" (d) Idam kho Bhikkave Dukkha-nirodha-gamini-pațipadá ariya-saccam: Ayameva ariyo aṭṭhangiko maggo: seyyathidam Sammaditṭhi, Samma-sankappo, Sammā-vācā, Sammā-kammanto, Samma-ajivo, Sammā-vāyāmo, Samma-sati, Samma-samādhi." "The steps which lead to the suppression of Dukkha (misery) are noble truths: these constitute the noble eightfold path: as such Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Living, Right Endeavour, Right Recollection, Right Contemplation." How is this intense dissatisfaction with life and all that pertains to it to be explained? Buddha throws further light upon this view of life in another sermon which he delivered to the five Bhikkhus at Benares : (a) "Rupam Bhikkhave anattā." "O Bhikkhus, rūpa (all objects seen and other objects of sense) is without a self or substratum." They are not Real but merely Phenomenal,-not only they but all our sense-experience and the world of knowledge built up by Sense and Understanding. Underlying this discontent with the Phenomenal, there is the inevitable hankering for the Real. This was identified by later Buddhists with Sunnata or negation of phenomena, i.e., the Transcendental Reality. (6) "Rupam aniccam." tr Rūpam (things seen which symbolize all objects of sense) is impermanent." "Yam panāniccam tam Dukkham, viparināmādhammam." "That, again, which is impermanent is misery, subject to change." This is why Buddha considered life and everything connected with it as misery. There is a sort of naive realism which takes for granted all that is, without any discrimination between the real and the unreal, the essential and the non-essential. Buddha as well as the Upanishads fought against this great illusion and demanded that life and the world we live in must be re-interpreted and there must be a revaluation of the ends of pursuit. It was no wonder then that the wrong view of life, which treated the world as if it were real and permanent, and on which the entire fabric of society seemed to rest in those days, should be decried and a new interpretation insisted upon. Buddha approached the problem from the practical (moral) point of view, while the Upanishads did it from the theoretical (intellectual) point of view. Buddha's religion hence became Transcendental Ethics, while the Upanishads inculcated Transcendental Metaphysics. Let us now consider his views about the ultimate goal, viz., Nirvana. (a) After death.-Buddha was the very impersonation of sympathy. He was often called to minister unto dying men who sought his last bene liction as well as the assurance of a future life. The following quotation records the re-assuring words which he addressed to a lay disciple to whose deathbed he had been summoned for the last ministrations: "Seyyathāpi, Mahānāma, puriso sappikumbham và telakumbham gambhiram udakarahadam ogāhetvā bhindeyya. Tatra yā assa sakkharā vā kaṭhala vā sā adhogāmi assa Yanca khvassa tatra sappi vā telam vā tam uddhamgāmi assa visesagāmi. Evameva kho Mahānāma yassa kassici digharattam saddhāparibhāvitam cittam sila-suta-caga-pañña-paribhāvitam cittam, tassa kho hoti khvāyam-kāyo rūpī cātumāhabhutiko mātāpitiko sambhavo odanakummasupacayo anniccuchhädana-parimaddana-bhedana-vidhamsanadhammo. Tam idheva Kākā khād inti, gijjhā vā khādanti, Kulala vā khādanti, Sunakhā vā khādanti, Sigālā vā khâdanti, vividhā pānakajāta và khādanti. Yanca khvassa tam cittam digharattam siddha-paribhävitam sila-suta-cagapañña-paribhavitam, tam uddhamgāmi hoti visesagāmī.” "Just as, Mahānāma, when a man breaks an earthen vessel containing oil or clarified butter after diving into a lake, the broken fragments of the pot take a downward course, but the oil or clarified butter takes an upward and a special course; so it is certain, Mahānama, in the case of the man who has long disciplined his cittam (the intelligent principle in man, or soul) through reverence, right conduct, learning, renunciation and perfect wisdom, his body which has a form and is made up of the four elements, is derived from father and mother, is nourished by rice and rice-gruel, is impermanent, and can be killed and crushed, pierced and destroyed, is eaten, while here, by crows, vultures, ospreys, dogs, jackals, and various other animals; but his cittam (soul), which has been long disciplined through reverence, right conduct, learning, renunciation and perfect wisdom, takes an upward and a special course.' After death, the body is destroyed, but the soul lives, provided that a man has led a good and virtuous life. (b) Dhammatanu.