Still other systems followed: one by Gautama, of the same clan or family
of the later Buddha, who develops inference by the construction of
syllogism; while Kanada follows the atomic philosophy in which the atoms
are eternal, but the aggregates perishable by disintegration.
Against these schools, which seemed to be dangerous "new departures,"
orthodox Hindus, anxious for their ancient beliefs and practices as laid
down in the Vedas, started fresh systems of philosophy, avowedly more in
consonances with their ancestral faith. One system insisted on the
primitive Vedic ritual, and another laid emphasis on the belief in a
Universal Soul first inculcated in the Upanishads.
Conditions out of which Buddhism Arose.
Whatever we may think of these schools of philosophy, or the connection
with or indebtedness of Gautama, the Buddha, to them, they reveal to us
the conceptions which his contemporaries had of the universe and the
beings inhabiting it. These were honest human attempts to find God. In
them the various beings or six conditions of sentient existence are
devas or gods; men; asuras or monsters; pretas or demons; animals; and
beings in hell. Furthermore, these schools of Hindu philosophy show us
the conditions out of which Buddhism arose, furnish us with its
terminology and technical phrases, reveal to us what the reformer
proposed to himself to do, and, what is perhaps still more important,
show us the types to which Buddhism in its degeneration and degradation
reverted.
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