 Section 9 of Hinduism and Buddhism and Historical Sketch, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Hinduism and Buddhism and Historical Sketch, Volume 1 by Charles Elliott. European Influence and Modern Hinduism The small effect of European religion on Hinduism is remarkable. Islam, though aggressively hostile, yet fused with it in some sects, for instance, the Sikhs, but such fusions of Indian religion and Christianity as have been noted are microscopic curiosities. Footnote 29. The Qadianis and Chetramis in the northwest provinces are mentioned, but even here the fusion seems to be chiefly between Islam and Christianity. See also the article Rada Soarai in E.R.E. End footnote. European free thought and deism have not fared better, for the Brahmo Samaj which was founded under their inspiration has only 5,504 adherents. Footnote 30. According to the census of 1911. End footnote. In social life there has been some change. Cast restrictions, though not abolished, are evaded by ingenious subterfuges and there is a growing feeling against child marriage. Yet were the laws against satai and human sacrifice repealed, there are many districts in which such practices would not be forbidden by popular sentiment. It is easy to explain the insensibility of Hinduism to European contact. Even Islam had little effect on its stubborn vitality, though Islam brought with it settlers and resident rulers ready to make converts by force. But the British have shown perfect toleration and are merely sojourners in the land who spend their youth and age elsewhere. European exclusiveness and Indian ideas about caste alike made it natural to regard them as an isolated class charged with the business of government but divorced from the intellectual and religious life of other classes. Previous experience of Muslims and other invaders disposed the Brahmins to accept foreigners as rulers without admitting that their creeds and customs were in the least worthy of imitation. European methods of organization and advertisement have not however been disdained. The last half century has witnessed a remarkable revival of Hinduism. In the previous decades the most conspicuous force in India, although numerically weak, was the already mentioned Brahmo Samaj founded by Ram Mohun Roy in 1828. But it was colorless and wanting in constructive power. Educated opinion, at least in Bengal, seemed to be tending towards agnosticism and social revolution. This tendency was checked by a conservative and nationalist movement which in all its varied phases gave support to Indian religion and was intolerant of European ideas. It had a political side, but there was nothing disloyal in its main idea, namely that in the intellectual and religious sphere where Indian life is most intense, Indian ideas must not decay. No one who has known India during the last 30 years can have failed to notice how many new temples have been built and how many old ones repaired. Almost all the principal sects have founded associations to protect and extend their interests by such means as financial and administrative organization, the publication of periodicals and other literature, annual conferences, lectures and the foundation of religious houses or quasi-monastic orders. Several societies have been founded not restricted to any particular sect but with the avowed object of defending and promoting strict Hinduism. Among such, the most important are, first, the Bharat Dharma Mahamandala under the distinguished presidency of the Maharaja of Darbanka. Secondly, the movement started by Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda and adorned by the beautiful life and writings of sister Nivedita, Miss Noble. And thirdly, the Theosophical Society under the leadership of Mrs. Besant. It is remarkable that Europeans, both men and women, have played a considerable part in this revival. All these organizations are influential. The two latter have done great service in defending and encouraging Hinduism, but I am less sure of their success in mingling eastern and western ideas or in popularizing Hinduism among Europeans. Somewhat different but described by the census of 1911 as the greatest religious movement in India of the past half century is the Arya Samaj, founded in 1875 by Swami Dayanand. Whereas the movements mentioned above support Sanatana Dharma or Orthodox Hinduism in all its shapes, the Arya Samaj aims at reform. Its original program was a revival of the ancient Vedic religion but it has since been perceptibly modified and tends toward conciliating contemporary orthodoxy for it now prohibits the slaughter of cattle, accords of partial recognition to caste, affirms its belief in karma and, apparently, approves a form of the yoga philosophy. Though it is not yet accepted as a form of orthodox Hinduism, it seems probable that concessions on both sides will produce this result before long. It numbers at present only about a quarter of a million but is said to be rapidly increasing, especially in the United provinces and Punjab and to be remarkable for the completeness and efficiency of its organization. It maintains missionary colleges, orphanages and schools. Affiliated to it is a society for the purification, shuddhi of Mohammedans, Christians and outcasts, that is, for turning them into Hindus and giving them some kind of caste. It would appear that those who undergo this purification do not always become members of the Samaj but are merged in the ordinary Hindu community where they are accepted without opposition if also without enthusiasm. End of Section 9 Recording by Linda Johnson Section 10 of Hinduism and Buddhism An Historical Sketch, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Hinduism and Buddhism An Historical Sketch, Volume 1 by Charles Elliott Change and Permanence in Buddhism Thus we have a record of Indian thought for about 3,000 years. It has directly affected such distant points as Bulk, Java and Japan and it is still living and active. But life and action mean change and such wide extension in time and space implies variety. We talk of converting foreign countries but the religion, which is transplanted also undergoes conversion or else it cannot enter new brains and hearts. Buddhism and Cylon and Japan Christianity in Scotland and Russia are not the same although professing to reverence the same teachers. It is easy to argue the other way but it can only be done by setting aside as non-essential differences of great practical importance. Europeans are ready enough to admit that Buddhism is changeable and easily corrupted but it is not singular in that respect. Footnote 31 There are curious survivals of paganism in out-of-the-way forms of Christianity and thus animal sacrifices are not extinct among Armenians and Nestorians. See E.R.E. article, Prayer for the Dead at the End. End. Footnote. I doubt if Lhasa and Tantrism are further from the teaching of Gotama than the papacy, the inquisition and the religion of the German emperor from the teaching of Christ. A religion is the expression of the thought of a particular age and cannot really be permanent in other ages which have other thoughts. The apparent permanence of Christianity is due, first, to the suppression of much original teaching such as Christ's turning the cheat to the smiter and Paul's belief in the coming end of the world and secondly to the adoption of new social ideals which have no place in the New Testament such as the abolition of slavery and the improved status of women. Buddhism arising out of Brahmanism suggests a comparison with Christianity arising out of Judaism but the comparison breaks down in most points of detail but there is one real resemblance namely that Buddhism and Christianity have both won their greatest triumphs outside the land of their birth. The flowers of the mind, if they can be transplanted at all, often flourish with special vigor on alien soil. Witness the triumphs of Islam in the hands of the Turks and Mughals, the progress of Nestorianism in Central Asia and the spread of Manichaeism in both the East and West outside the limits of Persia. Lamaism in Tibet and Amadism in Japan though scholars may regard them as singular perversions have more vitality than any branch of Buddhism which has existed in India since the 7th century but even here the parallel with Christian sects is imperfect. It would be more complete if Palestine had been the center from which different phases of Christianity radiated during some 12 centuries for this is the relation between Indian and foreign Buddhism. Lamaism is not the teaching of the Buddha travestied by Tibetans but a late form of Indian Buddhism exported to Tibet and modified there in some external features such as ecclesiastical organization and art but not differing greatly in doctrine from Bengali Buddhism of the 11th century and even Amadism appears to have originated not in the Far East but in Gandhara and the adjacent lands. Thus the many varieties of Buddhism now existing are due partly to local color but even more to the workings of the restless Hindu mind which during many centuries after the Christian era continued to invent for it novelties in metaphysics and mythology. The preservation of a very ancient form of Buddhism in Cylon is truly remarkable for if in many countries Buddhism has shown itself fluid and protein it here manifests a stability which can hardly be paralleled except in Judaism. Footnote 32 The Buddhism of Siam and Burma is similar but in Siam it is a medieval importation and the early religious history of Burma is still obscure. End footnote The Sinhalese, unlike the Hindus had no native propensity to speculation. They were content to classify, summarize and expound the teaching of the Pitakas without restating it in the light of their own imagination. Whereas the most stable form of Christianity is the Church of Rome which began by making considerable additions to the doctrine of the New Testament the most stable form of Buddhism is neither a transformation of the old nor a protest against innovation but simply the continuation of a very ancient sect in strange lands. Footnote 33 Although stability is characteristic of the Hinayana, its later literature shows a certain movement of thought phases of which are marked by the questions of Melinda, Budagosa's works and the Abhidhamatha Sangaha. End footnote This ancient Buddhism, like Islam which is also simple and stable is somewhat open to the charge of engaging in disputes about trivial details like in Sailan, Burma and Siam it has not only shown remarkable persistence but has become a truly national religion the glory and comfort of those who profess it. Footnote 34 Example, the way a monastic robe should be worn and the seema. End footnote End of section 10 Recording by Linda Johnson Section 11 of Hinduism and Buddhism An Historical