A Comparative View of Religions | Page 4

the rise of various theological
and philosophical systems. To these belong, first, the "Vedanta," (end
of the Veda) or the dogmatic-apologetic exposition of the Veda. This
contains (1) the establishment of the authority of the Veda as holy
scripture revealed by Brahma, and also of the relation in which it stands
to tradition; (2) the proof that everything in the Veda has reference to
Brahma; (3) the ascetic system, or the discipline. To explain
contradictory statements in the older and later parts of the Veda,
Brahminical learning makes use of the subtleties of an harmonistical

method of interpretation. Second, the "Mimansa" (inquiry), devoted to
the solution of the problem, How can the material world spring from
Brahma, or the immaterial? According to this system, there is only one
Supreme Being, Paramatma, a name by which Brahma himself had
been already distinguished in Manu's book of law. Outside of this
highest Being, there is nothing real. The world of sense, or nature,
(Maya, the female side of Brahma), is mere seeming and illusion of the
senses. The human spirit is a part of Brahma, but perverted, misled by
this same illusion to the conceit that he is individual. This illusion is
done away with by a deeper insight, by means of which the dualism
vanishes from the wise man's view, and the conceit gives place to the
true knowledge that Brahma alone really exists, that nature, on the
contrary, is nought, and the human spirit nothing else than Brahma
himself. Third, the "Sankya" (criticism) originating with Kapila, in
which, in opposition to the "Mimansa," the individual being and the
real existence of nature, in opposition to spirit, is laid down as the
starting-point, and the result reached is the doctrine of two original
forces, spirit and nature, from whose reciprocal action and reaction
upon each other the union of soul and body is to be explained. Is this
union unnatural, then the effort of the wise man should be to free
himself, through the perception that the soul is not bound to the body,
from the dominion of matter. In this system, there is no room for an
infinite being, for, if a material world exist, then must God be limited
by its existence, and therefore cease to be infinite, that is God. The
Sankya philosophy here came in conflict with the orthodox doctrine of
the Brahmins, and prepared the way for Buddhism.
d. Buddhism.
Against Brahminism Buddhism arose as a reaction. Siddharta, son of
Suddhodana, the King of Kapilavastu, of the family of the Sakya,
(about 450 B.C.) moved by the misery of his fellow-countrymen,
determined to examine into the causes of it, and, if possible, to find
means of remedying it. Initiated into the wisdom of the Brahmins, but
not satisfied with that, after years of solitary retirement and quiet
meditation, penetrated with the principles of the Sankya, he traversed
the land as pilgrim (Sakya-muni, Sramana, Gautama) and opened to the

people of India a new religious epoch. The tendency of the new
doctrine was to break up the system of caste, and free the people from
the galling yoke of the Brahminical hierarchy and dogmas. While in
Brahminism man was deprived of his individuality, and regarded only
as an effluence from Brahma, and tormented by the fear of hell, and by
the thought of a ceaseless process of countless new births awaiting him
after death, whence the necessity of the most painful penances and
chastisements, Sakya-muni began with man as an individual, and in
morals put purity, abstinence, patience, brotherly love, and repentance
for sins committed above sacrifice and bodily mortification, and
opened to his followers the prospect, after this weary life, no more to be
exposed to the ever-recurring pains of new birth, but released from all
suffering to return to Nirvana, or nothingness. While Brahminism drew
a distinction between man and man, and with hierarchical pride took no
thought of the Sudra or lower class of the people, and limited wisdom
to the priestly caste, Sakya-muni preached the equality of all men, came
forward as a preacher to the people, used the people's language, and
chose his followers out of all classes, even from among women. Both
of these opposed systems are one-sided. In Brahminism, God is all, and
man, as personal being, nothing; in Buddhism, man is recognized as an
individual, but apart from God, while in both systems, the highest
endeavor is to be delivered from, according to Brahminism a seeming,
according to Sakya-muni a really existing individuality, the source of
all human woe, and to lose one's self either in Brahma or in the
Nirvana.
Less on account of his doctrine, in which there is found neither a God
nor a personal immortality, than on account of the universal character
of his words and of