-In the last words which Mahapajāpati Gotami addressed to Buddha, when she was dying, she drew a contrast between two bodies, Rupakāya and Dhammakȧya, i.e., the material and the spiritual bodies. She spoke of herself as having reared up the material boly of Buddha as she took his mother's place after her death, and of Buddha as having nourished her Anindita Dhammatanu, the unblemished spiritual body. The doctrine of Dhammakaya was further developed in the northern school of Buddhism, but space will not allow me to refer to it here. (c) Nirvana is a transcendent state. The Udana speaks thus of Nirvāna : "Yattha apoca pathavi, tejo vayo no gādhati, Na tattha sukkā jotanti, ādicco nappakāsati, There white things do not shed lustre, neither does the There the moon does not glow, neither does darkness exist." This is a description of the transcendent state almost in the same words as have been quoted above in connection with the Upanishads. (d) Nirvana is happiness: Sariputra is reported to have spoken about Niravāna thus: : "Ekam samayam ayasmā Sāriputto Rajagahe viharati Veluvane Kalandaka-Nivape. Tatra kho ayasma Sariputto Bhikkhu amantesi: Sukhamidam āvuso Nibbāṇam, sukhamidam Ayuso Nibbananti." "Once upon a time, Sariputto was living in KalandakaThere the reverend Săriputta "O my friends, Nirvana is Nivåpa, in Velu vana, Rajagaha. addressed the Bhikkhus thus: happiness; Nirvana is happiness." When he was pressed by the Bhikkhus to explain why he thought it to be happiness, though it had been described by the Master to be beyond feeling (i.e., Joy and Sorrow), he replied that it was bliss because it was beyond all objects of enjoyment which have been condemned by the Master as really pain. Nirvana is Transcendent Bliss. (e) Nirvana is a state of mind in which there is neither consciousness nor not-consciousness. It is Transcendental Consciousness. It is described as Sañña-na-sañña ayatanam. This description exactly corresponds to the fourth state of the Self as expounded in the Upanishads. Thus we find that both Buddhism and Vedantism arose out of the same movement of thought and tried to re-interpret life and revise the standards of value so far as the ends of life are concerned. The happy, uncritical optimism of the early Vedic stage is passed under a relentless scrutiny and found wanting, and new views of life are sought for re-interpreting the world of existence. Both the systems seek a revaluation of life under the guidance of a transcendent vision, resulting in the one case, in the doctrine of a Transcendent Being who is the background of all things, and in the other case of a Transcendent State of Being in which the finite, the unreal and the ephemeral ultimately lose themselves. To the Vedantist, contemplation or thought, is the way of salvation, to the Buddhist, right conduct, or action, is the path to the attainment of Undying Bilsɛ. III.—Notes on Asoka's Inscriptions (II). By K. P. Jayaswal. (6) "ANUBANDHA " AND "KRITABHIKARA ". Revision of Sentence. Anubandha occurs in Aśoka's Rock Series Dharma-lipi ("Rock Edict") V, in connection with remission of punishment of convicts (bandhana-badhasa pațividhānāya). Its meaning has been missed by Bühler. It is a technical term of Hindu Law meaning motive', 'intention'. Manu, VIII. 126, lays down that in inflicting punishment anubandha, and 'place and time', amongst other things, should be taken into consideration. Medhätithi gives two meanings to the word: 'motive' or ' repeatedness' (of the offence). That the former is correct is proved by Manu, VII. 16, where anubandha is replaced by vidyā or 'knowledge', and by Vasishtha's Dharmasûtra, xix. 9, which also substitutes vidya for anubandha. Aśoka's Ministers of the Dharma (Department) revised sentences on the grounds of (a) Anubandha (motive), (b) Prājāva (children to be supported by the prisoner), (c) Old age, and (d) Kritābhikāra.* Against this MANU (VIII. 126) has (a) Anubandha (motive), (6) Circumstances (' place and time'), (c) Strength (of the prisoner) and * इयौं ब्अनुबन्ध ं मनाव ति वा कटाभिकाले ति वा महालकेति वा (Kalsi). |