Sketch, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hinduism and Buddhism An Historical Sketch, Volume 1 Rebirth and the Nature of the Soul The most characteristic doctrine of Indian religion rarely absent in India and imported by Buddhism into all the countries which it influenced is that called metempsychosis the transmigration of the soul or reincarnation. The last of these terms best expresses Indian but still the usual Sanskrit equivalent samsara means migration. The body breaks up at death but something passes on and migrates to another equally transitory tenement. Neither Brahmins nor Buddhists seem to contemplate the possibility that the human soul may be a temporary manifestation of the eternal spirit which comes to an end at death. A leaf on a tree or a momentary ripple on the water. It is always regarded as passing through many births a wave traversing the ocean. Hindu speculation has never passed through the materialistic phase and the doctrine that the soul is annihilated at death is extremely rare in India. Even rarer perhaps is the doctrine that enters on a permanent existence happy or otherwise. The idea underlying the transmigration theory is that every state which we call existence must come to an end. If the soul can be isolated from all the accidents and accessories attaching to it then there may be a state of permanence and peace but not a state comparable with human existence however enlarged and glorified. But why does not this conviction of impermanence lead to the simpler conclusion that the end of physical life is the end of all life? Because the Hindus have an equally strong conviction of continuity. Everything passes away and changes but it is not true to say of anything or passes into nothing. If human organisms or any other organisms are mere machines if there is nothing more to be said about a corpse than about a smashed watch then the Hindu thinks the universe is not continuous. Its continuity means for him that there is something which eternally manifests itself in perishable forms and perish with them any more than water when a pitcher is broken or fire that passes from the wood it has consumed to fresh fuel. These metaphors suggest that the doctrine of transmigration or reincarnation does not promise what we call personal immortality. I confess that I cannot understand how there can be personality in the ordinary sense without a body. When we think of a friend we think of a body and a character, thoughts and feelings all of them connected with that body and many of them conditioned by it. But the immortal soul is commonly esteemed to be something equally present in a newborn babe, a youth and an old man. If so it cannot be a personality in the ordinary sense for no one could recognize the spirit of a departed friend if it is something which was present in him the day he was born and different from all the characteristics which he acquired during life. The belief that we shall recognize our friends in another world assumes that these characteristics are immortal but it is hard to understand how they can be so in one way as it is also assumed that there is nothing immortal in a dog which possesses affection and intelligence but that there is something immortal in a newborn infant which cannot be said to possess either. In one way metempsychosis raises insuperable difficulties to the survival of personality for if you become someone else, especially an animal you no longer yourself according to any ordinary use of language. But one of the principle forms taken by the doctrine in India makes a modified survival intelligible for it is held that a newborn child brings with it as a result of actions done in previous lives, certain predispositions and these after being developed and modified in the course of that child's life are transmitted to its next existence. As to the method of transmission there are various theories for in India the belief in reincarnation is not so much a dogma as an instinct innate in all and only occasionally justified by philosophers not because it was disputed but because they felt bound to show that their own systems were compatible with it. One explanation is that given by the Vedanta philosophy according to which the soul is accompanied in its migrations by the sukshmasarira or subtle body a counterpart of the mortal body but transparent and invisible though material. The truth of this theory as of all theories respecting ghosts and spirits seems to me a matter for experimental verification but the Vedanta recognizes that in our experience a personal individual existence is always connected with the physical substratum. The Buddhist theory of rebirth is somewhat different for Buddhism even in its later divigations rarely ceased to profess belief in Gotama's doctrine that there is no such thing as a soul which is meant no such thing as a permanent unchanging self or atman. Buddhists are concerned to show that transmigration is not inconsistent with this denial of the atman. The ordinary and indeed inevitable translation of this word by soul leads to misunderstanding for we naturally interpret it as meaning that there is nothing but the death of the body and a fortiori nothing to transmigrate. But in reality the denial of the atman applies to the living rather than to the dead. It means that in a living man there is no permanent unchangeable entity but only a series of mental states and since human beings although they have no atman certainly exist in this present life the absence of the atman is not in itself an obstacle to belief in a similar life after death or before birth. Infancy, youth, age and the state immediately after death may form a series of which the last two are as intimately connected as any other two. The Buddhist teaching is that when men die in whom the desire for another life exists as it exists in all except saints then desire which is really the creator of the world fashions another being conditioned by the character and merits of the being which has just come to an end. Life is like fire its very nature is to burn its fuel when one body dies it is as if one piece of fuel were burnt the vital process passes on and recommences in another and so long as there is desire of life the provision of fuel fails not. Buddhist doctors have busied themselves with the question whether two successive lives are the same man or different men and have illustrated the relationship by various analogies of things to be the same and yet not the same such as a child and an adult milk and curds or fire which spreads from a lamp and burns down a village but like the Brahmins they do not discuss why the hypothesis of transmigration is necessary they had the same feeling for the continuity of nature and more than others they insisted that everything has a cause they held that the sexual act creates the conditions in which a new life appears but is not an adequate cause for the new life itself and unless we accept a materialist explanation of human nature this argument is sound unless we admit that mind is merely a function of matter a mind is not explicable as a mere process of cell development something pre-existent must act upon the cells Europeans in discussing such questions as the nature of the soul and immortality are prone to concentrate their attention on death and neglect the phenomena of birth which surely are equally important for if a soul survives the death of this complex of cells which is called the body its origin and development must according to all analogy be different from those of the perishable body orthodox theology deals with the problem by saying that God creates a new soul every time a child is born but free discussion usually ignores it and taking an adult as he is asks what are the chances that any part of him survives death footnote 35 I believe this to be the orthodox explanation but it is open to many objections one it is a mere phrase if to create means to produce something out of nothing then we have never seen such an act and to ascribe a sudden appearance to such an act there is no explanation perhaps an act of imagination or a dream may justly be called a creation but the relation between a soul and its creator is not usually regarded as similar to the relation between a mind and its fancies to the responsibility of God for the evil of the world seems to be greatly increased if he is directly responsible for every birth three animals are not supposed to have souls therefore the production of an animal's mind is not explained by this theory and it seems to be assumed that such a complex mind as a dog can be explained as a function of matter whereas there is something in a child which cannot be so explained four if a new immortal soul is created every time a birth takes place the universe must be receiving incalculably large additions for some philosophies such an idea is impossible see bradley appearance and reality page 502 quote the universe is incapable of increase and to suppose a constant supply of new souls none of which ever perished would clearly land us in the end in an insuperable difficulty end quote but even if we do not admit that it is impossible it at least destroys all analogy between the material and spiritual worlds if all the bodies that ever lived continued to exist separately after death the congestion would be unthinkable is a corresponding congestion in the spiritual world really thinkable end footnote yet the questions what is destroyed at death and how and why are closely connected with the questions what comes into existence at birth and how and why this second series of questions is hard enough but it has this advantage over the first that whereas death abruptly closes the road and we cannot follow the soul one inch on its journey beyond the portals of birth are a less absolute frontier we know that every child has passed through stages in which it could hardly be called a child the earliest phase consists of two cells which unite and then proceed to subdivide and grow the mystery of the process by which they assume a human form is not explained by scientific or theological phrases the complete individual is assuredly not contained in the first germ the microscope cannot find it there and to say that it is there potentially merely means that we know the germ will develop in a certain way to say that a force is manifesting itself in the germ and assuming the shape which it chooses to take or must take is also merely a phrase and metaphor but it seems to me to fit the facts footnote 36 this seems to be the view of the Chandogya Upanishad 612 as the whole world is a manifestation of Brahman so is the great banyan tree a manifestation of the subtle essence which is also present in its minute seeds and footnote the doctrines of pre-existence and trans-migration but not I think of karma which is purely Indian are common among