Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) by Charles Eliot

C >> Charles Eliot >> Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41

(4) 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_, p. 502. "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.") 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?]

[Footnote 36: This seems to be the view of the Chandogya Up. VI. 12. As
the whole world is a manifestation ol Brahman, so is the great banyan
tree a manifestation of the subtle essence which is also present in its
minute seeds.]

[Footnote 37: The Brihad Ar. Up. 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 Suttas were produced in different
parts of India.]

[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.]

[Footnote 39: Several other Europeans of eminence have let their minds
play with the ideas of metempsychosis, pre-existence and karma, as for
instance Giordano Bruno, Swedenborg, Goethe, Lessing, Lavater, 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 eighteenth century these ideas were popular in some
literary circles on the continent. See Bertholet, _The Transmigration of
Souls_, pp. 111 ff. Recently Professor McTaggart has argued in favour of
the doctrine with great lucidity and persuasiveness. Huxley too did not
think it absurd. See his _Romanes Lecture, Evolution and Ethics,
Collected Essays_, vol. IX. p. 61. As Deussen 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.]

[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.]

[Footnote 41: I know well-authenticated cases of Burmese and Indians
thinking that the soul of a dead child had passed into an animal.]

[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?]

[Footnote 43: I believe that a French savant, Colonel Rochas, 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 Piper or other mediums. But I have not
been able to obtain any of Col. Rochas's writings.]

[Footnote 44: I use the word _soul_ merely for simplicity, but Buddhists
and others might demur to this phraseology.]

[Footnote 45: But for a contrary view see _Reincarnation, the Hope of
the World_ by Irving S. Cooper. Even the Brihad Aran. Upan. (IV. 4. 3.
4) speaks of new births as new and more beautiful shapes which the soul
fashions for itself as a goldsmith works a piece of gold.]

[Footnote 46: The increase of the human population of this planet does
not seem to me 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.]

[Footnote 47: Perhaps Russians in this as in many other matters think
somewhat differently from other Europeans.]

[Footnote 48: _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 427. The chapter
contains many striking instances of these experiences, collected mostly
in the west.]

[Footnote 49: Compare _St Teresa's Orison of Union_, W. James, _l.c._ p.
408.]

[Footnote 50: Indian devotees understand how either Siva or Krishna is
all in all, and thus too St Teresa understood the mystery of the
Trinity. See W. James, _l.c._ p. 411.]

[Footnote 51: Turiya or caturtha.]

[Footnote 52: Indians were well aware even in early times that such a
state might be regarded as equivalent to annihilation. Br. Ar. Up. II.
4. 13; Chand. Up. VIII. ii. 1.]

[Footnote 53: The idea is not wholly strange to European philosophy. See
the passage from the _Phaedo_ quoted by Sir Alfred Lyall. "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."]

[Footnote 54: Mr Bradley _(Appearance and Reality_, p. 498) says "Spirit
is a unity of the manifold in which the externality of the manifold has
utterly ceased." This seems to me one of the cases in which Mr Bradley's
thought shows an interesting affinity to Indian thought.]

[Footnote 55: But also sometimes _purusha_.]

[Footnote 56: 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 that pleasure and pain are alike to
them.]

[Footnote 57: The sense of human dignity was strongest among the early
Buddhists. They (or some sects 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.]

[Footnote 58: Cf. Bosanquet, _Gifford Lectures_, 1912, p. 78. "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 of considerable human interest, can
never be of supreme importance."]

[Footnote 59: The Chinese critic Hsieh Ho who lived in the sixth century
of our era said: "In Art the terms ancient and modern have no place."
This is exactly the Indian view of religion.]

[Footnote 60: _The Varieties of Religious Experience_, pp. 525-527 and
_A Pluralistic Universe_, p. 310.]

[Footnote 61: And in Russia there are sects which prescribe castration
and suicide.]

[Footnote 62: This, of course, does not apply to Buddhism in China,
Japan and Tibet.]

[Footnote 63: This is not true of the more modern Upanishads which are
often short treatises specially written to extol a particular deity or
doctrine.]

[Footnote 64: Mahaparinibbana sutta. See the table of parallel passages
prefixed to Rhys Davids's translation, _Dialogues of the Buddha_, II.
72.]

