CHAPTER III.

This idea, that by adopting the life of a mendiThe way of de- cant, he could finally escape from the miseries of existence, is said to have gladdened the heart of the young prince. According to the legend, each of the three preceding objects had struck him with sadness, and on each occasion he had turned back gloomily to his own apartments. But the sight of the calm and subdued mendicant seemed to lift a weight from his soul. He saw a way of deliverance from all his cares, and instead of returning to the palace, he drove on to the royal gardens without the city, and passed the day in pleasure. In the evening the musicians prepared to accompany him in procession to the palace, and he had just taken his seat in the chariot, when a messenger from his father brought the joyful tidings that his wife Yasodhará had given birth to a son. The multitude filled the air with acclamations, but he himself began to ponder upon the new tie which seemed to bind him to the world. He reached the palace weary with the events of the day, and lay upon his couch. A bevy of damsels danced and played before him according to their wont, but he was

dhism, who, as will be described hereafter, was seeking to escape from the miseries of successive existences or transmigrations into the state of annihilation known as Nirvana. It would thus seem to imply that Buddhist mendicant monks existed in India long before the advent of Gótama Buddha. This conclusion is highly probable; although religious mendicancy is common to other oriental religions, to Brahmanism and Islam, as well as to Buddhism.

But the reputation of Gótama Buddha, as the great apostle of humanity, does not rest so much upon his being the founder of a monastic order; for that order may have existed in some form or other for ages before he was born; but upon his being the teacher of the religion of the heart, which springs from the affections, in which the happiness of mankind, both in this life and in the life hereafter, is made to depend upon his goodness or benevolence. This fact has been ignored by monastic writers, who sought only to abstract themselves from the affections in order to attain Nirvána. A familiarity with the Buddhist laity will correct any non-apprehension on this point, especially when the edicts of Priyadarsi are taken into consideration. See infra, chap. 5.

steeled against all their attractions, and soon fell CHAPTER III. into a heavy slumber.

the palace.

At midnight Gótama awoke. The lamps were The flight from still burning. The damsels were sleeping about in ungainly attitudes, open-mouthed, or gnashing their teeth. He rose up in utter disgust, and ordered his horse to be made ready. He peeped into his wife's chamber, and saw his infant son resting upon her bosom. He turned away lest his resolution should fail him, and descended the palace stairs, mounted his horse, and rode off with only a single attendant until he reached a small stream. Here he made over his horse to his attendant, together with his royal robes and ornaments, and sent them back to Kapila; whilst he himself put on the yellow garb of a religious mendicant, and prepared for the new life which he was about to enter.

tween Gótama

med.

The religious culture of Gótama thus presents a Contrast bemarked contrast to that of Mohammed. One was and Mohamintellectual and spiritual; the other was sentimental and intensely human. The benevolence of Gótama took the form of a passionate yearning to deliver mankind from its hopeless imprisonment in an eternity of transmigrations; 16 and according to the Brahmanical teaching of the time, a life of celibacy and mortification was the first and all-essential step in this direction. The pleasures of female society were supposed to be the most powerful obstacles to religious progress; the deadliest of all the sins that enthralled the soul in the universe of the passions.

16 There is some obscurity about this early yearning of Gótama to deliver mankind from the miseries of existence. It is undoubtedly the belief of modern Buddhism, and finds expression in every part of the legend of the life of Gótama. But it is plain from the sequel that for some years Gótama only sought to work out his own deliverance.

CHAPTER III. The culture of Mohammed was altogether different. His conception of God was that of deified humanity; merciful and compassionate to all who worshipped him, but wrathful and revengeful towards all those who disobeyed his laws or followed after other gods. The idea that the love of women was injurious to the soul never crossed the mind of the old Arab prophet. On the contrary, the sympathy and companionship of women were the mainstay of his religion, and thus the Koran and polygamy went on hand in hand.

Gótama commences his

career as a mendicant.

The legend of the life of Gótama is not very clear or connected, but there is little difficulty in tracing the several stages of his religious development. At first he abandoned himself to a kind of pious ecstasy, which may have been little more than a sense of freedom. He then made his way to Rajagriha, the old metropolis of Magadha, which was situated to the south of the Ganges, not far from the modern town of Behar, and about two hundred miles from the supposed site of Kapila. He thus placed a distance of several days' journey between his father's Raj and his new career; probably from a natural reluctance to commence the life of a religious mendicant in a country where he would be at once recognized. At Rajagriha, some rumours of his royal birth may have accompanied him; and henceforth he seems to have lost his name of Gótama, and was chiefly known as Sákya Muni, or the sage of the family of Sakyas. His life of mendicancy met with a check at the commencement. At Rajagriha he carried his alms bowl from house to house for the first time, and collected in this manner a quantity of broken victuals; but

when he sat down to his meal the food appeared CHAPTER III. so coarse that he loathed the sight of it. It was a moment of hard trial to the religious enthusiast, but at length he overcame his disgust, and finished his meal with cheerfulness of soul. According to the legend, he was encouraged by the reflection that the food was at least clean and pure; and it is not impossible that the pangs of hunger contributed to this pious frame of mind."

culture of Gó

Sákya Muni had thus escaped from the bondage Brahmanical of the flesh; but the first exultations of freedom tama. were doubtless followed by a reaction. The mere fact that he had ceased to be a prince, and had assumed the life of a beggar, could not have satisfied his religious aspirations; and he would feel the necessity for acquiring knowledge from some one more advanced in spiritual experience. At that time the only religious teachers in Hindustan were apparently Bráhman sages, or preceptors; and Sákya Muni was destined to undergo a severe course of Brahmanical training, before he finally appeared before the world as a "Buddha," or enlightener of men. The conditions of such a religious life in India have been characterized by extreme simplicity from time immemorial. A would-be disciple waited upon some distinguished sage, served him in every way, collected food and alms for him, and in return received a course of religious instruction which continued day by day. It will be seen hereafter that the foundations of Brahmanism and Buddhism are almost

17 There is one difficulty about this period of Gótama's career. He had apparently no means by which to support himself during the lengthy journey from Kapila to Rajagriha. It appears, however, from a later incident in his life, that he carried away four golden cups or vases, which belonged to him as crown prince, and which were ultimately demanded by his son Rahula.

tween the Brah

manism of the

sages and the Buddhism of the monks.

CHAPTER III. the same. As regards faith, both were reactions' Distinction be- from the primitive religions, which were more or less associated with feasting. As regards practice, both were reactions from the unbounded sensual indulgences, which form such a prominent feature in ancient civilization. Again, both had accepted the dogma of the transmigrations of the soul; and both expressed the consciousness of pain and misery, the weariness of existence, the impatience of humanity, which culminated in a longing to escape from the sphere of animal being. But the Brahmanism of the sages and the Buddhism of the monks represented two different stages of development. The Brahmanism of the sages, as already seen, retained the worship of deity although in an abstract form. It resolved all the gods of the universe into the supreme spirit. It taught that escape from the chain of transmigrations consisted in the return of the individual soul to Bráhma; there to be absorbed in the supreme spirit, or to enter upon an individual existence in the heaven of the supreme spirit; and in either case to enjoy ineffable but indefinable felicity. Finally, it declared that this deliverance of the soul could only be effected by worship and austerities, and by contemplation of the supreme spirit in its varied manifestations, until the soul was prepared as it were to form a part of the supreme spirit. The Buddhism of the monks had advanced much further. It was a far more emphatic expression of the revolt against the old theology; so much so as to amount to a revolt against even the higher forms of Brahmanism. It rejected all conception of supreme deity. It taught that worship and austerities, prayers and sacrifices, were