savages in Africa and America nor is their wide distribution strange savages commonly think that the soul wanders during sleep and that a dead man's soul goes somewhere what more natural than to suppose that the soul of a newborn infant comes from somewhere but among civilized peoples such ideas are in most cases due to Indian influence in India they seem indigenous to the soil and not imported by the Aryan invaders for they are not clearly enunciated in the Rig Veda nor formulated before the time of the Upanishads footnote 37 the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad knows of samsara and karma but as matters of deep philosophy and not for the vulgar but in the Buddhist pitakas they are assumed as universally accepted the doctrine must therefore have been popularized after the composition of the Upanishad but some allowance must be made for the fact that the Upanishads and the earliest versions of the Buddhist sutras were produced in different parts of India end footnote they were introduced by Buddhism to the Far East and their presence in Manicheism Neoplatonism, Sufiism and ultimately in the Jewish Kabbalah seems a rivulet from the same source recent research discredits the theory that metempsychosis was an important feature in the earlier religion of Egypt or among the Druids footnote 38 yet many instances are quoted from Celtic and Teutonic folklore to the effect that birds and butterflies are human souls and Caesar's remarks about the Druids may not be wholly wrong end footnote but it played a prominent part in the philosophy of Pythagoras and in the Orphic Mysteries which had some connection with Thrace and Plato with Crete a few great European intellects notably Plato and Virgil have given it undying expression but Europeans as a whole have rejected it with that curiously crude contempt which they have shown until recently for oriental art and literature footnote 39 the lines play with the ideas of metempsychosis pre-existence and karma as for instance Giordano Bruno Swedenborg, Goethe, Lessing Lavature, Herder, Schopenhauer Ibsen, von Helmont, Lichtenberg and in England such different spirits as Hume and Wordsworth it would appear that towards the end of the 18th century it was popular in some literary circles on the continent see Bertollet the transmigration of souls pages 111 and succeeding pages recently Professor MacTaggart has argued in favor of the doctrine with great lucidity and persuasiveness Huxley too did not think it absurd see his Romanus Lecture in volume 9 page 61 as Doysen observes Kant's argument which bases immortality on the realization of the moral law attainable only by an infinite process of approximation points to transmigration rather than immortality in the usual sense and footnote considering how fixed is the belief in immortality among Europeans or at least the desire for it the rarity of a belief in pre-existence or transmigration is remarkable but most people's expectation of a future life is based on craving rather than on reasoned anticipation I cannot myself understand how anything that comes into being can be immortal such immortality is unsupported by a single analogy nor can any instance be quoted of a thing which is known to have had an origin and yet is even apparently indestructible footnote 40 the chemical elements are hardly an exception apparently they have no beginning and no end but there is reason to suspect that they have both end footnote and is it possible to suppose that the universe is capable of indefinite increase by the continual addition of new and eternal souls but these difficulties do not exist for theories which regard the soul as something existing before as well as after the body truly immortal and manifesting itself in temporary homes of human or lower shape such theories become very various and fall into many obscurities when they try to define the nature of the soul and its relation to the body but they avoid what seems to me the contradiction of the created but immortal soul the doctrine of metempsychosis is also interesting as affecting the relations of men and animals the popular European conception of beasts which perish weakens the arguments for human immortality for if the mind of a dog or chimpanzee contains no element which is immortal the part of the human mind on which the claim to immortality can be based must be parlously small since ex-hypothesis sensation, volition, desire and the simpler forms of intelligence are not immortal but in India where men have more charity and more philosophy this distinction is not drawn the animating principle of men, animals and plants is regarded as one or at least similar and even matter which we consider inanimate such as water is often considered to possess a soul but though there is ample warrant in both Buddhist literature for the idea that the soul may sink from a human to an animal form or vice versa rise and though one sometimes meets this belief in modern life yet it is not the most prominent aspect of metempsychosis in India and the beautiful precept of ahimsa or not injuring living things is not as Europeans imagine founded the fear of eating one's grandparents but rather on the humane and enlightened feeling that all life is one and that men who devour beasts are not much above the level of the beasts who devour one another footnote 41 I know well authenticated cases of Burmese and Indians thinking that the soul of a dead child was lost into an animal and footnote the feeling has grown stronger with time in the Vedas animal sacrifices are prescribed and they are even now used in the worship of some deities in the epics the eating of meat is mentioned but the doctrine that it is wrong to take animal life was definitely adopted by Buddhism with its diffusion one obvious objection to all theories of rebirth is that we do not remember our previous existences and that if they are connected by no thread of memory they are for all practical purposes the existences of different people but this want of memory affects not only past existences does anyone deny his existence as an infant or embryo because he cannot remember it footnote 42 or again when I wake up in the morning I am conscious of my identity because innumerable circumstances remind me of the previous day but if I wake up suddenly in the night with a toothache which leaves room for no thought or feeling except the feeling of pain is the fact that I experience the pain in any way lessened if for the moment I do not know who or where I am end footnote and if a wrong could be done to an infant the effects of which would not be felt for 20 years could it be said to be no concern of the infant because the person who will suffer in 20 years time will not be able to remember that he was that infant and common opinion in eastern Asia not without occasional conformation from Europe denies the proposition that we cannot remember our former lives and asserts that those who take any pains to sharpen their spiritual faculties can remember them the evidence for such recollection seems to me a spiritualistic phenomena footnote 43 I believe that a French savant Colonel Rochus has investigated in a scientific spirit cases in which hypnotized subjects profess to remember their former births and found that these recollections are as clear and coherent as any revelations about another world which have been made by Mrs. Dipper or other mediums but I have not been able to obtain any of Colonel Rochus writings and footnote another objection comes from the facts of heredity on the whole we resemble our parents and ancestors in mind as well as in body a child often seems to be an obvious product of its parents and not a being come from outside and from another life or supplies equally to the creation theory if the soul is created by an act of God there seems to be no reason why it should be like the parents or if he causes it to be like them he is made responsible for sending children into the world with vicious natures on the other hand if parents literally make a child mind as well as body there seems to be no reason why children should or be unlike their parents or brothers and sisters unlike one another as they undoubtedly sometimes are an Indian would say that a soul seeking rebirth carries with it certain potentialities of good and evil and can obtain embodiment only in a family offering the necessary conditions footnote 44 I don't use the word soul merely for simplicity but Buddhists and others might demur to this phraseology end footnote hence to some extent it is natural that the child should be like its parents but the soul seeking rebirth is not completely fixed in form and stiff it is hampered and limited by the results of its previous life but in many respects there is a psychological and free ready to vary in response to its new environment but there is a psychological and temperamental objection to the doctrine of rebirth which goes to the root of the matter love of life and the desire to find a field of activity are so strong in most Europeans that it might be supposed that a theory offering an endless vista could be acceptable but as a rule Europeans who discuss the question say that they do not relish this prospect they may be willing to struggle until death but they wish for repose conscious repose of course afterwards the idea that one just dead has not entered into his rest but is beginning another life with similar struggles and fleeting experiences similar sorrows and disappointments is not satisfying and is almost shocking footnote 45 but for a contrary view see reincarnation the hope of the world by Irving S. Cooper even the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad 4 4 3 4 speaks of new birth says new and more beautiful shapes of the soul fashions for itself as a goldsmith works a piece of gold and footnote we do not like it and not to like any particular view about the destinies of the soul is generally but most illogically considered a reason for rejecting it footnote 46 the increase of the human population of this planet is certainly a serious argument against the doctrine of rebirth for animals and the denizens of other worlds may be supplying an increasing number of souls competent to live as human beings and footnote and of section 11 recording by Linda Johnson section 12 of Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliott chapter 12 it must not however be supposed that Hindus like the prospect of transmigration on the contrary from the time of the Upanishads and the Buddha to the present day their religious ideal corresponding to salvation is emancipation and deliverance deliverance from rebirth and from the bondage of desire which brings about rebirth now all Indian theories as to the nature of transmigration are in some way connected with the idea of karma that is the power of deeds done in past existences to