[Footnote 65: Much the same is true of the various editions of the
Vinaya and the Mahavastu. These texts were produced by a process first
of collection and then of amplification.]

[Footnote 66: The latter part of Mahabharata XII.]

[Footnote 67: Though European religions emphasize man's duty to God,
they do not exclude the pursuit of happiness: e.g. Westminster Shorter
Catechism (1647). Question 1, "What is the chief end of man? _A._ Man's
chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever."]

[Footnote 68: Mrs Rhys Davids has brought out the importance of the will
for Buddhist ethics in several works. See _J.R.A.S._ 1898, p. 47 and
_Buddhism_, pp. 221 ff. See also Maj. Nik. 19 for a good example of
Buddhist views as to the necessity and method of cultivating the will.]

[Footnote 69: Kaush. Up. III. 8.]

[Footnote 70: The words are kamacara and akamacara. Chand. Up. 8. 1-6.]

[Footnote 71: Mahavag. I. 6. _E.g._ Ajatasattu (Dig. Nik. 2, _ad fin._)
would have obtained the eye of truth, had he not been a parricide. The
consequent distortion of mind made higher states impossible.]

[Footnote 72: But all general statements about Hinduism are liable to
exceptions. The evil spirit Duhsaha described in the Markandeya Purana
(chaps. L and LI) comes very near the Devil.]

[Footnote 73: I can understand that the immediate reality is a duality
or plurality and that the one spirit may appear in many shapes.]

[Footnote 74: _E.g._ Chand. Up. V. 1. 2. Bri. Ar. Up. I. 3. In the
Pancaratra we do hear of a jnanabhramsa or a fall from knowledge
analogous to the fall of 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 spoilt the world
but that ignorance is necessary for the world process, for otherwise
mankind would be one with God and there would be no world. See Schrader,
_Introd. to the Pancaratra_, pp. 78 and 83.]

[Footnote 75: The Satapatha Brahmana has a curious legend (XI. 1. 6. 8
ff.) in which the Creator admits that he made evil spirits by mistake
and smites them. In the Karika of Gaudapada, 2. 19 it is actually said:
Mayaisha tasya devasya yaya sammohitah svayam.]

[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_, xxix. 13-18:

Non per aver a se di bene acquisto,
ch' esser non puo, ma perche suo splendore
potesse risplendendo dir: subsisto.
In sua eternita di tempo fuore,
fuor d' ogni altro comprender, come i piacque,
s'aperse in nuovi amor l' eterno amore.]

[Footnote 77: The history of Japan and Tibet offers some exceptions.]

[Footnote 78: There are some exceptions, _e.g._ ancient Camboja, the
Sikhs and the Marathas.]

[Footnote 79: But there are other kinds of worship, such as the old
Vedic sacrifices which are still occasionally performed, and the burnt
offerings (homa) still made in some temples. There are also tantric
ceremonies and in Assam the public worship of the Vishnuites has
probably been influenced by the ritual of Lamas in neighbouring Buddhist
countries.]

[Footnote 80: This position is of great importance as tending to produce
a similar arrangement of religious paraphernalia. The similarity
disappears when Buddhist ceremonies are performed round Stupas out of
doors.]

[Footnote 81: As explained elsewhere, I draw a distinction between
Tantrism and Saktism.]

[Footnote 82: It does not seem to me to have given much inspiration to
Rossetti in his _Aatarte Syriaca_.]

[Footnote 83: But in justice to the Tantras it should be mentioned that
the Maha-nirvana Tantra, x. 79, prohibits the burning of widows.]

[Footnote 84: See _Asiatic Review_, July, 1916, p. 33.]

[Footnote 85: _E.g._ Vijayanagar, the Marathas and the states of
Rajputana.]

[Footnote 86: According to the census of 1911 no less than 72 per cent.
of the population live by agriculture.]

[Footnote 87: The chief exceptions are: (_a_) the Tibetan church has
acquired and holds power by political methods. It is an exact parallel
to the Papacy, but it has never burnt people. (_b_) In mediaeval Japan
the great monasteries became fortified castles with lands and troops of
their own. They fought one another and were a menace to the state. Later
the Tokugawa sovereigns had the assistance of the Buddhist clergy in
driving out Christianity but I do not think that their action can be
compared either in extent or cruelty with the Inquisition. (_c_) In
China Buddhism was in many reigns associated with a dissolute court and
palace intrigues. This led to many scandals and great waste of money.]

