ethics of civilization

BECK index
Mahavira and Jainism
Parshva
Mahavira
Jainism
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The legendary founder of Jainism was called Rishabha, but claims that he lived many millions of years ago are obviously exaggerated. This first Tirthankara (literally "maker of the river-crossing") is said to have invented cooking, writing, pottery, painting, and sculpture, the institution of marriage and ceremonies for the dead. Not much else is recorded about Rishabha and the next twenty Tirthankaras, but the ancient Jaina tradition that there were ascetic religious teachers in India before the coming of the Vedic Aryans is likely from evidence found in the Harappan culture.

The twenty-second Tirthankara, Arishtanemi, is mentioned in the Kalpa Sutra. All of the Tirthankaras were Kshatriyas, and Arishtanemi was the son of King Ashvasena of Varanasi (Benares) and cousin of Krishna, who is supposed to have lived during the great Bharata war probably about 900 BC. According to legend Krishna negotiated his marriage to princess Rajamati. However, when Arishtanemi discovered the great number of deer and other animals to be sacrificed at his wedding, he changed his mind to prevent their slaughter, brooded over the cruelty and violence of human society, and soon renounced the world to seek and find enlightenment.

Parshva
The twenty-third Tirthankara, Parshva, probably lived in the eighth century BC. Legends connect him with snakes, one of whom he saved from fire when a Brahmin ascetic was about to burn a log where it was hiding. He married a princess, and up to the age of thirty he lived in great splendor and happiness as a householder. Then he gave up all his wealth to become an ascetic. After 84 days of intense meditation he became enlightened and taught as a saint for seventy years.

Parshva was called "Beloved" and organized an order (samgha) of monks, nuns, and lay votaries of many thousands, though the numbers are probably exaggerated. He had eight or ten disciples (ganadharas) according to different sources. His religion was open to all without distinction of caste or creed, and women were a large part of the order. He allowed his followers to wear an upper and lower garment.

The main emphasis of Parshva was on the first vow of non-injury (ahimsa) or abstinence from killing any living beings. The other three vows Parshva required were truthfulness, not to steal, and freedom from possession. These vows are exactly the same as the first four vows of the sannyasins of the Vedic tradition who renounce the world. The Brahmanic fifth vow of liberality could not be practiced by mendicants without possessions.

Two centuries later during the life of Mahavira there were still followers of Parshva, and they are mentioned in Buddhist texts as well as in Jaina scriptures. In addition to Brahmanical sects of ascetics like those described in the Upanishads who acknowledged the authority of the Vedas, new shramana (ascetic) sects were appearing which challenged the Vedas and their rituals, emphasizing ethics and allowing those of any caste and women to renounce the world as well.

Mahavira
Before turning to Mahavira and the Buddha, let us briefly examine a few of the other teachers who appeared in India in that spiritually rich sixth century BC. Purana Kassapa was a respected teacher who promulgated a no-action theory (akriyavada). Once he explained to King Ajatashatru that there is no guilt for causing grief or torment or killing, robbing, etc., and no merit for offering sacrifices, self-mastery, or speaking truth; because the soul is passive, no action can affect it. Nothing can defile one nor purify one. Purana Kassapa claimed that only an infinite mind could comprehend a finite world, and it was said that he could perceive anything. The Buddha even credited Kassapa and other heretical teachers with the ability to know where a particular dead person was reborn.

Another esteemed religious leader was Pakudha Katyayana, who may have been the one who asked Pippalada in the Prashna Upanishad about the roots of things. His doctrine classified everything into seven categories: earth, water, fire, air, pleasure, pain, and soul, all of which are eternal. Like Kassapa, Katyayana denied the reality of action, asserting that the soul is superior to good and evil and untouched by any change. His doctrine was called Eternalism by Mahavira and the Buddha, who both considered it another theory of non-action.

The founder of materialism in India was Ajita Keshakambalin. He found no merit in sacrificing or offering or doing good either, because nothing exists but the material world - no other world, no afterlife, no benefit from service, no ascetics who have attained enlightenment or perfection. When a person dies, the body returns to earth, fluids to water, heat to fire, and breath to air, the senses into space, and no individuality remains. He criticized the view of Katyayana and others that the soul existed independently of the body. Ajita saw the individual as a whole, which the apprehending mind can conceive. Mahavira criticized Ajita's philosophy for encouraging people to kill, burn, destroy, and enjoy the pleasures of life, but actually Ajita taught people to respect life and honor the living while they are alive rather than death and those who are dead.

The leader of the agnostics (Ajnanavada) was Sanjaya Belatthiputta. He found so many contradictory views of the soul and body current that he believed it was better to realize that one is ignorant of these things than to adopt one folly or another. His followers were described as wriggling out of answering questions like an eel and were criticized by Jainas for walking around in ignorance. However, in disregarding speculative questions he did attempt to focus the attention of his many followers on the attainment and preservation of mental equanimity. Sanjaya may have prepared the way for Mahavira's doctrine of antinomies (syadvada) and the Buddha's method of critical investigation (vibhajyavada), for they both found that there could be no final answers to some of the difficult questions of cosmology, ontology, theology, and eschatology.

The leader of the Ajivaka sect at this time, Mankhali Gosala, became closely associated with Mahavira. Gosala traveled with Mahavira for six years, but then he left because of doctrinal differences and was the leader of the Ajivaka sect for sixteen years in Savatthi at the pottery workshop of the woman Halahala.

Gosala taught a theory of transformation through re-animation like the seeds of plants. Humans are purified through transmigration, and the complete cycle of reincarnation periods is said to be eighty-four hundred thousand, possibly the origin of the term "wheel of eighty-four." He believed that everything was pre-destined, and nothing could change fate. Thus he denied the usefulness of effort or manly vigor, rationalizing that these, like all things, are unalterably fixed and predetermined. Everything acts according to its own nature, and nature is a self-evolving activity making things come to pass and cease to be.

Gosala believed that karma is independent of individual will and follows its own logic. He categorized humanity into six groups and put himself with only two other individuals in the "supremely white" category. He described eight stages of life from babyhood to renunciation, and his followers practiced the fourfold discipline of asceticism, austerity, comfort-loathing, and solitude. Although criticized by Jainas and Buddhists as amoral, Gosala taught that although it was predetermined, it was still one's duty to be lawful, not trespass on other's rights, make full use of one's liberties, be considerate, pure, abstain from killing, be free from earthly possessions, reduce the necessities of life, and strive for the best and highest of human potential. Aside from the determinism one can find many similarities in the teachings of Gosala and Mahavira. They divided living beings into the same six categories, and both recommended nudity for the saints and believed in the omniscience of the released.

Mahavira was born in Kundapura near Vaishali. The traditional Jaina date for Mahavira's birth is 599 BC, but comparison with the life of Buddha and the Magadha kings Bimbisara and Ajatashatru indicate that his death at the age of 72 was probably about 490 BC. An elaborate legend is told in the Acharanga Sutra and in the Kalpa Sutra how he was conceived in the womb of the Brahmin Devananda, who had fourteen prophetic dreams but then after three lunar cycles divinely transferred to the womb of the Kshatriya Trishala, who also had the same fourteen prophetic dreams. These fourteen dreams are supposed to indicate that the child will become either an emperor or a great Tirthankara (prophet). This unbelievable story probably resulted from the Jaina tradition that all the Tirthankaras were Kshatriyas, perhaps converting his stepmother into a second mother.

The father of Mahavira was King Siddartha; he and Trishala were both pious and virtuous followers of Parshva. Trishala was the sister of King Chetaka of Vaishali, the capital of a federation where the Jainism of Parshva was popular. King Chetaka had seven daughters, one of whom was initiated into the Jaina order of ascetics while the other six married famous kings, including King Shrenika (Bimbisara) of Magadha and Mahavira's own brother, Nandivardhana.

Since the wealth of his father's kingdom had increased during the pregnancy, the child was called Vardhamana. He was raised in princely opulence and showed his courage as a child by mounting a charging elephant by the trunk and on another occasion picking up a large snake and casting it aside. For his courage and self-control in enduring the rules of penance, Vardhamana was given the name Mahavira, which means great hero. Jaina comes from jina meaning victor or conqueror. He probably received the usual education for an aristocrat in philosophy, literature, military and administrative sciences, and the arts.

Mahavira married a princess named Yasoda, and they had a daughter, Anojja. She eventually married his nephew Jamali, who later caused a schism in the order. When Mahavira was 28 years old, both his parents died. He wanted to renounce the world; but to please his elder brother he agreed to live at home for two more years during which he practiced self-discipline, giving up all luxuries and giving charity to beggars every day of the last year.

At the age of thirty Mahavira renounced all his wealth, property, wife, family, relatives, and pleasures. In a garden of the village Kundapura at the foot of an Ashoka tree, no one else being present, after fasting two days without water he took off all his clothes, tore out the hair of his head in five handfuls, and put a single cloth on his shoulder. He vowed to neglect his body and with equanimity to suffer all calamities arising from divine powers, people, or animals. Having already attained before marriage the first three levels of knowledge (knowledge from the senses and mind, knowledge from study, and knowledge from intuition), at this initiation it was said he attained the fourth level of knowledge that includes the psychological movements of all sentient beings.