condition or even to create future existences every deed done whether good or bad affects the character of the doer for a long while so that to use a metaphor the soul awaiting rebirth has a special shape which is of its own making and it can find re-embodiment only in a form into which that shape can squeeze these views of rebirth and karma have a moral value for they teach that what a man gets depends on what he is or makes himself to be and they avoid the difficulty of supposing that a benevolent creator can have given his creatures only one life with such strange and unmerited disproportion in their lots ordinary folk in the east hope that a life of virtue will secure them another life as happy beings on earth or perhaps in some heaven which though not eternal will still be long but for many the higher ideal is renunciation of the world and a life of contemplative asceticism which will accumulate no karma so that after death the soul will pass not to another birth but to some higher and more mysterious state which is beyond birth and death it is the prevalence of views like this which has given both Hinduism and Buddhism the reputation of being pessimistic and unpractical it is generally assumed that these are bad epithets but are they not applicable to Christian teaching modern and medieval Christianity as witness many popular hymns regards this world as vain and transitory a veil of tears and tribulation a troubled sea through whose waves we must pass before we reach our rest and choirs sing though without much conviction that it is weary waiting here this language seems justified by the gospels and epistles it is true that some utterances of Christ suggest that happiness is to be found in a simple and natural life of friendliness and love but on the whole both he and St. Paul teach that the world is evil or at least spoiled and distorted to become a happy world it must be somehow remade and transfigured by the second coming of Christ the desires and ambitions which are the motive power of modern Europe are if not wrong at least vain and do not even seek for true peace and happiness like Indian teachers the early Christians tried to create a right temper rather than to change social institutions they bade masters and slaves treat one another with kindness and respect but they did not attempt to abolish slavery Indian thought does not really go much further in pessimism than Christianity but its pessimism is intellectual rather than emotional he who understands the nature of the soul and its successive lives cannot regard any single life as of great importance in itself though its consequences for the future may be momentous and though he will not say that life is not worth living reiterated declarations that all existence is suffering it is true seem to destroy all prospect of happiness and all motive for effort but the more accurate statement is in the words of the Buddha himself that all clinging to physical existence involves suffering the earliest Buddhist texts teach that when this clinging and craving cease a feeling of freedom and happiness takes their place and later Buddhism treated itself to visions of paradise as freely as Christianity many forms of Hinduism teach that the soul released from the body can enjoy eternal bliss in the presence of God and even those severe philosophers who do not admit that the released soul is a personality in any human sense have no doubt of its happiness the opposition is not so much between Indian thought and the New Testament for both of them teach that bliss is attainable but not by satisfying desire the fundamental contrast is rather between both India and the New Testament on the one hand and on the other the rooted conviction of European races however much Christian orthodoxy may disguise their expression of it that this world is all important footnote 47 perhaps Russians in this as in many other matters think somewhat differently from other Europeans and footnote this conviction finds expression not only in the avowed pursuit of pleasure and ambition but in such sayings as that the best religion is the one which does most good and such ideals as self-realization or the full development of one's nature and powers Europeans as a rule have an innate dislike and mistrust of the doctrine that the world is vain or unreal they can accord some sympathy to a dying man who sees in due perspective the unimportance of his past life or to a poet who under the starry heavens can make felt the smallness of man and his earth but such thoughts are considered permissible only as retrospects not as principles of life you may say that your labor has amounted to nothing but not that labor is vain though monasteries and monks still exist the great majority of Europeans instinctively disbelieve in asceticism the contemplative life and contempt of the world they have no love for a philosopher who rejects the idea of progress and is not satisfied with an ideal consisting in movement towards an unknown goal they demand a religion which theoretically justifies the strenuous life all this is a matter of temperament and the temperament is so common that it needs no explanation what needs explanation is rather the other temperament which rejects this world as unsatisfactory and sets up another ideal another sphere another standard of values this ideal and standard are not entirely peculiar to India but certainly they are understood and honored there more than elsewhere they are professed as I have already observed by Christianity but even the New Testament is not free from the idea that saints are having a bad time now but we'll hear after enjoy a triumph parlously like the exuberance of the wicked in this world the Far East too has its unworldly side which though harmonizing with Buddhism is native in many ways the Chinese are as materialistic as Europeans but throughout the long history and literature there has always been a school clear voiced if small which has sung and pursued the joys of the hermit the dweller among trees and mountains who finds nature and his own thoughts an all sufficient source of continual happiness but the Indian ideal though it often includes the pleasures of communion with nature differs from most forms of the Chinese and Christian ideal in as much as it assumes the reality of certain religious experiences and treats them as the substance and occupation of the highest life we are disposed to describe these experiences as trances or visions names which generally mean something morbid or hypnotic but in India their validity is unquestioned and they are not considered morbid the sensual scheming life of the world is sick and ailing the rapture of contemplation is the true and healthy life of the soul more than that it is the type and foretaste of a higher existence compared with which this world is worthless or rather nothing at all this view has been held in India for nearly three thousand years it has been confirmed then whose writings testify to their intellectual power and has commanded the respect of the masses it must command our respect too even if it is contrary to our temperament for it is the persistent ideal of a great nation and cannot be explained away as hallucination or charlatanism it is allied to the experiences of European mystics of whom Saint Teresa is a striking example though less saintly persons such as Walt Whitman and J. A. Simmons might also be cited of such mysticism William James said quote the existence of mystical states absolutely overthrows the pretension of non-mystical states to be the soul and ultimate dictators of what we may believe end quote footnote 48 varieties of religious experience page 427 the chapter contains many striking instances of these experiences collected mostly in the west end footnote these mystical states are commonly described as meditation but they include not merely peaceful contemplation but ecstatic rapture they are sometimes explained as union with Brahman the absorption of the soul in God or it's feeling that it is one with him footnote 49 compare Saint Teresa's Orison of Union W. James Locosutato page 408 end footnote but this is certainly not the only explanation of ecstasy given in India for it is recognized as real and beneficent by Buddhists and Jains the same rapture the same sense of omniscience and of ability to comprehend the scheme of things the same peace and freedom are experienced by both theistic and non-theistic sects just as they have also been experienced by Christian mystics the experiences are real but they do not depend of any special deity though they may be colored by the theological views of individual thinkers footnote 50 Indian devotees understand how either Siva or Krishna is all in all and thus too Saint Teresa understood the mystery of the Trinity C. W. James Locosutato page 411 end footnote the earliest Buddhist texts make right rapture the end and crown of the 8 fold path but offer no explanation of it they suggest that it is something wrought by the mind for itself and without the cooperation or infusion of any external influence end of section 12 recording by Linda Johnson section 13 of Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliott chapter 13 Indian ideas about the destiny of the soul are connected with equally important views about its nature I will not presume to say what is the definition of the soul in European philosophy but in the language of popular religion it undoubtedly means that which remains when a body is arbitrarily abstracted from a human personality without inquiring how much of that personality is thinkable without a material substratum this popular soul includes mind, perception and desire and often no attempt is made to distinguish it from them but in India it is so distinguished the soul Atman or Purusha uses the mind and senses they are its instruments rather than parts of it sight for instance serves as the spectacles of the soul and the other senses and even the mind manas which is an intellectual organ are also instruments if we talk of a soul passing from death to another birth this according to most Hindus is a soul accompanied by its baggage of mind and senses a subtle body indeed but still gaseous not spiritual but what is the soul by itself when an English poet sings of death that it is quote only the sleep eternal in an eternal night and quote or a Greek poet calls it we feel that they are denying immortality but Indian divines maintain that deep sleep is one of the states in which the soul approaches nearest to God that it is a state of bliss and is unconscious not because consciousness is suspended but because no objects are presented to it even higher than dreamless sleep is another condition known simply as the fourth state the others being waking, dream sleep and dreamless sleep footnote 51 Turiya or Katturtha end footnote fourth state