z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 09.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 580
580 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
VIII
“A discreet lay-brother, Mahanama, who is sick . . . should be cheered by another discreet lay-brother with the Four Comfortable Assurances, thus: ‘Take comfort, good sir, in the Norm, and in the Order of Brethren: likewise in the virtues dear to the Norm kept unbroken and unsoiled which tend to balance of mind.’
“Then, Mahanama, when a discreet lay-brother who is sick has thus been cheered with the Four Comfortable Assurances by another lay-brother, such should be the words of that other:
“Suppose the sick man should have a longing for his parents. Then if the sick man says, ‘I have a longing for my parents,’ the other should reply, ‘My dear good man, you are subject to death. Whether you have longing for your parents or not you will die. ‘Twere just as well for you to abandon all longing for your parents.’
“And suppose the sick man says, ‘that longing for my parents is now abandoned,’ then the other should say, ‘Yet my good sir, you still have a longing for your children. As you must die in any case, ‘twere just as well for you to abandon longing for your children.’
“And so also should he speak in respect of the five pleasures of the senses. Suppose the sick man says, ‘I have a longing for the five pleasures of sense,’ the other should say, ‘My friend, heavenly delights are more excellent than the five pleasures of sense, and more choice. Twere well for you to remove your mind from human joys and fix it on the joys of the Four Great Deva Kings.’
“Again, if the sick man say, ‘My mind is so fixed,’ let the other say, ‘Better to fix your mind on the Brahma world,’ And then if the sick man’s mind is so fixed, let the other say :
“ ‘My good sir, even the Brahma world is impermanent, not lasting, subject to personality. Well for you, dear sir, if you raise your mind above the Brahma world and concentrate on cessation from the personal.’