z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 04.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 271
WHAT IS NOT—DHAMMA
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shall I then be ? (8) How shall I then be ? (9) From what shall I pass to what ? Or, again, it is Self today about which he is in doubt, asking himself—(1) Am I ?
(2) Am I not ? (3) What am I, (4) How am I, (5) Whence came my being ? (6) Whither will it pass ? ”
Others raised the question regarding the origin of the Universe.
Some said it was created by Brahma.
Others said it was created by Prajapati sacrificing himself.
Other teachers had other questions to raise : “The world is everlasting,—the world is not everlasting— the world is finite,—the world is infinite, the body is the life (jiva),—the body is the one thing and the life another,—truth-finder exists after death,—a truth-finder does not exist after death,—he both exists and does not exist after death,—he neither exists nor does not exist after death.”
These were questions which the Buddha said could be asked by wrong-headed persons.
There were three reasons why the Buddha condemned these religious theories.
In the first place, there was no reason to make them, part of religion.
In the second place, to answer these questions required omniscience which nobody had. He emphasised this in his addresses.
He said that at one and the same time, no one can know and see everything. Knowledge is never final. There is always something more to be known.
The third argument against these theories was that they were merely speculative. They are not verified nor are they verifiable.
They were the result of imagination let loose. There was no reality behind them.
Besides of what good were these speculative theories to man in his relation to men ? None whatever.
The Buddha did not believe that the world was created. He believed that the world had evolved.
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