Thus Mahavira became homeless. As he was leaving the garden, a Brahmin beggar, who had missed out on the last year of Mahavira's almsgiving, asked him for alms; he gave him half of the garment on his shoulder. After thirteen months he gave up clothes altogether.

Neglecting his body,
the venerable ascetic Mahavira meditated on his self,
in blameless lodgings and wandering,
in restraint, kindness, avoidance of sinful influence,
chaste life, in patience, freedom from passion, contentment;
practicing control, circumspectness, religious postures and acts;
walking the path of nirvana and liberation,
which is the fruit of good conduct.
Living thus he with equanimity bore,
endured, sustained, and suffered all calamities
arising from divine powers, men, and animals,
with undisturbed and unafflicted mind,
careful of body, speech, and mind.1

After a few months of wandering Mahavira went to an ashram in Moraga, where he was invited to spend the four-month rainy season by its abbot who was a friend of his father. Mahavira was assigned a hut with a thatched roof. The previous summer had been so hot that the grass in the forest was destroyed, and the cattle ran to eat the ascetics' grass huts. The other ascetics beat off the cattle, but Mahavira just let the cattle eat the thatched roof. The ascetics complained to the abbot, and so Mahavira decided to leave the ashram and spent the rainy season in the village of Ashtika.

Reflecting upon this experience, Mahavira resolved to follow the fivefold discipline of never living in the house of an unfriendly person, usually standing with the body like a statue (kayostarga), generally maintaining silence, eating out of his hand as a dish, and not showing politeness to householders. Thus he practiced meditation and severe austerities. In the summer he would meditate in the sun or walk through sun-baked fields, and in winter he would meditate naked in the open air. Each year during the rainy season he stayed in one place. He walked quietly, carefully keeping his eyes on the ground so as to avoid stepping on any insects. He stayed in deserted houses, crematoriums, gardens, or any solitary place.

What little food he ate he got from begging. If he saw any other beggar, animal or bird waiting for food at a house, he would silently pass by to another house. He fasted for fifteen days at a time and up to a month. He passed the second rainy season at Nalanda, where he met Gosala, who was impressed by Mahavira and joined him. Traveling with Gosala, his fasts now extended as long as two months. According to Jaina biographies of Mahavira, Gosala often insulted others and misbehaved, while Mahavira remained silent and still (in kayostarga). This brought upon them abusive behavior.

In Choraga of Bengal they were taken for spies and imprisoned. Another time they were both tied up and beaten. In Kuiya they were once again imprisoned as spies but were released at the behest of two sisters. In the sixth year Gosala left Mahavira for six months; but he returned until the tenth year when he left Mahavira and proclaimed himself a prophet and leader of the Ajivika sect. Mahavira went to Vaishali where the republican chief Sankha rescued him from trouble caused by local children.

In the eleventh year Mahavira was tested by a god named Samgamaka, who gave him terrible physical pain, accompanied him begging, and contaminated his food. Mahavira gave up begging and sat in meditation. For six months Samgamaka inflicted tortures on him, but unable to disturb him he finally fell at his feet and begged his forgiveness before returning to his own place. Government officials in Tosali took Mahavira for a thief and tried to hang him, but he was rescued in time.

In the twelfth year Mahavira took a vow that he would fast until an enslaved princess with a shaven head and fettered feet, in tears and tired after three days fasting, would lean out a window and offer him boiled pulse. It was five months and twenty-five days before such an event occurred in Champa. While in this town a Brahmin questioned him about the soul and its characteristics. Mahavira explained that what one understands by the word "I" is the soul.

In Chammani a bull strayed while grazing, and a cowherd asked Mahavira about it. Met with silence, the cowherd became enraged and pushed grass sticks into Mahavira's ears. Remaining peaceful and undisturbed, Mahavira continued his wanderings until eventually a physician noticed the condition, removed the painful plugs from his ears, and cured the wound with medicine. Seeking the highest enlightenment, Mahavira meditated for six months sitting motionless, but he failed. He did penance in a cemetery when Rudra and his wife tried to interrupt him.

Finally in the thirteenth year of this ascetic life while meditating after two and a half days of waterless fasting, Mahavira attained nirvana and the highest awareness called kevala or absolute knowledge. The first message of Mahavira after his enlightenment is recorded in the Buddhist text Majjhima Nikaya:

I am all-knowing and all-seeing,
and possessed of an infinite knowledge.
Whether I am walking or standing still,
whether I sleep or remain awake,
the supreme knowledge and intuition
are present with me---constantly and continuously.
There are, O Nirgranthas, some sinful acts
you have done in the past,
which you must now wear out
by this acute form of austerity.
Now that here you will be living restrained
in regard to your acts, speech and thought,
it will work as the nondoing of karma for future.
Thus, by the exhaustion of the force of past deeds
through penance and the non-accumulation of new acts,
(you are assured) of the stoppage of the future course,
of rebirth from such stoppage,
of the destruction of the effect of karma,
from that, of the destruction of pain,
from that, of the destruction of mental feelings,
and from that, of the complete wearing out
of all kinds of pain.2

After attaining omniscience Mahavira attended a religious conference by the river Ijjuvaliya, but his first discourse had little effect. Then he traveled to another conference in the garden of Mahasena, where in a long discussion he converted eleven learned Brahmins, who had gone there to sacrifice. Breaking the tradition of speaking in Sanskrit, Mahavira spoke in the Ardhamagadhi dialect, and all the Jaina Agama scriptures are written in Ardhamagadhi.

Hearing of a magician, the Brahmin Indrabhuti Gautama went to expose him; but as he approached the garden, Mahavira called him by name and reading his mind, said, "Gautama, you have a doubt in your mind about the existence of the soul." Then Mahavira explained how to interpret a passage in the Vedas so as to understand that, although categories of knowledge may disappear, this does not affect the existence of the soul. This mind-reading and wisdom convinced Indrabhuti of the omniscience of Mahavira. After hearing Mahavira's discourse on his essential teachings, Indrabhuti decided to renounce the world and was initiated by Mahavira into the religion.

Having heard of his brother's defeat by Mahavira, Agnibhuti Gautama came to debate with Mahavira; but he too, won over by Mahavira's explanation of the reality of karma and the soul's bondage to it, also became initiated. According to tradition nine more scholars argued with Mahavira and were converted, becoming his eleven disciples. Jaina tradition also claims that these eleven brought along 4400 of their pupils into the new faith.

Then Mahavira wandered in silence for sixty-six days until he reached Rajagriha, the capital of the powerful state Magadha. King Shrenika (Bimbisara) and his family attended, and he received satisfactory answers to his questions. Indrabhuti was quite learned and vain; but when an old man came to him for an explanation of a sloka Mahavira had quoted before becoming lost in meditation, Indrabhuti could not explain it. When Mahavira explained it, all of Indrabhuti's pride fell away in the presence of the great ascetic.

Mahavira organized his order into four groups of monks, nuns, male householders, and female householders. All those initiated had to take the five vows, which included the four vows of Parshva (nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, and non-possession) plus chastity. After spending the rainy season at Rajagriha, Mahavira went to Vaishali, where he initiated his daughter and son-in-law Jamali and spent the next year's monsoon season. Perceiving telepathically that the king of Sindhu-sauvira wanted to meet him, Mahavira traveled there and initiated King Rudrayana into the religion of the Shramanas.

Returning from this long journey through the desert of Sindhu, they suffered from lack of food and water but remained indifferent. At Benares a multi-millionaire and his wife were converted. Spending two more rainy seasons in Rajagriha twenty-five of King Shrenika's sons were initiated into the Shramana community. It was recorded that Ardraka Kumara, a non-Aryan prince, who knew his past births, traveled to Mahavira to join his order and on his way defeated in argument Gosala, Vedic Brahmins, and other ascetics.

At Kaushambi Mahavira converted King Prodyota and several queens, who were admitted into the order of nuns. After spending a rainy season at Vaishali he went back to Rajagriha, where he converted many followers of Parshva's religion who adopted the fifth vow of the Shramana community as well. Later he convinced Keshi Kumara, the leader of the Parshva religion, that he was the 24th Tirthankara, and Keshi brought his disciples into the new order. A few years later his son-in-law Jamali left the Shramana order with his disciples to form the Vahurata sect; but it was not successful, and most of his disciples returned to Mahavira's order.

A dispute arose when Mahavira said that Gosala was not omniscient. Hearing of it and approaching Mahavira, Gosala tried to explain to him that he was no longer his disciple, because he was a different soul, who had entered Gosala's body and founded a new religion. Mahavira asked why he was vainly trying to conceal his identity. The irate Gosala swore at him and abused two of the Jaina monks, according to tradition destroying them, although Mahavira had warned them not to argue with Gosala. However, the negative energy that Gosala aimed at Mahavira returned to himself. He said that he would cause Mahavira to die of a fever in six months. Mahavira replied that he would live on, but that Gosala would be struck by his own magical power and die from fever in seven days, which came to pass. Mahavira outlived Gosala by sixteen years, but the Ajivika sect Gosala founded lasted for many centuries.

When Kunika (Ajatashatru) forcibly took over his father's kingdom of Magadha, he moved the capital to Champa, where many princes and townspeople adopted Mahavira's religion. Although Ajatashatru liked to listen to Mahavira, it did not stop him from gathering a large army and allies to attack and defeat the Vaishali confederacy in a major war that killed King Chetaka.

