DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0117
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
mendicants, who, animated by excessive enthusiasm, have at-
tempted to carry certain points of the Hindoo system farther
than the regular Hindoos, particularly those which respect
severe mortifications. Nanukii and Choi til nyii were less rigid,
and do not seem to have pressed the importance of religious
austerities. Booddhii and Rishubhu-deVii evidently adhered to
the systems of those Hindoo philosophers who were atheists11.
Both these systems are comprised in two or three doctrines :
—the world is eternal, and possesses in itself the energy which
gives rise to what we call creation, preservation, and resuscita-
tion ; religion (Dhiirmu) regulates all states, and is in fact what
Christians call providence, connected with absolute predestina-
tion ; the person who acquires the greatest portion of dhurmu
becomes a personification of religion, procures happiness for
himself, and deserves the worship of others. Amongst all excel-
lent qualities, compassion is the cardinal virtue, especially as
manifested in a rigid care not to hurt or destroy sentient beings.
Without abating an atom of our abhorrence and contempt of
a scheme of religion which excludes a God, it is a singular
feature of this system of atheism, that it has placed the sceptre
of universal government in an imagined being under the name
of Religion; or, to speak more correctly, in the hands of two
beings, Religion and Irreligion, who have the power of reward-
ing and punishing the virtuous and the vicious. In short, these
heresiarchs have not promulgated a system of atheism, without
making some provision for the interests of morality in their
way; and if the idea of punishment alone would make men
virtuous, a Bouddhii and a Joinii might attain a place in the
niche of fame not much below thousands who believe in a First
Cause.
1 The Shree-bhagtivutii mentions Booddhii as the son of Unjfuiii, °^
Keekfitfi; and that Charvvakti, a celebrated atheist, embraced and pub-
lished the real opinions of Booddhii. See Shrte-bhagiivfitn, chap. i.
sect. 3.
mendicants, who, animated by excessive enthusiasm, have at-
tempted to carry certain points of the Hindoo system farther
than the regular Hindoos, particularly those which respect
severe mortifications. Nanukii and Choi til nyii were less rigid,
and do not seem to have pressed the importance of religious
austerities. Booddhii and Rishubhu-deVii evidently adhered to
the systems of those Hindoo philosophers who were atheists11.
Both these systems are comprised in two or three doctrines :
—the world is eternal, and possesses in itself the energy which
gives rise to what we call creation, preservation, and resuscita-
tion ; religion (Dhiirmu) regulates all states, and is in fact what
Christians call providence, connected with absolute predestina-
tion ; the person who acquires the greatest portion of dhurmu
becomes a personification of religion, procures happiness for
himself, and deserves the worship of others. Amongst all excel-
lent qualities, compassion is the cardinal virtue, especially as
manifested in a rigid care not to hurt or destroy sentient beings.
Without abating an atom of our abhorrence and contempt of
a scheme of religion which excludes a God, it is a singular
feature of this system of atheism, that it has placed the sceptre
of universal government in an imagined being under the name
of Religion; or, to speak more correctly, in the hands of two
beings, Religion and Irreligion, who have the power of reward-
ing and punishing the virtuous and the vicious. In short, these
heresiarchs have not promulgated a system of atheism, without
making some provision for the interests of morality in their
way; and if the idea of punishment alone would make men
virtuous, a Bouddhii and a Joinii might attain a place in the
niche of fame not much below thousands who believe in a First
Cause.
1 The Shree-bhagtivutii mentions Booddhii as the son of Unjfuiii, °^
Keekfitfi; and that Charvvakti, a celebrated atheist, embraced and pub-
lished the real opinions of Booddhii. See Shrte-bhagiivfitn, chap. i.
sect. 3.