z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 04.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 243
WHAT IS DHAMMA ?
243
To overcome these difficulties the thesis has been somewhat modified.
It is said : no doubt creation took effect at the command of God. It is also true that the cosmos entered upon its life by his will and by his direction. It is also true that He imparted to the cosmos once for all the energy which served as the driving power of a stupendous mechanism.
But God leaves it to Nature to work itself out in obedience to the laws originally given by him.
So that if the moral order fails to work out as expected by God, the fault is of Nature and not of God.
Even this modification in the theory does not solve the difficulty. It only helps to exonerate God from his responsibility. For the question remains, why should God leave it to Nature to execute His laws ? What is the use of such an absentee God ?
The answer which the Buddha gave to the question,—“How is moral order maintained?” is totally different.
His answer was simple. “It is the Kamma Niyam and not God which maintains the moral order in the universe.” That was the Buddha’s answer to the question.
The moral order of the universe may be good or it may be bad. But according to the Buddha the moral order rests on man and on nobody else.
“Kamma means man’s action and Vipaka is its effect. If the moral order is bad it is because man does Akusala (Bad) Kamma. If the moral order is good it is because man does Kusala (Good) Kamma.
The Buddha was not content with merely speaking of Kamma. He spoke of the law of Kamma which is another name for Kamma Niyam.
By speaking of the law of Kamma what the Buddha wanted to convey was that the effect of the deed was bound to follow the deed, as surely as night follows day. It was like a Niyam or rule.
No one could fail to benefit by the good effects of a Kusala Kamma and no one could escape the evil effects of Akusala Kamma.
III