Finally at the age of 72 Mahavira left his body and attained nirvana, liberated and rid of all karma, never to return again. His first disciple, Indrabhuti Gautama, died also at dawn the next morning.

Jainism
According to Jaina tradition nine of the eleven disciples attained the highest knowledge of kevala during Mahavira's lifetime, usually many years before their nirvana and final death. Indrabhuti Gautama, the first disciple, attained kevala and nirvana the same night Mahavira died. The other disciple, Sudharma, became the leader of the Nirgrantha community (Nirgrantha means unfettered ones.) and attained kevala knowledge after twelve more years and died eight years later at the age of one hundred. Thus Sudharma led the Order (Samgha) for twenty years and was succeeded by Arya Jambu Swamy, who had been initiated at the age of 16, attained kevala knowledge twenty years later, and directed the community until his nirvana death when he was 80. According to Jaina tradition he is the last person to have attained omniscience and nirvana.

The essential metaphysical ideas of Jainism are nine cardinal principles. The universe is divided into that which is alive and conscious (jiva) and matter which is not (ajiva). Jivas (souls) are either caught by karma (action) in the world of reincarnation (samsara) or liberated (mukta) and perfected (siddha). Though their number is infinite, jivas are individuals and each potentially infinite in awareness, power, and bliss. Matter (ajiva) is made up of eternal atoms in time and space which can be moved and stopped.

The other seven principles explain the workings of karma and the soul's liberation from it. The soul (jiva) is attracted to sense-objects by the principle of ashrava which leads to the bondage (bandha) of the soul by karma, which covers up and limits the soul's natural abilities to know and perceive in its blissful state, resulting in delusions and a succession of births. The next two principles are virtue (punya) and vice (papa) by which all karma either works beneficially toward liberation or negatively toward bondage.

The seventh principle samvara is how the soul prevents ashrava (the influx of karma) by watchfulness and self-discipline of mind, speech, and body. This eventually leads to nirjara, the elimination of karma. Finally moksha or liberation is attained. In one's last life at death, nirvana (literally "being extinguished") describes the end of worldly existence for the soul, which then rises to the highest heaven.

Although Jainas believe that souls may have some lives as gods and goddesses in heavenly worlds or suffer in hell and become demon-like, there is no total God lifting up souls or punishing them in hell. Rather each individual jiva is responsible for itself and completely determines its own destiny, although these jivas do have the divine attributes of infinite knowledge, power, and bliss. This doctrine of individual responsibility makes Jainism a primarily ethical religion, as does the severity of their five vows of nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity, and non-possession.

Ahimsa (nonviolence) means not injuring any living thing in any way, and the Jainas took it very seriously. Injuring an animal or causing anyone to do so was considered a sin. This meant walking carefully so as not to injure even the tiniest creatures. The mind had to be watched to prevent thoughts and intentions that might lead to quarrels, faults, pain, or any kind of injury. Similarly one's speech had to be carefully monitored. The Jaina must be careful in laying down their begging utensils so as not to hurt a living being, and food and water must be carefully inspected to make sure no living things are hurt or displaced.

As with nonviolence one must not speak any lies nor cause any lies to be spoken nor consent to any lies being spoken. Thus the Nirgrantha (Jaina) speaks only after deliberation and renounces anger, greed, fear, and mirth so that no falsehoods will be uttered. This vow combined with nonhurting (ahimsa) meant that speech must be pleasant and not painful or insulting in any way. Silence as a discipline was observed most of the time.

Non-stealing means that nothing must be taken that is not freely given. Thus the Nirgrantha begs only after deliberation and according to strict rules, consumes food and drink only after permission is granted, occupies only limited ground for short periods of time, continually renewing the grant to be there.

Chastity is the renunciation of all sensual pleasures. To achieve this discipline monks do not discuss women nor contemplate their lovely forms nor recall previously enjoyed pleasures nor occupy a bed or couch used by women, animals, or eunuchs. A Nirgrantha does not eat and drink too much nor drink liquor nor eat highly seasoned food.

Finally all attachments must be renounced, even to the delight in agreeable sounds or being disturbed by disagreeable ones. Similarly with all the five senses, one may not be able to avoid all experiences, but one is not to be attached to the agreeable ones, for those who acquiesce and indulge in worldly pleasures are born again and again. By these disciplines the wise avoid wrath, pride, deceit, greed, love, hate, delusion, conception, birth, death, hell, animal existence, and pain.

In order to find liberation four things must be attained: human birth, instruction in the teachings, belief in them, and energy in self-control. This meant freeing oneself from family bonds, giving up acts and attachments, and living self-controlled towards the eternal. Collecting alms one may be insulted and despised, but the wise with undisturbed mind sustains their insults and blows, like an elephant in battle with arrows, and is not shaken any more than a rock is by the wind. The sage lives detached from pleasure and pain, not hurting and not killing; bearing all, one's luster increases like a burning flame as one conquers desires and meditates on the supremacy of virtue, though suffering pain.

The great vows, which are a place of peace, the great teachers, and the producers of detachment have been proclaimed by the infinite victor (Jina), the knowing one, as light illuminating the three worlds (earth, heaven, and hell). The unfettered one living among the bound should be a beggar, unattached to women, and speak with reverence, not desiring this or the next world. The dirt of former sins committed by a liberated mendicant walking in wisdom, who is constant and bears pain, vanishes like the tarnish from silver in the fire. Free from desire with conquered sensuality, one is freed from the bed of pain like a snake casts off its skin. Renouncing the world, the sage is called "the maker of the end," for that one has quit the path of births.

The soul cannot be apprehended by the senses, because it possesses no corporeal form and thus is eternal. The fetters on the soul are caused by bad qualities, which cause worldly existence. The golden rule is a part of the Jaina teachings and is extended to all living beings:

Having mastered the teachings and got rid of carelessness,
one should live on allowed food,
and treat all beings as one oneself would be treated;
one should not expose oneself to guilt
by one's desire for life;
a monk who performs austerities should not keep any store.3

Once a disciple of Parshva, the 23rd Tirthankara, asked Gautama why Mahavira taught five vows instead of four. Earlier chastity was practiced as part of non-possession or detachment, but Keshi also explained that the first saints were simple and slow of understanding; they could practice the teachings better than they could understand them. The last saints were prevaricating and slow of understanding; though they might understand them, they had difficulty practicing them. Those in between were simple and wise; they easily understood and practiced them.

The three gems of Jainism are right attitude, right knowledge, and right conduct. The right attitude takes an unbiased approach, believes in the nine essential principles, and uses discriminating perception. Right knowledge proceeds through the five stages of sense perception, study, intuition, clairvoyance, and omniscience (kevala). Right conduct or character comes from self-discipline, renunciation, and pure conduct in practicing the five major vows. The rationale for self-discipline is explained in the Uttaradhyayana

Subdue yourself, for the self is difficult to subdue;
if your self is subdued,
you will be happy in this world and the next.
Better it is that I should subdue myself
by self-control and penance,
than be subdued by others
with fetters and corporal punishment.4

The rules for walking, sitting, begging for food, and evacuating one's bowels were very strict. In order to avoid causing anyone else even to do injury in preparing food, for example, monks must not accept food that is especially prepared for them. The monk must not encourage a lay person to give alms by playing with their children, giving information, praising charity, declaring one's family, expatiating on one's misery, curing the sick, threatening, showing one's learning, and so on.

Attending a sacrifice performed by a Brahmin, a sage named Jayaghosha explained that a true Brahmin is one who has no worldly attachment, who does not repent being a monk, who delights in noble words, who is exempt from love, hate, and fear, who subdues oneself and reaches nirvana, who thoroughly knows living beings and does not injure them, who speaks no untruth from anger or fun or greed or fear, who does not take anything that is not given, who does not love carnally divine, human, or animal beings in thought, words, or action, who is undefiled by pleasure as a lotus growing in water is unwetted, who is not greedy, lives unknown with no house or property or friendship with householders, who has given up former connections with relations, and who is not given to pleasure.

Showing that character and actions are more important to what one is than outward symbols or birth and color in regard to caste, Jayaghosha declared,

The binding of animals, all the Vedas, and sacrifices,
being causes of sin, cannot save the sinner;
for one's works are very powerful.
One does not become a Shramana by the tonsure,
nor a Brahmin by the sacred syllable aum,
nor a Muni by living in the woods,
nor a Tapasa by wearing kusha-grass and bark.
One becomes a Shramana by equanimity,
a Brahmin by chastity, a Muni by knowledge,
and a Tapasa by penance.
By one's actions one becomes a Brahmin
or a Kshatriya or a Vaisya or a Sudra.5

Then Jayaghosha warned the Brahmin that there is a kind of glue in pleasure. Those who are not given to pleasure are not soiled by it, but those who love pleasures wander around in Samsara (reincarnation) and are not liberated. He said that if you take two clods of clay, one wet and one dry, and fling them against the wall, the wet one will stick to it. So the foolish are fastened to karma by their pleasures; but the dispassionate are not, just as the dry clay does not stick to the wall.

Mahavira's theory of knowledge (syadvada) is relativistic and tentative to allow for the relativity of this world. Anything may be or not be or be indescribable or any combination of these to allow for various perspectives.