thought is one with the object of thought and knowledge being perfect there exists no contrast between knowledge and ignorance all this sounds strange to modern Europe we are apt to say that dreamless sleep is simply unconsciousness and that the so called fourth state is imaginary or unmeaning footnote 52 Indians were well aware even in early times that such a state might be regarded as equivalent to annihilation Brahmana Aranyaka Upanishad 2 413 Chandogya Upanishad 8 2 1 end footnote but to follow even popular speculation in India it is necessary to grasp this truth or assumption that when discursive thought ceases when the mind and the senses are no longer active the result is not unconsciousness equivalent to nonexistence but the highest and purest state of the soul in which rising above thought and feeling it enjoys the untrammeled bliss of its own nature footnote 53 the idea is not wholly strange to European philosophy see the passage from the phedo quoted by Sir Alfred Lyall quote thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of these things trouble her neither sounds nor sights nor pain nor any pleasure when she has as little as possible to do with the body and has no bodily sense or feeling but is aspiring after being end quote end footnote if these views sound mysterious and fanciful I would ask those Europeans who believe in the immortality of the soul what in their opinion survives death the brain the nerves and the sense organs obviously decay the soul you may say the product of them but when they are destroyed or even injured perceptive and intellectual processes are inhibited and apparently rendered impossible must not that which lives forever be as the Hindus think independent of thought and of sense impressions I have observed in my reading that European philosophers are more ready to talk about and to define them and the same is true of Indian philosophers footnote 54 Mr. Bradley appearance and reality page 498 says quote spirit is a unity of the manifold in which the externality of the manifold has utterly ceased end quote this seems to me one of the cases in which Mr. Bradley's thought shows an interesting affinity in thought and footnote the word most commonly rendered by soul is atman but no one definition can be given for it for some hold that the soul is identical with the universal spirit others that it is merely of the same nature still others that there are innumerable souls uncreate and eternal while the Buddhists denied the existence of a soul in total footnote 55 but also sometimes purusha and footnote but most Hindus who believe in the existence of an atman or soul agree in thinking that it is the real self and essence of all human beings or for that matter of other beings that it is eternal aparte ante that it is not subject to variation but passes unchanged from one birth to another that youth and age joy and sorrow and all the accidents of human life are affections not so much of the soul as of the envelopes and limitations which surround it during its pilgrimage that the soul if it can be released and disengaged from these envelopes is in itself knowledge and bliss knowledge meaning the immediate and intuitive knowledge of God a proper comprehension of this point of view will make us cherry of labelling indian thought as pessimistic on the ground that it promises the soul something which we are inclined to call unconsciousness in studying oriental religions sympathy and a desire to agree if possible are the first requisites for instance he who says of a certain ideal quote this means annihilation and I do not like it end quote is on the wrong way the right way is to ascertain what many of our most intelligent brothers mean by the cessation of mental activity and why it is for them an ideal end of section 13 recording by Linda Johnson section 14 of Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliott Eastern pessimism and renunciation but the charge of pessimism against Eastern religions is so important that we must consider other aspects of it for though the charge is wrong it is wrong only because those who bring it do not use quite the right word and indeed it would be hard to find the right word in a European language the temperament and theory described as pessimism are European the implying attitude of revolt a right to judge and grumble why did the deity make something out of nothing what was his object but this is not the attitude of Eastern thought it generally holds that we cannot imagine nothing that the world process is without beginning or end and that man must learn how to make the best of it the Far East purge Buddhism of much of its pessimism but we see that the first truth is little more than a demission of the existence of evil which all religions and common sense admit evil ceases in the saint nirvana in this life is perfect happiness and though striving for the material improvement of the world is not held up conspicuously as an ideal in the Buddhist scriptures or for that matter in the New Testament yet it is never hinted that good effort is vain a king should be a good king renunciation is a great word in the religions of both Europe and Asia but in Europe it is almost active except to advance mystics it means abandoning a natural attitude and deliberately assuming another which it is difficult to maintain something similar is found in India in the legends of those ascetics who triumphed over the flesh until they became very gods in power footnote even when low class yogis display the tortures which they inflict on their bodies their object I think is not to show what penances they undergo but simply the pleasure and pain are like to them in footnote but it is also a common view in the East that he who renounces ambition and passion is not struggling against the world and the devil but simply leading a natural life his passions indeed obey his will they are here and there according to their fancy but his temperament is one of acquiescence not resistance he takes his place among the men beasts and plants around him and ceasing to struggle finds that his own soul contains happiness in itself most Europeans consider man as the center and lord of the world or if they are very religious as its vice regent under God he may kill or otherwise but the devil's for his pleasure or convenience his task is to subdue the forces of nature nature is subservient to him and to his destinies without man nature is meaningless but the same view was held by the ancient Greeks and in less acute form by the Jews and Romans Swinburne's line glory to man of the highest for man is the master of things is overbold for professing Christians modern scientific sentiment and the ancient Hellenic sentiment but such a line of poetry would I think be impossible in India or in any country to the east of it there man is thought of as part of nature not its center or master footnote the sense of human dignity was strongest among the early Buddhists they or some of them held that an arhat is superior to a god or as we should say to an angel and that a god cannot enter the path of salvation and become an arhat in footnote above him are formidable hosts and deities and spirits and even European engineers cannot subdue the geni of the flood and typhoon below but still not separated from him are the various tribes of birds and beasts a good man does not kill them for pleasure nor eat flesh but even those whose aspirations treat animals as humble brethren rather than as lower creatures over whom they have dominion by divine command this attitude is illustrated by Chinese and Japanese art in architecture this art makes its principle that palaces and temples should not dominate a landscape but fit into it and adapt their lines to its features for the painter flowers and animals form a sufficient picture by themselves and are not felt to be inadequate because man is absent portraits are frequent but a common form of European composition namely a group of figures subordinated to a principal one though not unknown is comparatively rare how scanty are the records of great men in India great buildings attract attention but who knows the names of the architects who planned them or the kings who paid for them we are not quite sure of the date of Kaladasa the Indian Shakespeare and though the doctors of Sankara Kabir and Nanak still nourish it is with difficulty that the antiquary collects from the meager legends clinging to their names a few facts for their biographies a class who in Europe can count on being remembered if not esteemed after death fair even worse the laborious research of Europeans has shown that Ahsoka and Harsha were great monarchs their own countrymen merely say once upon a time there was a king and recount some trivial story in fact Hindus have a very weak historical sense in this they are not wholly wrong the Europeans undoubtedly exaggerate the historical treatment of thought and art footnote C. F. Bozekwet Gifford Lectures 1912 page 78 a history is a hybrid form of experience incapable of any considerable degree of being or trueness the doubtful story of successive events cannot amalgamate with the complete interpretation of the social mind of art or of religion the great things which are necessary in themselves become within the narrative contingent or ascribed by most doubtful assumptions of insight to this actor or that on the historical stage the study of Christianity is the study of a great world experience the assignment to individuals of a share in its development is a problem for scholars whose conclusions though considerable human interest can never be of supreme importance unquote end of footnote in science most students want to know what is certain in theory and useful in practice not what were the discarded hypotheses and imperfect instruments of the past in literature when the actors and audience are really interested the date of Shakespeare and even the authorship of the play ceases to be important footnote the Chinese critic Shay Ho who lived in the sixth century of our era said quote in art the terms ancient and modern have no place unquote this is exactly the Indian view of religion end of footnote in the same way Hindus want to know whether doctrines and speculations are true whether a man can make use of them in his own religious experience and aspirations they care little for the date authorship unity and textual accuracy of the Bhagavad Gita they simply ask is it true what can I get from it the European critic who expects nothing of the sort from the work racks his brains to know who wrote it and when who touched it up and why the Hindus are also indifferent to the past they do not recognize that the history of the world the whole cosmic process has any meaning or value in most departments of Indian thought great or small the conception of talas or purpose is absent and if the