z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 04.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 272
272 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
§ 7. Reading Books of Dhamma is Not— Dhamma
III
The Brahmins put all their emphasis upon knowledge. They taught that knowledge was the be-all and end-all of every thing. Nothing further was to be considered.
The Buddha was on the other hand an upholder of education for all. Besides, he was more concerned with the use of knowledge a man is likely to make than with knowledge itself.
Consequently he was very particular to emphasize that he who has knowledge must have Sila (Virtue) and that knowledge without Sila (Virtue) was most dangerous.
The importance of Sila as against Prajna is well illustrated by what he told the Bhikku Patisena.
In olden times when Buddha was residing at Sravasti, there was an old mendicant called Patisena who being by nature cross and dull, could not learn so much as one Gatha by heart.
The Buddha accordingly ordered 500 Arahatas day by day to instruct him, but after three years he still was unable to remember even one Gatha.
Then all the peoples of the country (the four orders of people) knowing his ignorance, began to ridicule him, on which the Buddha, pitying his case, called him to his side, and gently repeated the following stanza : “He who guards his mouth, and restrains his thoughts, he who offends not with his body, the man who acts thus shall obtain deliverance.”
Then Patisena, moved by a sense of the Master’s goodness to him, felt his heart opened, and once he repeated the stanza.
The Buddha then addressed him further—“You now, an old man, can repeat a stanza only, and men know this, and they will still ridicule you, therefore, I will now explain the meaning of the verse to you, and do you on your part attentively listen.”
Then the Buddha declared the three causes connected with the body, the four connected with the