z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 06.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 435
THE BHIKKHU-THE BUDDHA’S CONCEPTION OF HIM
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Is the Bhikkhu to devote himself to self-culture or is he to serve the people and guide them ?
He must discharge both the functions.
Without self-culture he is not fit to guide. Therefore he must himself be a perfect, best man, righteous man and an enlightened man. For this he must practice self-culture.
A Bhikkhu leaves his home. But he does not retire from the world. He leaves home so that he may have the freedom and the opportunity to serve those who are attached to their homes but whose life is full of sorrow, misery and unhappiness and who cannot help themselves.
Compassion which is the essence of the Dhamma requires that every one shall love and serve and the Bhikkhu is not exempt from it.
A Bhikkhu who is indifferent to the woes of mankind, however perfect in self-culture, is not at all a Bhikkhu. He may be something else but he is not a Bhikkhu.
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