European reader thinks this is a grave lacuna let him ask himself whether satisfied love has any talas for Hindus the world is endless repetition not a progress towards an end creation has rarely the sense which it bears for Europeans an infinite number of times the universe has collapsed inflaming or watery ruin eons acquiescence follow the collapse and then the deity he has done it an infinite number of times emits again from himself worlds and souls of the same old kind but though as I have said before all varieties of theological opinion may be found in India is usually represented as moved by some reproductive impulse rather than as executing a plan Sankara says boldly that no motive can be attributed to God because he being perfect can desire no addition to his perfection so that his creative activity is mere exuberance like the sport of young princes who take exercise though they are not obliged to do so such views are distasteful to Europeans our vanity impels us to invent explanations of the universe which make our own existence important and significant nor does European science altogether support the Indian doctrine of periodicity it has theories as to the probable origin of the solar system and other similar systems but it points to the conclusion that the universe as a whole is not appreciably affected by the growth or decay of its parts whereas Indian imagination thinks of universal cataclysms and recurring periods of quiescence in which nothing whatever remains except the undifferentiated divine spirit Western ethics generally aim to teach a man how to act Eastern ethics at forming a character a good character will no doubt act rightly when circumstances require action but he need not seek occasions for action he may even avoid them and in India the passionless sage is still in popular esteem superior to warriors statesmen and scientists into section 14 section 15 of Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliott Eastern polytheism different as India and China are they agree in this that in order not to misapprehend the religious condition we must make our minds familiar with a new set of relations the relations of religion to philosophy to ethics and to the state as well as the relations of different religions to one another are not the same as in Europe China and India are pagan a word which I deprecate if it is understood to imply inferiority but which if used in a descriptive and respectful sense is very useful Christianity and Islam are organized religions they say or rather their several sects say that they each not only possess the truth but that all other creeds and rites are wrong but paganism is not organized it rarely presents anything like a church united under one head still more rarely does it condemn or interfere with other religions unless attacked first Buddhism stands between the two classes like Christianity and Islam it professes to teach the only true law but unlike them it is exceedingly coherent and many Buddhists also worship Hindu or Chinese gods popular religion in India and China is certainly polytheistic yet if one uses this word in contrast to the monotheism of Islam and of Protestantism the antithesis is unjust for the polytheist does not believe in many creators and rulers of the world in many alas or Jehovah's but he considers that there are many spiritual beings with different spheres and powers to the most appropriate of whom he addresses his petitions polytheism and image worship lie under an unmerited stigma in Europe we generally assume that to believe in one god is obviously better intellectually and ethically than to believe in many yet Trinitarian religions escape being polytheistic only by juggling with words and if Hindus and Chinese are polytheists who are the Roman and Oriental churches for there is no real distinction between praying to the Madonna saints and angels and propitiating minor deities William James has pointed out that polytheism is not theoretically absurd and is practically the religion of many Europeans in some ways it is more intelligible and reasonable than monotheism for if there is only one personal god I do not understand how anything that can be called a person can be so expanded as to be capable of hearing and answering the prayers of the whole world anything susceptible of such extension must be more than a person is it not at least equally reasonable to assume that there are many spirits or many shapes taken by the super personal world spirit with which the soul can get into touch the worship of images cannot be recommended without qualification where it seems to require artists capable of making a worthy representation of the divine and it must be confessed that many figures in Indian temples such as the statues of Kali seem repulsive or gotesque though a Hindu might say that none of them are so strange an idea or so horrible an appearance as the crucifix but the claim of the iconic class from the times of the Old Testament onwards that he worships a spirit as others worship would in stone is true only of the lowest phases of religion if even there Hindu theologians distinguish different kinds of avatars or ways in which God descends into the world among them are incarnations like Krishna the presence of God in the human heart and his presence in a symbol or image Arka it may be difficult to decide how far the symbol in the spirit are kept separate either in the east or in Europe but no one can attend a greater car festival in southern India or the feast of Durga in Bengal without feeling and in some measure sharing the ecstasy and enthusiasm of the crowd it is an enthusiasm such as may be evoked in critical times by a king or a flag and as the flag may do duty for the king and all that he stands for so may the image do duty for the deity end of section 15 section 16 of Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson Hinduism and Buddhism and historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliott the extravagance of Hinduism what I have just said applies to India rather than to China and so do the observations which follow India is the most religious country in the world the percentage of people who literally make religion their chief business who sacrifice to it money and life itself for religious suicide is not extinct is far greater than elsewhere Russia probably comes next but the other nations fall behind by a long interval footnote and in Russia there are sects which prescribe castration and suicide in footnote matter of fact respectable people Chinese as well as Europeans call this attitude extravagance and it sometimes deserves the name for since there is no one creed or criterion in India all sorts of aboriginal or decadent superstitions command the respect due to the name of religion this extravagance is both intellectual and moral no story is too extraordinary to be told of Hindu gods they are the magicians of the universe who sport with the forces of nature as easily as a conjurer in a bazaar does tricks with a handful of balls but though the average Hindu would be shocked to hear the puranas described as idle tales we depend on their accuracy as many in Europe make Christianity depend on miracles the value of truth and religion is rated higher in India than in Europe but it is not historical truth the Hindu approaches his sacred literature somewhat in the spirit in which we approach Milton and Dante the beauty and value of such poems is clear the question whether they are accurate reports or facts seems irrelevant Hindus believe in progressive revelation many tantas and Visunite works profess to be better suited to the present age than the Vedas and innumerable treatises in the vernacular are commonly accepted as scripture scriptures in India footnote this of course does not apply to Buddhism in China, Japan and Tibet in footnote are thought of as words not writings it is the sacred sound not a sacred book which is venerated they are learnt by oral transmission and it is rare to see a book used in religious services diagrams accompanied by letters and a few words are credited with magical powers but still tantric spells are things to be recited rather than written this view of scripture makes the hearer uncritical the ordinary layman hears parts of a sacred book recited and probably admires what he understands but he has no means of judging a book as a whole especially of its coherency and consistency the moral extravagance of Hinduism is more serious it is kept in check by the general conviction that asceticism or at least temperance charity and self-affacement are the indispensable outward signs of religion but still among the great religions of the world there is none which continents is so many hysterical moral and cruel rights a literary example will illustrate the position it is taken from the drama Madhava and Malati written about 738d but the incidence of the plot might happen in any native state today if European supervision were removed in it Madhava a young brahman surprises a priest of the goddess Chamunda who is about to emulate Malati he kills the priest and apparently the other characters consider his conduct natural and not sacrilegious but it is not suggested that either the police or any ecclesiastical authority ought to prevent human sacrifices and the reason why Madhava was able to save his beloved from death was that he had gone to the uncanny spot where such rights were performed to make an offering of human flesh to demons in Buddhism religion the moral law are identified but not in Hinduism brahmanical literature contains beautiful moral sayings especially about unsophishness and self restraint but the greatest popular gods such as Vishnu and Shiva are not identified with the moral law they are super moral and the god of philosophy who is all things is also above good and evil the aim of the philosophic saint is to choose the good and the Shiva evil as to draw nearer to god by rising above both Indian literature as a whole has a strong ethical and didactic flavor yet the great philosophic and religious systems concern themselves little with ethics they discuss the nature of the external world and other metaphysical questions which seem to us hardly religious they clearly feel a particular interest in defining the relation of the soul to god but they rarely ask why should I be good or what is the sanction of morality they are concerned less with sin than with ignorance virtue is indispensable but without knowledge it is useless into section 16 section number 17 of Hinduism and Buddhism in historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shashank Jagmola Hinduism and Buddhism in historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliot the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures the history and criticism of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures