passed to his own cell.
III
“Sariputta remained behind and the brethren asked him to explain what is Nibbana.
“Then Sariputta in reply to the brethren said : ‘Brethren, know ye that greed is vile, and vile is resentment.
“ ‘ To shed this greed and this resentment, there is the Middle Way which gives us eyes to see and makes us know, leading us on to peace, insight, enlightenment and Nibbana.
“ ‘ What is this Middle Way ? It is naught but the Noble Eightfold Path of right outlook, right aims, right speech, right action, right means of livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration; this, almsmen is the Middle Way.
“ ‘ Yes, sirs: anger is vile and malevolence is vile, envy and jealousy are vile, niggardliness and avarice are vile, hypocrisy and deceit and arrogance are vile, inflation is vile, and indolence is vile.
“ ‘ For the shedding of inflation and indolence there is the Middle Way—giving us eyes to see, making us know, and leading us on to peace, insight, enlightenment.
“ ‘ Nibbana which is naught but that Noble Eightfold Path.’ ”
Thus spoke the revered Sariputta—Glad at heart, the almsmen rejoiced at what he had said.
That the idea underlying Nibbana is that it is the path of righteousness. No one will mistake Nibbana for anything else.
Complete annihilation is one extreme and Parinibbana is another extreme. Nibbana is the Middle Way.
So understood all confusion about Nibbana will disappear.
§ 4. To Give up Craving is Dhamma
- In the Dhammapada the Buddha says: “There is no greater benefit that, health and there is