Mahavira taught 73 methods for exertion in goodness by which many creatures, who believed in and accepted them, studied, learned, understood, and practiced them, and acted according to them, obtained perfection, enlightenment, deliverance, beatitude, and an end to all misery. Briefly they are: longing for liberation, disregard of worldly objects, faith in the law, obedience to other monks and the guru, confession of sins, repenting to oneself and the guru, moral purity, adoration of the 24 Jinas, expiation, meditating without moving the body, self-denial, praises and hymns, time discipline, penance, asking forgiveness, study, recitation, questioning, repetition, pondering, discourse, sacred knowledge, concentration, control, austerity, cutting off karma, renouncing pleasure, mental independence, using unfrequented lodgings, turning from the world, not collecting alms in only one district, renouncing useful articles, renouncing food, overcoming desires, renouncing activity and the body and company, final renunciation, conforming to the standard, doing service, fulfilling all virtues, freedom from passion, patience, freedom from greed, simplicity, humility, sincerity of mind and religious practice and action, watchfulness of mind and speech and body, discipline of mind and speech and body, possession of knowledge and faith and conduct, subduing the five senses, conquering anger and pride and deceit and greed and wrong belief, stability, and freedom from karma.

In disciplining the mind, speech, and body, Jainas often stood in one position for a long time. Meditation might focus on such thoughts as the impermanence of worldly things, human helplessness, transitory quality of human relations, aloneness, separateness of the conscious soul from the unconscious body, the impurity of the body, how attachment binds the soul by karma, how good thoughts may release the soul, how karma may be eliminated, the difficulty of attaining perfection, and how the teachings may save one.

Mahavira's travels spread Jainism to various parts of northern India, and later migrations of monks enabled the religion to take hold in most of India. A poetic work on the rules of behavior for monks by Arya Sayyambhava written about 400 BC expresses concern that an act might "undermine the prestige of the Jaina order."6 This lapse of humility, one of the main virtues emphasized in this work, does indicate that Jainism was very likely respected by many. The examples of these extremely conscientious ascetics surely must have had their affect on people wherever they went; since they were homeless, they traveled constantly.

Though they seem to have argued over doctrinal differences, no major schism occurred in the religion until the first century CE, and that was only over whether monks ought to go naked or whether they could wear a garment.

In evaluating the ethics of Jainism we must keep in mind that the ascetic monks and nuns were probably far outnumbered by the householders, who practiced a minor version of the five vows. The primary goal of those who have renounced the world is spiritual liberation (moksha) from the wheel of reincarnation (samsara). Thus their lives were essentially motivated by this intention of removing their souls from the world. Though they lived lightly on the Earth, using as little of its resources as possible, they were still dependent on lay people for their meager survival needs. The complete focus on this other-worldly goal does seem to prevent them from contributing much to society except their example of self-discipline and possibly some teaching.

Yet the lay people, who practiced Jainism while earning a living and providing for their families, were contributing to society while doing their best not to harm others or any living creature. Thus they were vegetarians and, if true to the teachings, lived profoundly ethical lives. Although they provided examples of peace, Jainas often supported the wars that were common in ancient India. Their individual ethic somehow was not able to expand into a larger social ethic to convert society as a whole to the nonviolence they practiced as individuals.

The extremity of their ascetic disciplines seems to have disregarded personal pleasures and happiness so much that the religion never became as popular as Hinduism or Buddhism, although it managed to persist in substantial numbers. Jainism has contributed a marvelous example of individual harmlessness to our world, and though it may not be a complete solution to all human problems, it provided a spiritual path for those seeking liberation and an outstanding model of self-discipline and reverence for all life.

Notes
1. Acharanga Sutra tr. Hermann Jacobi, 2:15:24.
2. Majjh. I, p. 92-93 quoted in Jain, K. C, Lord Mahavira and His Times, p. 56-57.
3. Sutrakritanga tr. Hermann Jacobi, 1:10:3.
4. Uttaradhyayana tr. Hermann Jacobi, 1:15-16.
5. Ibid., 25:30-33.
6. Sayyanmbhava, Arya, Dasa Vaikalika Sutra, 5B:12.


Copyright © 1998-2004 by Sanderson Beck
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Contents
Vedas and Upanishads
Mahavira and Jainism
Buddha and Buddhism
Political and Social Ethics
Hindu Philosophy
Literature of India
India 30 BC to 1300
Delhi Sultans and Rajas 1300-1526
Mughal Empire 1526-1707
Marathas and the English Company 1707-1800
British India 1800-1848
British India's Wars 1848-1881
India's Renaissance 1881-1905
India's Freedom Struggle 1905-1918
Gandhi and India 1919-1941
Tibet, Nepal, and Ceylon 1800-1941
Southeast Asia to 1875
Pacific Islands to 1875
Summary and Evaluation
Bibliography
Chronological Index

BECK index

BECK index
Buddha and Buddhism
Siddartha Gautama
Buddha
Doctrine (Dharma)
Dhammapada
Questions of King Milinda
Community (Sangha)
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The oldest known date in the history of India is the death of the one called Buddha in 483 BC, and even that date is somewhat controversial. Buddha means "one who is intuitive, awakened, or enlightened." The famous historical person known as Buddha was also called the Tathagata, which means "the one who has come thus," and Shakyamuni, which means "the sage of the Shakya tribe." He is said to have lived eighty years, and thus was probably born in 563 BC.

Siddartha Gautama
His father Suddhodana of the Gautama clan was elected king of the Shakya tribe by its five hundred families just south of the Himalaya mountains in the realm of influence of the powerful Kosala monarchy. The son was born in the Lumbini garden and named Siddartha, which means "he who has accomplished his aim." Many myths and legends surround the birth of Siddartha, but most of these seem to have been developed centuries later in the Jatakas. A famous seer named Asita predicted that the child would either become a great king or, if he left home, a great teacher. His mother Maya died seven days after giving birth, and her younger sister Mahapajapati, who was also married to Suddhodana, became his foster mother.

By all accounts Siddartha was raised amid the finest luxuries of the time. Later he said that three palaces had been built for him - one for hot weather, one for cold, and one for the rainy season. His clothes were of the finest silk. When he walked on the grounds, someone held a white umbrella over his head. Even the servants were well fed, and music was played only by beautiful women.

Having demonstrated his skill in archery, Siddartha chose Yasodhara to be his wife, and they were married when he was about sixteen years old. For the next thirteen years he continued to live in luxury with his wife and concubines. Then about the time of the birth of his son Rahula, the famous four signs occurred. According to legend, his father had tried to prevent his princely son from experiencing any suffering or sorrow or religious contact so that he would become a king rather than a spiritual teacher.

However, one day while traveling outside the palace gates, Siddartha happened to come across an old man for the first time in his life. He was appalled at the wrinkles and decrepitude. On another occasion he happened to observe a sick person and learned about the loathsome nature of disease. The third sign came when he witnessed a funeral procession and was able to see the lifeless corpse that was being carried. The suddenness of these three experiences set him thinking about the transitoriness of human life. Finally he came upon a religious ascetic, who had renounced the world to seek enlightenment, a common occupation for Kshatriyas like himself as well as for Brahmins.

With the birth of his son he had fulfilled his obligation to continue his family line and decided that he too must renounce his kingdom and seek a way out of the human miseries of old age, sickness, and death. So he took off his silk garments and put on the coarse clothes of an ascetic and went south to Magadha seeking enlightenment.

While begging for his food in Rajagriha, the capital city of Magadha, his princely demeanor was observed by King Bimbisara (Shrenika). The king went to see Siddartha to find out who he was and what he was doing. Siddartha told him that he was purifying himself in order to achieve nirvana, and he promised to teach the king after he attained enlightenment.

Like the sages of the Upanishads, Siddartha practiced yoga and meditation. At Vaishali to learn meditative concentration he studied with Alara Kalama, who was said to have had hundreds of disciples. Siddartha soon learned how to reach the formless world, but still having mental anxieties he decided not to become a disciple of Alara Kalama. Nor did he become a disciple of his second teacher, Uddaka Ramaputra, after he attained the higher state of consciousness beyond thought and non-thought.

Still not satisfied, Siddartha decided to practice the path of extreme austerities, and in this quest he was joined by the sage Kaundinya and four others. He pressed his tongue against his palate to try to restrain his mind until the perspiration poured from his armpits. He restrained his breath and heard the violent sounds of wind in his ears and head. He went into trances, and some thought he was dead. He fasted for long periods of time and then decided to try limiting his food to the juice of beans and peas. As his flesh shrank, the bones almost stuck out of his skin so that he could touch his spine from the front; after sitting on the ground his imprint looked like a camel's footprint.

For six years Siddartha practiced such austerities, but instead of achieving superhuman knowledge and wisdom he only seemed to get weaker and weaker. Finally he thought that there might be a better way to attain enlightenment. He remembered how, while his father was working, he would sit in the shade of an apple tree free of sensual desires. Perhaps in concentrating his mind without evil ideas and sensual desires he should not be afraid of a happy state of mind. However, to gain the strength he felt he needed for this concentration he decided to start eating again. When he gave up practicing the extreme austerities, the five mendicants who were with him became disillusioned and left him, saying that Gautama lives in abundance and has given up striving.