naturally occupy some space in this work but two general remarks may be made here first the old scriptures are almost without exception compilation that is collection of utterances handed down by tradition and arranged by later generations in some form which gives them apparent unity thus the Rig Veda is obviously an anthology of hymns and some 3000 years later the Granth or sacred book of the sex was compiled on the same principle it consists of Poem by Nanak Kabir and many other writers but is treated with extraordinary respect as a continuous and consistent revelation the Brahmans and Upanishads are not such obvious compilation yet on a careful inspection the older ones will be found to be nothing else footnote 63 this is not true of the more modern Upanishads which are often short treatises specially written to extoll a particular deity or doctrine and footnote thus the Brihad Aranya ka Upanishad though possessing considerable coherency is not only a collection of such philosophic views as commended themselves to the doctors of Tetriya school but it is formed by the union of three such collections each of the first two collections ends with a list of the teachers who handed it down and the third is openly called a supplement one long passage the dialogue between Yajnavalkya and his wife is incorporated in both the first and the second collection thus our text represents the period when the Tetriyas brought their philosophic thoughts together in a complete form but that period was preceded by another in which slightly different schools had their own collection and for some time before there is the various maxims and dialogues must have been cut in separately since the conversation between Yajnavalkya and Mithri occurs in almost the same form in two collections it probably once existed as an independent piece in Buddha's literature the composite and tertiary character of the Suthpitak is equally plain the various Nikais are confessedly collections of discourses the two older ones seem dominated by the desire to bring before the reader the image of the Buddha preaching the Sanyukta and Angutra emphasize the doctrine rather than the teacher and arrange much the same matter under no headings but it is clear that in whatever form the various sermons, dialogues and dissertations appear that form is not primary but presupposes compilers dealing with an oral tradition already stereotyped in language for long passages such as the tract on morality and the description of progress in the religious life occur in several discourses and the amount of matter common to different Suth and Nikais is surprising thus nearly the whole of the long Suth describing the Buddha's last days and death which at first sight seem to be a connected narrative somewhat different from other Suthas is found scattered in other parts of the canon footnote 64 Mahapani Nibbana Suth see the table of parallel passages prefixed to Rhys Tavits translation dialogues of the Buddha 272 and footnote thus our oldest text from Harnik or Buddhists are additions and codifications perhaps amplifications of a considerably older oral teaching they cannot be treated as personal documents similar to the Quran or the epistles of Paul the works of middle antiquity such as the epics Purans and Mahayanas Suthras were also not produced by one author many of them exist in more than one recensation and then usually consist of a nucleus enveloped and sometimes itself affected by additions which may exceed the original matter and bulk the Mahabharata and Prajnaparemeta are not books in the European sense we cannot give a date or a table of contents for the first edition they each represent a body of literature whose composition extend over a long period footnote 65 much the same is true of the various editions of the Vinaya and Mahawatsu these texts were produced by a process first of collection and then of amplification end footnote as time goes on history naturally grows clearer and literary personalities become more distinct yet the later Purans are not attributed to human authors and were susceptible of interpolation even in recent times thus the story of Genesis has been incorporated in the Bhavishya Puran apparently after protestant missionaries had begun to preach in India the other point to which I would draw attention is the importance of relatively modern works which supersede the older scriptures especially in Hinduism this phenomenon is common in many countries for only a few books such as the Bhagavad Gita the Gospels and the sayings of Confucius have a portion of the eternal and universal sufficient to the outlast the wear and tear of a thousand years Vedic literature is far from being discredited in India though some tantras say openly that it is useless it still has a place in ritual and is appealed to by reforming sects but to see Hinduism in proper perspective we must remember that from the time of the Buddha till now the composition of religious literature in India has been almost uninterrupted and that almost every century has produced works accepted by some sect as infallible scriptures for most Vishnuites the Bhagavad Gita is the beginning of sacred literature and the Narayaniya is also held in high esteem footnote 66 the later part of Mahabharata 11 and footnote the philosophy of each sect is usually determined by a commentary on the Brahma Sutra the Bhagavad Purana perhaps in a vernacular paraphrase and the Ramayana of Tulsidas are probably the favorite reading of Delaity and for devotional purposes may be supplemented by a collection of hymns such as Nam Ghoshna copies of which actually receive homage in Assam the average man even the average priest regards all these as sacred works without troubling himself with distinctions as to Sruti and Smriti's and the Vedas and Upanishads are hardly within his horizon in respect of sacred literature Buddhism is more conservative than Hinduism or to put it another way has been less productive in the last 1500 years the Hinayanist are like those protestant sects which still profess not to go beyond the Bible the monks read the Abhidhamma and the Laiti the Suthas though perhaps both are disposed to use extracts and compendiums rather than full ancient texts among the Mahayanists the ancient Vinaya and Akayas exist only as literary curiosities the former is superseded by modern manuals the latter by Mahayana Suthras such as the Lotus and the Happy Land which are however of respectable antiquity as in India each sect selects rather arbitrarily a few books for its own use without condemning others but also without according to them the formal recognition received by the old and new testaments among Christians no Asiatic country possesses so large a portion of the critical spirit as China the educated Chinese however much they may venerate their classics think of them as we think of the masterpieces of Greek literature as texts which may contain wrong readings, interpolations and lassuni which or whatever authority they possess to the labors of the scholars who collected arranged and corrected them this attitude is to some extent the result of the attempt made by the first emperor about 200 BC to destroy the classical literature and to its subsequently glorious restoration at a time when the Indians regarded the Veda as a verbal revelation certain and divine in every syllable the Chinese were painfully recovering and repicing their ancient chronicles and poems from imperfect manuscripts and fallible memories the process obliged them to inquire at every step whether the text which they examined were genuine and complete to admit that they might be defective or paraphrases of a difficult original hence the Chinese have sound principles of criticism unknown to the Hindus and discussing the date of an ancient work or the probability of an alleged historical event they generally use arguments which a European scholar can accept Chinese literature has a strong ethical and political flavor which temper the extravagance of imported Indian ideas most Chinese systems assert more or less plainly that right conduct is conduct in harmony with the laws of the state and the universe end of section 17 section number 18 of Hinduism and Buddhism in historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shashank Jagmola Hinduism and Buddhism in historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Eliot morality and will it is dangerous to make sweeping statements about the huge mass of Indian literature but I think that most Buddhist and Brahmanic systems assume that morality is merely a means of obtaining happiness and is not obedience to a categorical imperative or to the will of God footnote 67 though European religions emphasize man's duty to God they do not exclude the pursuit of happiness example Westminster Shorter Catechism 1647 question 1 what is the chief end of man answer man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever end footnote morality is by inference to the status of a cosmic law because evil deeds will infallibly bring evil consequences to the doer in this life or another but it is not commonly spoken of as such a law the usual point of view is that man desires happiness and for this morality is a necessary though insufficient preparation but there may be higher states which cannot be expressed in terms of happiness the will receives more attention in both European philosophy than in Indian whether Buddhist or Brahmanic which both regarded not as a separate kind of activity but as a form of thought as such it is not neglected in Buddhist psychology will, desire and struggle are recognized as good provided their object is good a point overlooked by those who accuse Buddhism of preaching inaction footnote 68 for Buddhist ethics in several works CJRAS 1898 page 47 and Buddhism pages 221 FF see also major NIC 19 for a good example of Buddhist views as to the necessity and method of cultivating the will end footnote Scopin Howard's dotrine that will is the essential fact in the universe and in life may appear to have analogies to Indian thought to quote passages from the Pitta showing that Taha craving or desire is the force which makes and remakes the world but such statements must be taken as generalizations respecting the world as it is rather than an implying theory of its origin for the Taha is a link in the chain of causation it is not regarded as an ultimate principle more than any other link but is made to depend on feeling the Maya of the Vedanta is not so much the affirmation of the will to live as the illusion that we have a real existence apart from Brahman and the same may be said of Ahunkar in the Sankhya philosophy it is the principle of egoism and individuality but its essence is not so much self assertion as the mistaken idea that this is mind that I am happy or unhappy there is a question