DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0289
Buddhism and Brahmanism
thought of a Mine, and with thy fever calmed, engage in
battle.”
Thus it is that even laymen may attain to perfect freedom,
in a life obedient to vocation, if only the activity be void
of motive and self-reference. The degree of bondage
implied in various environments depends entirely on
the outlook of the individual, and not on any good or bad
quality intrinsic in any thing or any status. Bondage and
deliverance are alike to be found in the home and in the
forest, and not more nor less in one than the other; every-
thing alike is Holy (in terms of Buddhism, ‘Void’), and
men and women are not less so than mountains or forests.
Above all, this reconciliation of religion with the world
is practically manifested in selfless obedience to vocation
{sva-dharmd); for notwithstanding this world is but a
Becoming, it has a meaning which cannot be fathomed
by those who turn their backs upon it in order to escape
from its pains and elude its pleasures.
Precisely the same crisis that we here speak of as dis-
tinguishing Buddhism from Brahmanism, is passed through
in the history of Brahmanism itself, and must, perhaps, be
passed over in the history of every school of thought that
attains to its full development. It had been held amongst
Brahmans, as it had been also for a time assumed by
Gautama, that salvation must be sought in penance
{tapas) and in the life of the hermit. Gautama intro-
duced no radical change1 in merely insisting on the futility
of carrying such disciplines to a morbid extreme. But in
1 Perhaps we ought to say no change at all, for it would be difficult to
point to any early or important Brahmanical text advocating a mental
and moral discipline more severe than that of the Buddhist Brethren ;
on the contrary, the Upanishads constantly insist that salvation
is won by knowledge alone, and that all else is merely preliminary.
213
thought of a Mine, and with thy fever calmed, engage in
battle.”
Thus it is that even laymen may attain to perfect freedom,
in a life obedient to vocation, if only the activity be void
of motive and self-reference. The degree of bondage
implied in various environments depends entirely on
the outlook of the individual, and not on any good or bad
quality intrinsic in any thing or any status. Bondage and
deliverance are alike to be found in the home and in the
forest, and not more nor less in one than the other; every-
thing alike is Holy (in terms of Buddhism, ‘Void’), and
men and women are not less so than mountains or forests.
Above all, this reconciliation of religion with the world
is practically manifested in selfless obedience to vocation
{sva-dharmd); for notwithstanding this world is but a
Becoming, it has a meaning which cannot be fathomed
by those who turn their backs upon it in order to escape
from its pains and elude its pleasures.
Precisely the same crisis that we here speak of as dis-
tinguishing Buddhism from Brahmanism, is passed through
in the history of Brahmanism itself, and must, perhaps, be
passed over in the history of every school of thought that
attains to its full development. It had been held amongst
Brahmans, as it had been also for a time assumed by
Gautama, that salvation must be sought in penance
{tapas) and in the life of the hermit. Gautama intro-
duced no radical change1 in merely insisting on the futility
of carrying such disciplines to a morbid extreme. But in
1 Perhaps we ought to say no change at all, for it would be difficult to
point to any early or important Brahmanical text advocating a mental
and moral discipline more severe than that of the Buddhist Brethren ;
on the contrary, the Upanishads constantly insist that salvation
is won by knowledge alone, and that all else is merely preliminary.
213