[Footnote 88: See for instance Huxley's striking definition of Buddhism
in his _Romanes Lecture_, 1893. "A system which knows no God in the
western sense; which denies a soul to man: which counts the belief in
immortality a blunder and the hope of it a sin: which refuses any
efficacy to prayer and sacrifice: which bids men look to nothing but
their own efforts for salvation: which in its original purity knew
nothing of vows of obedience and never sought the aid of the secular
arm: yet spread over a considerable moiety of the old world with
marvellous rapidity and is still with whatever base admixture of foreign
superstitions the dominant creed of a large fraction of mankind." But
some of this is too strongly phrased. Early Buddhism counted the desire
for heaven as a hindrance to the highest spiritual life, but if a man
had not attained to that plane and was bound to be reborn somewhere, it
did not question that his natural desire to be reborn in heaven was
right and proper.]

[Footnote 89: It may of course be denied that Buddhism is a religion. In
this connection some remarks of Mr Bradley are interesting. "The
doctrine that there cannot be a religion without a personal God is to my
mind entirely false" (_Essays on Truth and Reality_, p. 432). "I cannot
accept a personal God as the ultimate truth" (ib. 449). "There are few
greater responsibilities which a man can take on himself than to have
proclaimed or even hinted that without immortality all religion is a
cheat, all morality a self-deception" (_Appearance and Reality_, p.
510).]

[Footnote 90: Mahavamsa, xii. 29, xiv. 58 and 64. Dipavamsa, xn. 84 and
85, xiii. 7 and 8.]

[Footnote 91: _Essays in Criticism_, Second Series, Amiel.]

[Footnote 92: This definition of orthodoxy is due to St Vincent of
Lerins. _Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est._]

[Footnote 93: I know that this statement may encounter objections, but I
believe that few Indians would be surprised at the proposition that God
is all things. Some might deny it, but as a familiar error.]

[Footnote 94: But orthodox Christianity really falls into the same
difficulty. For if God planned the redemption of the world and we are
saved by the death of Christ, then the Chief Priests, Judas, Pilate and
the soldiers who crucified Christ are at least the instruments of
salvation.]

[Footnote 95: Wm James, _Psychology_, pp. 203 and 216.]

[Footnote 96: I quote this epitome from Wildon Carr's Henri Bergson,
_The Philosophy of Change_, because the phraseology is thoroughly
Buddhist and appears to have the approval of M. Bergson himself.]

[Footnote 97: _Romanes Lecture_, 1893.]

[Footnote 98: _Appearance_, p. 298.]

[Footnote 99: Thus the Svetasvatara Up. says that the whole world is
filled with the parts or limbs of God and metaphors like sparks from a
fire or threads from a spider seem an attempt to express the same idea.
Br. Ar. Up. 2. 1. 20; Mund. Up. 2. 1. 1.]

[Footnote 100: _Appearance_, p. 244; _Essays on Truth_, p. 409;
_Appearance_, p. 413. Though the above quotations are all from Mr
Bradley I might have added others from Mr Bosanquet's _Gifford Lectures_
and from Mr McTaggart.]

[Footnote 101: "The plurality of souls in the Absolute is therefore
appearance and their existence not genuine ... souls like their bodies,
are as such nothing more than appearance--Neither (body and soul) is real
in the end: each is merely phenomenal." _Appearance_, pp. 305-307.]

[Footnote 102: Since I wrote this I have read Mr Wells' book _God the
Invisible King_. Mr Wells knows that he is indebted to oriental thought
and thinks that European religion in the future may be so too, but I do
not know if he realizes how nearly his God coincides with the Mahayanist
conception of a Bodhisattva such as Avalokita or Manjusri. These great
beings have, as Bodhisattvas, a beginning: they are not the creators of
the world but masters and conquerors of it and helpers of mankind: they
have courage and eternal youth and Manjusri "bears a sword, that clean
discriminating weapon." Like most Asiatics, Mr Wells cannot allow his
God to be crucified and he draws a distinction between God and the
Veiled Being, very like that made by Indians between Isvara and
Brahman.]