Siddartha reasoned that a life of penance and pain was no better than a life of luxury and pleasure, because if penance on Earth is religion, then the heavenly reward for penance must be irreligion. If merit comes from purity of food, then deer should have the most merit. Those who practice asceticism without calming their passions are like a man trying to kindle fire by rubbing a stick on green wood in water, but those who have no desires or worldly attachments are like a man using a dry stick that ignites.

Regaining his strength from normal eating of the food he begged, Siddartha once again practiced meditation. Now he easily attained the first stage of joy and pleasure, then a joyful trance arising from concentration with serenity and the mind fixed on one point without reasoning and investigation. The third stage produced equanimity to joy and aversion in a mindful, happy state. In the fourth stage pleasure and pain were left behind in a mindful purity. With his mind thus concentrated and cleansed he directed it to the remembrance of former existences from previous births, also perceiving cycles of evolution and dissolution of the universe.

Then he directed his mind to the passing away and rebirth of beings, perceiving how the karma of evil actions, words, and thoughts leads to rebirth in miserable conditions and suffering in hell; but those beings leading good lives are reborn in a happy state in a heavenly world. Finally directing his mind to the means of ultimate release Siddartha realized that there is pain, a cause of pain, the cessation of pain, and a way that leads to that cessation of pain. Thus his mind was emancipated from sensual desires, the desire for existence, and ignorance.

According to legend this whole process occurred in one night after he had decided to sit under a tree until he became enlightened or died. It was also said that he was tested by Mara, the tempter, but Siddartha could not be swayed from his purpose. Thus darkness and ignorance were dispelled by the light as Siddartha Gautama became enlightened and was henceforth known as the Buddha.

Buddha
Having gained this doctrine, the Buddha thought how difficult it would be for humanity to understood because of their attachments and lust. Trying to teach it to them would be vexation for him. However, the god Brahma asked him to teach the doctrine, because some people, who were not too impure, were falling away from not hearing the teachings. Then the Buddha in pity for beings surveyed their conditions and saw some of little impurity whom he could teach. At first he thought of his former teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka, but in his clairvoyant awareness he realized that both of them had just died in the last few days. Then he decided to teach the five mendicants who had been with him in their striving. Perceiving that they were in the deer park at Benares, he decided to go there.

Along the way he met an Ajivika ascetic named Upaka, who when told of the Buddha's enlightenment, merely said that he hoped that it was so and went his way. When the five mendicants saw Siddartha Gautama, they thought they would not rise in respect but would offer him a seat. However, as the Buddha arrived, they spontaneously greeted him as a friend. They still criticized him for living in abundance, but the Buddha explained that he does not live in abundance. He spoke to them as one enlightened, and they had to agree that he never had spoken to them in that manner before. While he admonished two of them, the other three went off to collect alms; then he spoke with those three while the other two went for alms. In this way all five soon attained insight and the supreme peace.

In this deer park at Benares the Buddha gave his first sermon in which he explained that the two extremes are not to be practiced by the one who is enlightened - what is joined with the passions and luxury which is low, vulgar, common, ignoble, and useless, nor what is joined with self-torture which is painful, ignoble, and useless too. Avoiding these two extremes the enlightened follow the middle path which produces insight and knowledge and leads to peace, wisdom, enlightenment, and nirvana. Buddha then expounded the four noble (aryan) truths of his doctrine.

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of pain:
birth is painful; old age is painful;
sickness is painful; death is painful;
sorrow, lamentation, dejection, and despair are painful.
Contact with unpleasant things is painful;
not getting what one wishes is painful.
In short the five groups of grasping are painful.

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cause of pain:
the craving, which leads to rebirth,
combined with pleasure and lust,
finding pleasure here and there,
namely the craving for passion,
the craving for existence,
and the craving for non-existence.

Now this, monks, is the noble truth
of the cessation of pain:
the cessation without a remainder of craving,
the abandonment, forsaking, release, and non-attachment.

Now this, monks, is the noble truth
of the way that leads to the cessation of pain:
this is the noble eightfold way, namely,
correct understanding, correct intention,
correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood,
correct attention, correct concentration,
and correct meditation.1

The Buddha declared that Kaundinya had understood the doctrine, and he welcomed him as the first monk in the community by saying, "Come, monk, well proclaimed is the doctrine; lead a religious life for making a complete end of pain."2 After further instruction the other four mendicants were also admitted into the community (sangha). Then the Buddha preached to the five that the body, perceptions, feelings, the mind, and even discriminating consciousness are not the self or soul. By turning away from the body, perceptions, feelings, mind, and discriminating consciousness, one becomes free from craving and emancipated. Life then becomes religious and is no longer under finite conditions.

Yasa, the son of a wealthy guildmaster, lived in luxury at Benares, and like Siddhartha he became disgusted with his palace attendants. After hearing the Buddha's doctrine he left home and became the first lay disciple in the new community. The first women to become lay disciples were Yasa's mother and former wife. They were soon followed by four friends of Yasa and then fifty more. The Buddha then suggested that the sixty disciples wander around separately to preach the doctrine so that others may be liberated from the fetters of illusion, while he went to Uruvela in Magadha.

There thirty men of royal blood had entered the forest with their 29 wives and a courtesan for the one who was not married. When the courtesan ran off with their gold, silver, and gems, they all went to search for her and found the Buddha. He asked them if it was more important to seek for that woman or for themselves. When they agreed that their selves were more important, they sat down so that the Buddha could teach them how to seek within themselves.

Shakyamuni was sitting under a banyan tree when a Brahmin named Drona approached him in awe, asking if he was a god. The Tathagata said no. The Brahmin asked if he were a kind of nature spirit (gandharva or yaksha), but again the Buddha denied it. When he asked if he were a human, he denied that too. Finally Drona asked him if he was neither divine nor non-human nor human, then what was he? The reply was that he is Buddha (awake).

Shubha, a Brahmin student, asked the Buddha why humans differed so much in birth, intelligence, health, and so on. Shakyamuni explained that beings are heirs of karma, the consequences of their actions. Evildoers may experience happiness until their deeds ripen, and the good may experience bad things until their good deeds ripen. The pure and the impure create their own destinies; no one can purify another.

Also living in this region were three Brahmin brothers of the Kashyapa family. They were ascetics with matted hair over the age of seventy and were the most respected religious leaders in Magadha with a total of about one thousand disciples. The Buddha spoke with the oldest, Uruvilva Kashyapa, but it was difficult for him to accept that such a young man could be so holy. Finally the Buddha used his mystic powers, and convinced of the Buddha's superiority Uruvilva decided to follow him. The Buddha suggested that they ask his five hundred followers what they wanted to do, and they all decided to join as well, shaving their hair and beards and throwing their ceremonial utensils into the river. The two Kashyapa brothers saw the implements in the river and eventually joined as well with their disciples.

On the way to Rajagriha the Buddha and the thousand disciples saw the volcanic mountain Gayashirsa with its glowing fire. The Buddha preached his sermon on fire - how the sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and actions are burning with the poisons of covetousness, anger, and ignorance. At the capital he preached to King Bimbisara about the triple doctrine of charity, precepts, and good works. The king declared that all five of his wishes had been fulfilled - that he might be king, that a Buddha would come to his kingdom, that he would meet him, be instructed by him, and understand the teachings. After the sermon King Bimbisara donated a bamboo grove near the capital as a site for a monastery.

Also at Rajagriha lived the agnostic Sanjaya, who also had many disciples under two named Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, who were seeking enlightenment and a better teacher. Shariputra observed Assaji (one of the first five mendicants in the community) begging and learned of the Buddha's teachings. He told Maudgalyayana, and they told the two hundred fifty disciples of Sanjaya. Even though Sanjaya tried three times to stop them from going away, they all went to find the Buddha, who greeted them with the revelation that these two would become his greatest disciples. Within two weeks of joining the community both Shariputra and Maudgalyayana had become enlightened.

In meditating Maudgalyayana had trouble with drowsiness and falling asleep. The Buddha suggested several remedies including laying down for a while to sleep before resuming meditation. The uncle of Shariputra was a skeptic like Sanjaya and told the Buddha that he could not accept any conclusive doctrine. Shakyamuni simply asked him if he recognized his own doctrine as conclusive. Caught in self-contradiction, he realized the weakness and limitation of skeptical philosophy. Then the Buddha explained the law of causation in human life.

Having heard that his son had become a Buddha, King Suddhodana sent Udayin to invite Shakyamuni to the capital at Kapilavastu. Udayin was converted to the new religion, and Shakyamuni returned to his home town. His father criticized him for begging for food when he was rich enough to feed thousands of followers. Shakyamuni replied that mendicancy was the correct custom for his line, by which he meant the line of Buddhas. Verbal discussions were not enough to win over people who had known him as a boy; so the Buddha used his mystical powers to convince them.

Siddartha's half-brother Nanda was about to be declared crown prince and married to Sundari, the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, but he decided to join the community instead. However, he could not help thinking about Sundari; so the Buddha gave him a vision of hundreds of heavenly maidens, though this was later criticized by others as a wrong motivation for seeking enlightenment. Eventually Nanda repented of this motivation and asked the Buddha to dissolve his promise of these maidens, and Nanda attained enlightenment and became an arhat (a term meaning "worthy" or "honorable" used for disciples who attained the highest level of awareness).

