Idolatry and witchcraft are rampant. Some saviour, some
light was needed.
Buddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought.
At such a time, probably 557 B.C., was born Shaka, of the Muni clan, at
Kapilavastu, one hundred miles northeast of Benares. We pass over the
details[7] of the life of him called Prince, Lord, Lion of the Tribe of
Shaka, and Saviour; of his desertion of wife and child, called the first
Great Renunciation; of his struggles to obtain peace; of his
enlightenment or Buddhahood; of his second or Greater Renunciation; of
merit on account of austerities; and give the story told in a mountain
of books in various tongues, but condensed in a paragraph by Romesh
Chunder Dutt.
"At an early age, Prince Gautama left his royal home, and his
wife, and new-born child, and became a wanderer and a mendicant,
to seek a way of salvation for man. Hindu rites, accompanied by
the slaughter of innocent victims, repelled his feelings. Hindu
philosophy afforded him no remedy, and Hindu penances and
mortifications proved unavailing after he had practised them for
years. At last, by severe contemplation, he discovered the long
coveted truth; a holy and calm life, and benevolence and love
toward all living creatures seemed to him the essence of
religion.
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