[Footnote 103: The Malay countries are the only exception.]

[Footnote 104: Thus Motoori (quoted in Aston's _Shinto_, p. 9) says
"Birds, beasts, plants and trees, seas and mountains and all other
things whatsoever which deserve to be dreaded and revered for the
extraordinary and pre-eminent powers which they possess are called
_Kami_."]

[Footnote 105: This impersonality is perhaps a later characteristic. The
original form of the Chinese character for T'ien Heaven represented a
man. The old Finnish and Samoyede names for God--Ukko and Num--perhaps
belong to this stage of thought.]

[Footnote 106: See the account of the Faunus message in this book.]

[Footnote 107: The chief exception in Sanskrit is the Rajatarangini, a
chronicle of Kashmir composed in 1148 A.D. There are also a few
panegyrics of contemporary monarchs, such as the Harshacarita of Bana,
and some of the Puranas (especially the Matsya and Vayu) contain
historical material. See Vincent Smith, _Early History of India_, chap.
I, sect. II, and _Pargiter Dynasties of the Kali Age_. The Greek and
Roman accounts of Ancient India have been collected by McCrindle in six
volumes 1877-1901.]

[Footnote 108: The inscriptions of the Chola Kings however (c. 1000
A.D.) seem to boast of conquests to the East of India. See Coedes "Le
royaume de Crivijaya" in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1918]

[Footnote 109: Very different opinions have been held as to whether this
date should be approximately 1500 B.C. or 3000 B.C. The strong
resemblance of the hymns of the Rig Veda to those of the Avesta is in
favour of the less ancient date, but the date of the Gathas can hardly
be regarded as certain.]

[Footnote 110: Linguistically there seems to be two distinct divisions,
the Dravidians and the Munda (Kolarian).]

[Footnote 111: The affinity between the Dravidian and Ural-Altaic groups
of languages has often been suggested but has met with scepticism. Any
adequate treatment of this question demands a comparison of the earliest
forms known in both groups and as to this I have no pretension to speak.
But circumstances have led me to acquire at different times some
practical acquaintance with Turkish and Finnish as well as a slight
literary knowledge of Tamil and having these data I cannot help being
struck by the general similarity shown in the structure both of words
and of sentences (particularly the use of gerunds and the constructions
which replace relative sentences) and by some resemblances in
vocabulary. On the other hand the pronouns and consequently the
conjugation of verbs show remarkable differences. But the curious Brahui
language, which is classed as Dravidian, has negative forms in which
_pa_ is inserted into the verb, as in Yakut Turkish, e.g. Yakut
_bis-pa-ppin_, I do not cut; Brahui _khan-pa-ra_, I do not see. The
plural of nouns in Brahui uses the suffixes _k_ and _t_ which are found
in the Finnish group and in Hungarian.]

[Footnote 112: See the legend in the Sat. Brah. I. 4. 1. 14 ff.]

[Footnote 113: This much seems sure but whereas European scholars were
till recently agreed that he died about 487 B.C. it is now suggested
that 543 may be nearer the true date. See Vincent Smith in _Oxford
History of India_, 1920, p. 48.]

[Footnote 114: Pali Takkasila. Greek Taxila. It was near the modern
Rawal Pindi and is frequently mentioned in the Jatakas as an ancient and
well-known place.]

[Footnote 115: Most of them are known by the title of Satakarni.]

[Footnote 116: But perhaps not in language. Recent research makes it
probable that the Kushans or Yueeh-chih used an Iranian idiom.]

[Footnote 117: Fleet and Franke consider that Kanishka preceded the two
Kadphises and began to reign about 58 B.C.]

[Footnote 118: He appears to have been defeated in these regions by the
Chinese general Pan-Chao about 90 A.D. but to have been more successful
about fifteen years later.]

[Footnote 119: Or Hephthalites. The original name seems to have been
something like Haptal.]

[Footnote 120: Strabo XV. 4. 73.]

[Footnote 121: _Hist. Nat_. VI. 23. (26).]