much debated in European philosophy but little argued in India namely the freedom of the will the active European feeling the obligation and the difficulties of morality is perplexed by the doubt whether he really has the power to act as he wishes this problem has not much trouble the Hindus and rightly as I think for if the human will is not free what does freedom mean what example of freedom can be quoted with which to contrast the supposed non-freedom of the will if in fact it is from the will that our notion of freedom is derived is it not unreasonable to say that the will is not free absolute freedom in the sense of something regulated by no laws is unthinkable when a thing is conditioned by external causes it is dependent when it is conditioned by internal causes which are part of its own nature it is free no other freedom is known an Indian would say that a man's nature is limited by karma the minds are incapable of the higher forms of virtue and wisdom just as some bodies are incapable of athletic feats but within the limits of its own nature a human being is free Indian theology is not much hampered by the mad doctrine that God has predestined some soul to damnation nor by the idea of fate except in so far as karma is fate it is fate in the sense that karma inherited from a previous birth of rewards and punishments which must be enjoyed or endured but it differs from fate because we are all the time making our own karma and undermining the character of our next birth the older Upanishads hint at a doctrine inagulers to that of Kant namely that man is bound and conditioned in so far as he is a part of the world of phenomena but free in so far as the self within him is identical with the divine self which is the creator of all bonds and conditions thus the Kaushita ki Upanishad says he it is who causes the man whom he will lead upwards from these worlds to do good works and he it is who causes the man whom he will lead downwards to do evil works he is the guardian of the world he is the ruler of the world he is the lord of the world and he is myself here the last words destroy the apparent determinism the first part of the sentence and similarly Chandogya Upanishad says they who depart hence without having known the self and those true desires for them there is no freedom in all worlds but they who depart hence after knowing the self and those true desires for them there is freedom in all worlds footnote 70 the words are kamakara and akamakara Chandogya Upanishad 8. 1-6 end footnote early Buddhist literature asserts uncompromisingly that every state of consciousness has a cause and in one of his earliest discourses the buddha argues that the skandhas including mental states cannot be the self because we have not free will to make them exactly what we choose footnote 71 mahabhag 1-6 example Ajat sattu had he not obtained the eye of the truth had he not been a periside the consequent distortion of mind made higher states impossible end footnote but throughout his ethical teaching it is I think assumed that subject to the law of karma conscious action is equivalent to spontaneous action good mental states can be made to grow and bad mental states to decrease until the stage is reached when the saint knows that he is free it may perhaps be thought that the early buddhas did not realize the consequences of applying their doctrine of causation to psychology and hence never faced the possibility of determinism but determinism, fatalism and the uselessness of effort formed part of the paradoxical teaching of Makali Gosla reported in the pitaks and therefore well known if neither the Jains nor buddhas allowed themselves to be embarrassed by such denials of free will the inference is that in some matters at least the Hindus had strong common sense and declined to accept any view which takes away from man the responsibility and lordship of his own soul end of section 18 section number 19 of hinduism and buddhism in historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shashank Jakhmola hinduism and buddhism in historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Iliad the origin of evil the reader will have gathered from what precedes that hinduism has little room for the devil footnote 72 but all general statements about hinduism are liable to exceptions the evil spirit dosas described in the markendia puran chapter 50 and 51 comes very near the devil and footnote buddhism being essentially an ethical system recognizes the importance of the tempter or maara but still maara is not an evil spirit who has spoiled a good world in hinduism whether pantheistic or polytheistic there is even less disposition to personify evil in one figure and most indian religious systems are disposed to think of the imperfections of the world as suffering rather than as sin yet the existence of evil is the chief reason for the existence of religion at least of such religions has promised salvation and the explanation of evil is the chief problem of all religions and philosophies and the problem which they all alike are conspicuously unsuccessful in solving i can assign no reason for rejecting as untenable the idea that the ultimate reality may be a duality a good and an evil spirit or even a plurality but still it is unthinkable for me and i believe for most minds footnote 73 i can understand that the immediate reality is a duality or plurality and that the one spirit may appear in many shapes and footnote no ultimate beings either they must be complementary and necessary one to the other in which case it seems to me more correct to describe them as two aspects of one being or if they are quite separate my mind postulates but i do not know why a third being who is the cause of them both the problem of evil is not quite the same for indian and european pantheists the european pantheists hold that since god is all things or in all things evil is only something viewed out of due perspective that the world would be seen to be perfect if it could be seen as a whole or that evil will be eliminated in the course of development but he cannot explain why the partial view of the world which human beings are obliged to take shows the existence of obvious evil the hindus think that it is possible and better for the soul to leave the vain show of the world as a union with god they are therefore not concerned to prove that the world is good although they cannot explain why god allows it to exist the upanishads contain some myths and parables about the introduction of evil but they do not say that a naturally good world was spoiled footnote 74 example given chand upanishad 512 bri ar upanishad in the panchitantra we do hear of a jnana brahmasa or a fall from knowledge anagulus to the fall of a man in christian theology souls have naturally unlimited knowledge but this from some reason becomes limited and obscured so that religion is necessary to show the soul the right way here the ground idea seems to be not that any devil has spoiled the world that ignorance is necessary for the world process for otherwise mankind would be one with god and there would be no other world see schrader introduction to panchitantra pages 78 and 83 end footnote they rather imply that increasing complexity involves the increase of evil as well as of good this is also the ground thought of the aganya sutra the buddhist genesis the gambranekai 27 i think that the substance of much indian pantheism late buddhist as well as brahmanic is that the world the soul and god the three terms being practically the same have two modes of existence one of reperson bliss the other of struggle and trouble of these the first mode is better and it is only by mistake that the eternal spirit adopts the latter the pathabdhamana has a curious legend 11 1 6 8 ff in which the creator admits that he made evil spirit by mistake and smites them in the karika of god pada to 19 it is actually said mahasya tatsya devasya yaya samohita svayam end footnote but both the mistakes and the correction of it are being eternally repeated in search of formulation of advaita philosophy would no doubt be regarded in india as holy and orthodox yet orthodoxy admits that the existence of the world is due to coexistence of maya illusion with brahman spirit and also states that the task of the soul is to pass beyond maya to brahman if this is so there is either a real duality brahman and maya or else maya is an aspect of brahman but an aspect which the soul should transcend and avoid and for whose existence no reason whatever is given the more theistic forms of indian religion whether sevait or vishnowait tend to regard individual souls in matter as eternal by the help of god souls can obtain release from matter but here again there is no explanation why the soul is contaminated by matter or ignorance it is clearly illogical to condemn the infinite as bad or a mistake buddhism is perhaps sometimes open to discharge because an account of its exceedingly cautious language about nirvana it fails to set it up as a reality contrasted with the world of suffering but many varieties of indian religion do empathetically point to the infinite reality behind and beyond maya it is only maya which is unsatisfactory because it is partial another attempt to make the universe intelligible regards it as an eternal rhythm playing and pulsing outward from spirit to matter pravritti and then backwards and inwards from matter to spirit nirvritti this idea seems implied by sanskara's view that creation is similar to the sportive impulse of exuberant youth and the Bhagavad Gita is familiar with pravritti and nirvritti but the double character of the rhythm is emphasized most clearly in shakta treatises ordinary hinduism concentrates its attention on the process of liberation and return to brahman but the tantras recognize and consecrate both movements the outward throbbing streams of energy and enjoyment bhakti and the calm returning flow of liberation and peace both are happiness but the wise understand that the active outward movement is right and happy only up to a certain point and under certain restrictions that great poet tulsi das hints at an explanation of the creation or of God's expansion of himself which will perhaps commend itself to Europeans more than most Indian ideas namely that the bliss enjoyed by God and the souls whom he loves is greater than the bliss of solitary divinity footnote 76 he does not say this expressly and it requires careful statement in India where it is held strongly that God being perfect cannot add to his bliss or perfection by creating anything compare Dante Paradiso 29 1318 not to see if this is good what can be done but it seems its splendor can be splendid of subsistence in its eternal out of time for Diogni, the other understands with my piaque si asperse in Nuovi amoria Tarno amore end footnote end of section 19