z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 05.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 390
390 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
IV
jani, that zeal and earnestness and righteousness are yours ?
“How can that be, when I have to support my parents, my wife and family, and my slaves and serving folk and have to entertain my acquaintances and friends, my kith and kin, and guests, and have also to provide for my kinsfolk dead and gone, and for the deities, and for the king not to speak of supporting myself in meat and drink ?”
“What think you, Dhananjani? If we suppose a man who, for his parents’ sake, has departed from righteousness and equity and is being hauled up would it avail him either to plead on his own behalf that it was for his parents’ sake that he had departed from righteousness and equity and that therefore he should not be hauled up ?”
“No ; despite all appeals, the wardens would cast him into prison.”
“Would it avail him either to plead on his own behalf, or to have his wife and family plead for him, that it was for their sake he had departed from righteousness and equity ?”
“No.”
“Would it avail him if his slaves and serving folk pleaded for him ?”
“Not a whit.”
“Or if his friends and acquaintances pleaded for him ?”
“Not a whit.”
“Or if his kith and kin, or his guests pleaded for him ?”
“Not a whit.”
“Or if his kinsfolk dead and gone, pleaded the claims of his deities, or his monarch’s claims on him ?”
“Not a whit.”
“Would it avail him to plead on his own behalf or to have others pleading for him that it was to support himself in meat and drink that he departed from righteousness and equity ?”
“No.”