[Footnote 122: For authorities see Vincent Smith, _Early History of
India_, 1908, p. 401.]

[Footnote 123: The inscriptions of Asoka mention four kingdoms, Pandya,
Keralaputra, Cola and Satiyaputra.]

[Footnote 124: Hinduism is often used as a name for the mediaeval and
modern religion of India, and Brahmanism for the older pre-Buddhist
religion. But one word is needed as a general designation for Indian
religion and Hinduism seems the better of the two for this purpose.]

[Footnote 125: Excluding Burma the last Census gives over 300,000. These
are partly inhabitants of frontier districts, which are Indian only in
the political sense, and partly foreigners residing in India.]

[Footnote 126: Only tradition preserves the memory of an older and freer
system, when warriors like Visvamitra were able by their religious
austerities to become Brahmans. See Muir's _Sanskrit texts_, vol. I. pp.
296-479 on the early contests between Warriors and Brahmans. We hear of
Kings like Janaka of Videha and Ajatasatru of Kasi who were admitted to
be more learned than Brahmans but also of Kings like Vena and Nahusha
who withstood the priesthood "and perished through want of
submissiveness." The legend of Parasurama, an incarnation of Vishnu as a
Brahman who destroyed the Kshatriya race, must surely have some
historical foundation, though no other evidence is forthcoming of the
events which it relates.]

[Footnote 127: In southern India and in Assam the superiors of
monasteries sometimes exercise a quasi-episcopal authority.]

[Footnote 128: Sat. Brahm. v. 3. 3. 12 and v. 4. 2. 3.]

[Footnote 129: The Markandeya Purana discusses the question how Krishna
could become a man.]

[Footnote 130: See for instance _The Holy Lives of the Azhvars_ by
Alkondavilli Govindacarya. Mysore, 1902, pp. 215-216. "The Dravida Vedas
have thus as high a sanction and authority as the Girvana (i.e.
Sanskrit) Vedas."]

[Footnote 131: I am inclined to believe that the Lingayat doctrine
really is that Lingayats dying in the true faith do not transmigrate any
more.]

[Footnote 132: E.g. Brih.-Ar. III. 2. 13 and IV. 4. 2-6.]

[Footnote 133: This is the accepted translation of _dukkha_ but perhaps
it is too strong, and _uneasiness_, though inconvenient for literary
reasons, gives the meaning better.]

[Footnote 134: The old Scandinavian literature with its gods who must
die is equally full of this sense of impermanence, but the Viking
temperament bade a man fight and face his fate.]

[Footnote 135: But see Rabindrannath Tagore: Sadhana, especially the
Chapter on Realization.]

[Footnote 136: Cf. Shelley's lines in Hellas:--

"Worlds on worlds are rolling ever
From creation to decay,
Like the bubbles on a river
Sparkling, bursting, borne away."]

[Footnote 137: Nevertheless _deva_ is sometimes used in the Upanishads
as a designation of the supreme spirit.]

[Footnote 138: E.g. Brih.-Ar. Up. IV. 3. 33 and the parallel passages in
the Taittiriya and other Upanishads.]

[Footnote 139: The principal one is the date of Asoka, deducible from an
inscription in which he names contemporary Seleucid monarchs.]

[Footnote 140: _E.g._ a learned Brahman is often described in the Sutta
Pitaka as "a repeater (of the sacred words) knowing the mystic verses by
heart, one who had mastered the three Vedas, with the indices, the
ritual, the phonology, the exegesis and the legends as a fifth."]

[Footnote 141: There had been time for misunderstandings to arise. Thus
the S^{.}atapatha Brahmana sees in the well-known verse "who is the God
to whom we shall offer our sacrifices" an address to a deity named Ka
(Sanskrit for _who_) and it would seem that an old word, _uloka_, has
been separated in several passages into two words, _u_ (a meaningless
particle) and _loka_.]

[Footnote 142: Recent scholars are disposed to fix the appearance of
Zoroaster between the middle of the seventh century and the earlier half
of the sixth century B.C. But this date offers many difficulties. It
makes it hard to explain the resemblances between the Gathas and the Rig
Veda and how is it that respectable classical authorities of the fourth
century B.C. quoted by Pliny attribute a high antiquity to Zoroaster?]