A piece of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Writings
Recently, I read an essay written by baba saheb, Wherein he compares Buddhism with Marxism, Though Marx and Buddha are divided by 2381 years. Lord Buddha was born in 563 BC and Karl Marx in 1818 AD.
In this essay, his understanding of Buddhism's tenets is mentioned. What is Buddhism according to the baba saheb is fascinating to read and understand.
I'm quoting his words below:
1. Religion is necessary for a free Society.
2. Not every Religion is worth having.
3. Religion must relate to facts of life and not to theories and
speculations about God, or Soul, or Heaven, or Earth.
4. It is wrong to make God the center of Religion.
5. It is wrong to make the salvation of the soul the center of Religion.
6. It is wrong to make animal sacrifices to be the center of religion.
7. Real Religion lives in the heart of man and not in the Shastras.
8. Man and morality must be the center of Religion. If not, Religion
is a cruel superstition.
9. It is not enough for Morality to be the ideal of life. Since there is
no God it must become the law of life.
10. The function of Religion is to reconstruct the world and to make
it happy and not to explain its origin or its end.
11. That the unhappiness in the world is due to conflict of interest
and the only way to solve it is to follow the Ashtanga Marga.
12. That private ownership of property brings power to one class and
sorrow to another.
13. That it is necessary for the good of Society that this sorrow be
removed by removing its cause.
14. All human beings are equal.
15. Worth and not birth is the measure of the man.
16. What is important is high ideals and not noble birth.
17. Maitri or fellowship towards all must never be abandoned. One
owes it even to one’s enemy.
18. Everyone has a right to learn. Learning is as necessary for man
to live as food is.
19. Learning without character is dangerous.
20. Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is
subject to inquiry and examination.
21. Nothing is final.
22. Everything is subject to the law of causation.
23. Nothing is permanent or Sanatan. Everything is subject to change.
Being is always Becoming.
24. War is wrong unless it is for truth and justice.
25. The victor has duties towards the vanquished.
"This is the creed of the Buddha in a summary form. How ancient but
how fresh! How wide and how deep are his teachings!"