Siddartha's son Rahula was also admitted to the community at the age of ten, but later a rule was made that minors under twenty could not join the community without permission from their parents. Many Shakya nobles also joined the community at this time (according to legend 80,000) including Ananda, Anuruddha, Devadatta, Bhaddiya, and Kimbila. On the way to Buddha they were accompanied by their barber and slave, Upali. They sent him back to Kapilavastu with their jewels, but afraid of the Shakyas' reaction, he put them on a tree and rejoined the five aristocrats. Upali, who was of the lowest caste, was ordained first giving him seniority over the nobles he had served so that their Shakya pride might be moderated. Like Mahavira, the Buddha taught in the ordinary language of the people rather than in the aristocratic Sanskrit.

Complaints that monks wandering around during the rainy season trampled the grass and destroyed living creatures led the Buddha to adopt the custom of staying in retreat during the three months of rain. After one of these retreats, a wealthy householder from Shravasti, who became known as Anathapindada ("Giver of alms to the unprotected"), confessed to the Buddha that he enjoyed his investing and business cares. Shakyamuni suggested that he be a lay disciple and continue his work and use it as a blessing for other people. So Anathapindada invited the Buddha to spend the next rainy season at Shravasti, the chief city in Kosala, where he purchased and built the Jetavana Monastery. Later when Anathapindada was dying of a painful illness, Shariputra went and taught him the mental concentration for the avoidance of pain usually only taught to monks; Anathapindada died in peace.

The Buddha liked the Jetavana Monastery to be quiet, for he once dismissed Yashoja and five hundred monks for talking too loudly after they arrived. However, they went to another place near Vaishali and made great spiritual gains. Later when the Buddha traveled to Vaishali, he noticed that the area was illuminated. He told Ananda to invite Yashoja and the five hundred monks to the hall with the peaked roof. When they arrived, the Buddha was sitting in silent meditation; they too joined him in silent concentration. Every few hours Ananda approached the Buddha to ask him to greet these monks, but Shakyamuni remained silent and in the morning told Ananda that if he understood meditation better, he would not have kept asking him to greet the monks, who were likewise sitting in immovable concentration.

A new monk once confessed to the Buddha for having eaten meat in his almsbowl, but the Buddha forgave those who ate meat that was not prepared for them. Their ethical principle was not to harm any living creature. Yet he criticized those who hunt and kill animals for sport and warned his followers not to accept any food from such blood-stained hands.

After Shakyamuni's father died as a lay disciple, he declared that a lay disciple, whose mind is free from the poisons of lust, attachment, false views, and ignorance, is no different than anyone else who is free. Fearing a famine, the Shakya warrior chiefs agitated for a war with the Kolyas over water rights to the Rohini River. The Kolyas had built a dike to conserve water; when they refused the Shakyas' demand to dismantle it, both sides prepared for war. Just before the battle was to begin, the Buddha spoke to both sides, asking them to compare the value of earth and water to the intrinsic value of people and the human blood they were about to spill. He told a parable about a decrepit demon, who fed on anger and took over a royal throne, becoming stronger as more anger was directed at him until the true king came and calmly offered to serve the throne, which led to the diminishment and disappearance of the anger demon. In this way the war was avoided.

Krisha Gautami was stricken with grief when her only son died. Unable to find a physician who could bring him back to life, someone suggested that she go to the Buddha. He told her to get a handful of mustard seed in the city, but it must be from a house where no one has ever lost a child, spouse, parent, or friend. Eventually she came to realize how common death was and put aside her selfish attachment to her child.

Prajapati, the aunt and foster mother of Shakyamuni, asked to be admitted to the community. With Ananda acting as intermediary, the Buddha established eight conditions for the admittance of nuns into the community. Nuns had to make obeisance to all the monks, even the newest, and nuns were not allowed to criticize a monk even though monks criticized nuns. Although they were not treated equally, at least women were allowed to join the community. The sexism was also apparent when the Buddha told Ananda that the religious life would only last five hundred years instead of a thousand because women had been admitted.

A legend tells how a disciple used magical power to get a sandalwood bowl that had been tied from the top of a bamboo pole as a kind of contest. When the Buddha heard of it, he forbade those in the community to use such magical powers and had the bowl broken up and used as perfume. He suggested that his disciples only gain adherents by the miracle of instruction.

In the ninth year after the enlightenment the Buddha was at Kaushambi, and the monk Malunkyaputra complained that the Buddha never explained whether the world is eternal or temporary, finite or infinite, or whether life and the body are the same or different, or whether arhats are beyond death or not. He even threatened to leave the community if the Buddha would not answer his questions. First the Buddha asked him if he had ever promised to explain these things; he had not.

Then he told the parable of a man who was pierced by a poisoned arrow, and his relatives summoned a doctor. Suppose, he said, the physician had said that he would not remove the arrow nor treat the patient until his questions had been answered, such as who made the bow, what kind it was, all about the arrow, and so on. The man would die, and still the information would not be known. Then the Buddha told Malunkyaputra that a person would come to the end of one's life before those metaphysical questions he had asked could be answered by the Tathagata. Those questions do not tend toward edification nor lead to supreme wisdom. However, the Buddha's teaching regarding suffering, its cause, and the means of ending it is like removing the poisoned arrow.

A conflict arose in the community when a monk who refused to admit he had committed an offense was expelled. Some complained that this violated their principle that only evil deeds committed with conscious intent are morally reprehensible. However, the Buddha declared that the two greatest ways to obtain demerit are not to ask forgiveness after committing a wrong and not to forgive one who has confessed and asked for forgiveness.

A Kalama nobleman from north of Kaushambi admitted that he had doubts because various teachers expressed contradictory views. The Buddha responded that he was wise not to believe everything but to question with reason and by experience. After thorough investigation whether the teachings are good, free from faults, praised by the noble, and when practiced lead to the welfare and happiness of oneself and other beings as well, then they may be accepted and lived.

At Asyapura they found Brahmin priests sacrificing horses, sheep, goats, cows, and other animals on bloody altars decorated with images of gods. The Buddha told his followers not to be deceived but to purify their hearts and cease to kill. They should not refuse to admit they are ascetics, who enjoy robes, bowl, bed, and medicine. In their simplified lives they learn how to calm their bodies and concentrate their minds to awaken the four religious qualities of loving friendship, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. The Buddha also declared that in regard to this ascetic life all the castes are equal.

A monk named Sona in the Sitavana Monastery at Rajagriha was so zealous in walking that his feet left a bloody trail. The Buddha asked him if his lute could be played well if the strings were too tight or too loose. Just so, excessive zeal may make the mind weary and one's thoughts irritable and uncertain. He suggested to Sona that gradual progress led to self-mastery and happiness rather than anxiety.

A young Brahmin named Vakula was so infatuated with the Buddha that he continually kept him in his sight. The Buddha explained that the one who sees the dharma (doctrine) sees the Buddha, but Vakula still always remained in his presence. Finally at the end of the rainy season the Buddha asked him to go away. Realizing that Vakula was climbing Vulture Peak to commit suicide, Shakyamuni went after him and called him back lest he destroy the conditions for winning great fruit.

An ambitious disciple named Purna decided to spread the doctrine to the Shronaparantakas. The Buddha, knowing that they were a dangerous people, asked him what he would do if they insulted and abused him. Purna said he would consider them good and kind for not hitting him and throwing rocks at him. But what if they hit and throw rocks? Then he would be glad they did not use clubs and swords. If they used clubs and swords, he would be glad they did not kill him; even if they kill him, they will have delivered him from his vile body. So equipped with patience and love Purna went to the Shronaparantakas and was about to be killed by a hunting archer for fun, when the hunter was so struck by how willing this person was to die that he stopped and eventually accepted the three refuges of the Buddha, the doctrine, and the community.

Another monastery at Purvarama near Rajagriha was donated by Vishakha, the daughter of a rich man. Once at this monastery the Buddha remained silent on the moon day when the preaching service and confessions by the monks took place. Finally the Buddha said to Ananda that the assembly was not wholly pure. Maudgalyayana, perceiving who the immoral person was, asked him to leave; when he refused to leave three times, he was escorted out of the hall by the arm. The Tathagata thought it strange that he should wait until he was thrown out. Then the Buddha declared that he would no longer attend these sessions, but the monks would recite the regulations themselves.

When Shakyamuni was about 55, his personal attendant at the time, Nagasamala, insisted on taking a different road than the Buddha advised and was beaten by robbers. At the Shravasti Monastery the Buddha announced that he wanted to have a permanent attendant. Shariputra volunteered, but the Buddha said his work was teaching. Maudgalyayana and others were also rejected. Ananda remained silent, but Shakyamuni asked him if he would find it a bother. Ananda said that it would not be bothersome, but he did not consider himself worthy. Then he offered to do it on the following eight conditions: that he not have to accept gifts or alms given to the Buddha nor dwell in his chamber nor accept invitations offered only to him and that he may accompany the Perfect One when the monks are invited, that he may present him to those who come from a distance, that he may have access to him at all times, and that whatever teaching he missed by absence should be repeated to him by the Perfect One's own lips. The Buddha heartily agreed, and Ananda was his personal attendant for the rest of the Buddha's life.

Shakyamuni was able to tame a dangerous robber and admitted him into the community. He also bathed and treated a monk, who was suffering from dysentery and had been neglected by the other monks because he lay in his own excrement. On another occasion he found that a leper understood the doctrine very well as he explained that whatever has a beginning must have an end.

About 491 BC when Shayamuni was 72, a schism arose in the community, because his cousin Devadatta wanted to take over as head of the community; but Buddha refused, saying that he would not even turn it over to Shariputra or Maudgalyayana much less to a vile one to be vomited like spit. Devadatta became resentful and used his magical powers to win the favor of Prince Ajatashatru, the son of King Shrenika Bimbisara. They plotted together to take over the kingdom of Magadha and the Buddhist community. Bimbisara and the Buddha were to be murdered; but since Bimbisara turned over his kingdom to his son, he was merely put in prison. There he soon died, though chronicles stated he was killed by his son.

Hired killers were converted by the Buddha, but Devadatta tried to roll a huge boulder from Vulture Peak down upon him. However, only Shakyamuni's foot was scratched. Yet spilling the blood of a Tathagata with murderous intent created terrible karma for Devadatta. When he had learned of his intent, the Buddha had already declared that Devadatta's words and actions were not to be considered as representing the community in any way. Although he had gained a few followers, these were persuaded to return to the real community after long sermons by Shariputra and Maudgalyayana when Devadatta fell asleep after his own talk. Abandoned and with his psychic powers destroyed by his evil intentions, Devadatta soon became ill and died.

King Ajatashatru, who had also listened to Mahavira, was eventually converted by the Buddha; but his previous evil intentions and actions prevented him from attaining the enlightenment he might have achieved in that life. Ajatashatru married the daughter of the Kosala king Pasenadi, and Pasenadi's son married a maiden of the resentful Shakyas who was secretly of low birth. Her son, Vidudabha, swore revenge against the Shakyas. Pasenadi killed his powerful general and his sons, replacing them with the nephew Digha Karayana. While Pasenadi was listening to the Buddha, Digha hurried off and put Vidudabha on the throne. Pasenadi tried to get help from Ajatasatru but died of exposure on the way to Rajagriha.

Surveying the world, the Buddha became aware of Vidudabha's intention to attack the Shakyas and three times was able to convince him to turn back; but on the fourth time the Shakyas' karma for poisoning the river could not be averted, and they were massacred. Enough Shakyas remained, however, to accept a portion of Shakyamuni's relics after his death. When Shakyamuni was 79, both his chief disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, died. Shariputra died in the home where he was born, but Maudgalyayana was killed by robbers to balance karma from a former life.

At the age of eighty the vitality of the Tathagata's body seemed to diminish, and he declared that he had only three months to live. Ananda missed the opportunity to plead with him to stay until the end of the eon as Buddhas could do, and Ananda was later blamed for that by the community. Finally Shakyamuni took his last meal, ordering a smith named Cunda to give him some mushrooms (literally pig's food or pork) and give the monks other food and then bury the rest of the mushrooms. Sharp sickness arose with a flow of blood and deadly pains, but the Buddha mindfully controlled them and declared that he would die in the third watch of the night. He sent word that Cunda was not to feel remorse but consider this giving of alms of the greatest merit.

Ananda asked the Buddha how he was to act toward women. The Buddha advised him not to see them; but if he saw them, not to speak to them; but if speaking, to exercise mindfulness. Then he said his burial was to be handled by the local Kshatriyas. That evening Ananda brought the local families to say goodby, and then the Buddha answered the questions of an ascetic named Subhadda. Before going through the four stages of higher awareness into nirvana, the last words of the Buddha were, "Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out your salvation with diligence."3

Doctrine (Dharma)
Having taught for forty-five years from his enlightenment to his death, the Buddha left behind a large compendium of teachings that were memorized by various of his disciples. Since writing was a rarity then in India, they were passed on through the community until they were written down several centuries later. These earliest texts are in the common Pali language and usually are dialogs between the Buddha and others. Often the Buddha emphasized that it was more important for disciples to see the dharma (doctrine) than the Buddha, because the dharma would remain and was what they needed to practice to attain enlightenment and even afterward. The third refuge for the Buddhist was in the community (sangha) of monks and nuns.

The Buddha advised his followers not to feel ill will or get angry when others spoke against them, because this might disrupt their self-mastery and prevent them from being able to judge whether the criticism was valid or not. For the same reason they should not be overly glad when the doctrine is praised.

In regard to the moral precepts, the Buddha described himself as having put away the killing of living things, holding himself aloof from the destruction of life. Having laid aside weapons, he is ashamed of roughness and full of mercy, being compassionate and kind to all creatures. He does not take what has not been given, is chaste, and speaks truth being faithful and trustworthy, not breaking his word to the world. He has put away lying and slander and does not raise quarrels. Thus does he live:

as a binder together of those who are divided,
an encourager of those who are friends,
a peacemaker, a lover of peace, impassioned for peace,
a speaker of words that make for peace.4

In describing the fruits of living as a recluse the Buddha emphasized to King Ajatasatru the importance of mindfulness toward the ethical significance of every action and word. Then having mastered the moral precepts, restrained the senses, endowed with mindfulness and self-possession, filled with content, the recluse chooses a lonely and quiet spot to meditate in order to purify the mind of lusts, the wish to injure, ill temper, sloth, worry, irritability, wavering, and doubt.

At the end of this long dialog King Ajatasatru confessed his sin in putting to death his father and asked to be a disciple of the blessed one. The Buddha accepted his confession and noted that in the tradition of the noble ones' discipline whoever sees one's fault as a fault and correctly confesses it shall attain self-restraint in the future.

The Buddha was quite a penetrating psychologist and described the psychological causality that leads to suffering in his theory of pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination). Sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, despair, old age, and death are all caused by birth, which depends on existence, which depends on attachment, which depends on desire, which depends on sensation, which depends on contact, which depends on the six senses, which depend on name and form, which depend on consciousness, which depends on karma, which depends on ignorance. However, by ending ignorance, then karma, consciousness, name and form, the six senses, contact, sensation, desire, attachment, existence, and birth with all the misery that comes after birth can be ended. Sensation and desire also lead to pursuit, decision, gain, passion, tenacity, possession, avarice, and guarding possessions, which can lead to blows and wounds, strife, quarreling, slander, and lies.

This process is further described in a parable about an ancient kingdom where the celestial wheel symbolizing the dharma disappeared. The king ignored the advice of the sages that he should share some of his wealth with the destitute. This led to widespread poverty and theft. At first the king gave some wealth to a thief to solve his problem, but then not wanting to reward stealing he ordered that thieves have their heads cut off. This led to the arming of the poor, increased violence associated with their stealing, and more murders. This also caused more lying, evil speaking, and false opinions. Eventually greed, adultery, perverted lust, and incest became common, followed by lack of respect for parents, religious teachers, and the heads of the clans. Human life became like hunters feel toward their game, and at times people treated each other like wild beasts. Finally deciding to do something good, people started to abstain from taking life, which led to abstaining from taking what is not given, abstaining from lying, and abstaining from adultery. As the virtues were practiced, the health of the society returned. When this happens, a fully awakened one (Buddha) called Maitreya will come. Until then the Buddha recommended that people live as islands unto themselves, taking the dharma as their refuge, letting the mind be filled with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

In another dialog the Buddha clarified the meaning of the eightfold path by saying that right view is knowledge of the four noble truths of suffering, its cause, cessation, and the way that leads to its cessation. Right aspiration is towards benevolence and kindness. Right speech is to abstain from lying, slander, abuse, and idle talk. Right doing is to abstain from taking life, from taking what is not given, and from carnal indulgence. Right livelihood is only described as putting away wrong livelihood. Right effort is toward preventing bad states from arising, putting away evil that has arisen, toward good states arising, and nurturing good that does arise.

Right mindfulness is being self-possessed and mindful in regard to the body, overcoming craving and dejection in feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Right rapture is being aloof from sensuous appetites and evil ideas, entering into and abiding in the four levels of higher awareness. The first of these has cogitation and deliberation born of solitude and is full of ease and joy. The second suppresses cogitation and deliberation evoking by itself concentration, calming the mind and dwelling on high. In the third stage one is disenchanted with joy, is calmly contemplative and aware. The fourth state leaves behind ease and transcends former happiness and melancholy by entering into the rapture of pure mindfulness and equanimity, feeling neither ease nor ill.

According to the Buddha the four motives that lead to evil deeds are partiality, enmity, stupidity, and fear. The six channels for dissipating wealth are being addicted to liquors, frequenting the streets at unseemly hours, haunting fairs, gambling, bad companions, and idleness.

These ethical teachings and discourses on many other subjects are from the sayings (Nikaya) of the Buddha in the first of the Three Baskets (Tripitaka) that make up the Pali Canon. The second basket contains the discipline (Vinaya) books for the monks and nuns. Later commentaries on the original teachings make up the third basket of "higher doctrines" (Abhidharma). The first book in this last collection has been called A Manual of Psychological Ethics (Dhamma-sangani).

The Dhamma-sangani lists the good states of consciousness as the following: contact, feeling, perception, volition, thought, application, sustained thinking, zest, ease, self-collectedness; the faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, insight, ideation, gladness, and life; right views, endeavor, mindfulness, and concentration; the powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, insight, conscientiousness, and the fear of blame; the absence of greed, hate, dullness, covetousness, and malice; serenity, lightness, plasticity, facility, fitness, and directness in mind and mental factors; intelligence, quiet, intuition, grasp, and balance.

The list of bad states of consciousness is similar except that the views, intention, endeavor, and concentration are wrong instead of right, and there is unconscientiousness, disregard of blame, lust, dullness, and covetousness instead of their absence. In a further discussion of these ties the perversion of rules and rituals and the disposition to dogmatize are added to covetousness, lust, and ill will. To the cankers (asavas) of sensuality, rebirth, and ignorance is added speculative opinion about useless metaphysical questions such as whether the world is eternal, the soul is infinite, the soul and body are different, or whether one exists after death.

A work on human types (Puggala-pannatti) analyzes individuals in terms of many characteristics such as the six sense organs and their objects (including mind as the sixth sense); eighteen elements of cognition, twenty-two faculties or functions, and such negative traits as being wrathful, vengeful, a hypocrite, a charlatan, jealous, avaricious, shameless, impudent, disobedient, associating with the wicked, having unguarded senses, being immoderate as to food, forgetful, unmindful, infringing moral laws, having wrong views, and internal and external fetters as well as their opposites. However, these texts mostly consist of dry and abstract lists with many repetitions.

Dhammapada
One of the greatest literary works of early Buddhism is the Dhammapada, which was placed among the smaller sayings in the first basket of sutras although it contains 423 stanzas in 26 chapters. Put together from highlights of Buddha's ethical teachings, it was in existence by the time of Emperor Ashoka in the third century BC. It begins with the idea that we are the result of our thoughts, impure or pure.

Those who harbor resentful thoughts toward others, believing they were insulted, hurt, defeated, or cheated, will suffer from hatred, because hate never conquers hatred. Yet hate is conquered by love, which is an eternal law. Those who live for pleasures with uncontrolled senses will be overthrown by temptation. Those who cleanse themselves from impurity, grounded in virtues, possessing self-control and truth are worthy of the yellow robe. Those who imagine truth in untruth and see untruth in truth follow vain desires.

Passion enters an unreflecting mind like rain comes into a badly roofed house. Wrong-doers suffer and grieve in this world and the next, but the virtuous find joy and happiness in both. The second chapter is on awareness and begins:

Awareness is the path of immortality;
thoughtlessness is the path of death.
Those who are aware do not die.
The thoughtless are as if dead already.
The wise having clearly understood this delight in awareness
and find joy in the knowledge of the noble ones.
These wise ones, meditative, persevering,
always using strong effort,
attain nirvana, the supreme peace and happiness.5

It is good to control the mind, but thought is difficult to guard and restrain. Yet a tamed mind brings happiness. A wise person, who shows you your faults, may be followed as though to hidden treasures. The wise, who teach, admonish, and forbid the wrong, will be loved by the good and hated by the bad. The wise mold themselves, as engineers of canals guide water and carpenters shape wood. The path of those who have stilled their passions and are indifferent to pleasure, perceiving release and unconditional freedom, is difficult to understand like that of birds in the sky.

Whoever conquers oneself is greater than the person who conquers in battle a thousand times a thousand people. In regard to punishment this text warns that those who inflict pain on others will not find happiness after death. Self is the master of the self, and a person who is self-controlled finds a master few can find. By oneself wrong is done and suffered, and by oneself one is purified.

In regard to the world the Buddha recommended not following a bad law any more than a wrong idea or thoughtlessness. He advised us not to be attached to the world but to follow the path of virtue, for the world is like a bubble or mirage. Most of the world is blind, but the wise are led out of it by conquering temptation. The teaching of the awakened ones is not to blame nor strike, but to live alone and restrained under the law, moderate in eating, and practicing the highest consciousness.

Joy is the natural state for those who do not hate those who hate them. Craving is the worst disease and disharmony the greatest sorrow. Health and contentment are the greatest wealth, trusting the best relationship, and nirvana the highest joy. Grief comes from pleasure, attachment, greed, lust, and craving. Anger may be overcome by love, wrong by good, avarice by generosity, and a liar by truth. The wise hurt no one and always control their bodies.

There is no fire like lust, no chain like hate;
there is no snare like folly, no torrent like craving.
The faults of others are easy to see;
our own are difficult to see.
A person winnows others' faults like chaff,
but hides one's own faults,
like a cheater hides bad dice.
If a person is concerned about the faults of others
and is always inclined to be offended,
one's own faults grow
and one is far from removing faults.6

Anyone who tries to settle a matter by violence is not just. The wise consider calmly what is right and wrong, proceeding in a way that is nonviolent and fair. For the Buddhist one is not noble because of injuring living beings; rather one is noble, because one does not injure living beings. Whoever realizes that all created things suffer, perish, and are unreal transcends pain. There is no meditation without wisdom and no wisdom without meditation, for in meditating one becomes wise; but in not meditating wisdom is lost. Whoever has wisdom and meditation is close to nirvana.

Lift up your self by yourself;
examine your self by yourself.
Thus self-protected and attentive
you will live joyfully, mendicant.
For self is the master of self;
self is the refuge of self.
Therefore tame yourself,
like a merchant tames a noble horse.
Joyful and faithful in the doctrine of the Buddha,
the mendicant finds peace,
the joy of ending natural existence.7

No one should hurt a holy one, but no holy one should strike back. The sooner the wish to injure disappears, the sooner all suffering will stop. The holy are free of all attachment, anger, and lust. Though having committed no offense, the holy bear reproach, ill treatment, and imprisonment. They are tolerant with the intolerant, peaceful with the violent, and free from greed among the greedy, speaking true words that are useful and not harsh. The holy call nothing their own, letting go of attachment to humans and rising above attachment to the gods. Eventually a holy one knows one's former lives, perceives heaven and hell, and reaches the end of births, having attained perfection.

Questions of King Milinda
Another great literary work of the Theravada ("way of the elders") school of Buddhism is The Questions of King Milinda. Menander was one of the Greek kings who ruled Bactria after the conquests of Alexander, carrying Greek power further into India than any of his predecessors in the last half of the second century BC; his name was Hinduized to Milinda by the unknown Buddhist author, who wrote this work a century or so later.

The philosophical dialog is preceded by a prophecy from the previous lives of the two individuals whereby the Buddha foretold they would have this discussion some five centuries hence. While living as a god in a heavenly world, Mahasena is persuaded to be reborn as Nagasena so that he could help to enlighten this king. King Milinda delights in philosophical discussion and has never met his match until he encounters Nagasena. He asks the sage every difficult question he can think of and is continually amazed at the sagacious replies of Nagasena. In this way the Buddhist doctrine is thoroughly tested and explained.

Even the first question asking his name elicits the response from Nagasena that there is no permanent individuality. King Milinda asks then who it is who lives, receives gifts, devotes himself to meditation, attains enlightenment, etc. Like a chariot it is none of the separate parts though their combination comes under the name "chariot," and he is known as Nagasena. Nagasena wants to know if Milinda will be discussing as a scholar who may be convicted of error or as a king who punishes disagreement, and King Milinda agrees to discuss as a scholar.

The next day the king asks Nagasena what is the goal of his renunciation. The highest aim is the end of sorrow and the complete passing away. Sinful beings are reindividualized after death; sinless ones are not. True wisdom is cutting off one's failings, and this is accomplished by good conduct, faith, perseverance, mindfulness, and meditation. Good conduct is achieved by virtue and wisdom. Faith frees the heart of lust, malice, mental sloth, pride, and doubt. Perseverance renders support, and mindfulness discerns the good qualities from the bad; but meditation is the leader of all the good qualities. The one who will not be born again is more aware and, though suffering physical pain, is free of mental pain.

But if there is no soul or individuality, how does reincarnation occur, and what reincarnates? Nagasena explains the doctrine of karma - how causes have their effects even from one life to the next. One who sets a fire is responsible for the other things that are burned by the spread of the fire. A person who prepares poison and drinks it oneself as well as giving it to others is responsible for one's own pain and shares responsibility for the pain of the others too. According to the Buddha it is karma that causes the many differences among people.

The king asks why the recluses are so concerned about taking care of their bodies if they don't love their bodies. The body is like a wound that must be treated with salve, oil, and a bandage even though one does not love the wound. Although Buddhism is in many ways a pessimistic philosophy, Nagasena nonetheless finds more merit than demerit, because eventually the wrong-doer acknowledges the wrong and feels remorse, eventually correcting and ending demerit. Yet those who do well do not feel remorse but gladness and peace and blissful feelings; thus good increases.

After seven days of abstinence the king continues his discussion with Nagasena, asking him about various dilemmas he found in the Buddhist doctrine. Nagasena solves every problem by giving various illustrations. For example, the Buddha admitted Devadatta to the order even though he knew that he would cause a schism because he perceived that even this contact with the Buddha would keep Devadatta from becoming even worse. Social prejudice is transcended as even a prostitute is able to perform a miracle by the power of truth.

Eleven advantages come to those who feel love toward all beings and put it into practice. Such people sleep in peace, awake in peace, have no sinful dreams, are dear to people and spirits, watched over by gods, not harmed by fire nor poison nor a sword, are easily tranquilized, calm, undismayed by death, and if arhatship is not attained, are reborn in the Brahma world. Though of a loving disposition, Prince Sama was shot by a poisoned arrow, because the virtues are not inherent in the person but are only effective at that moment while in use. The king is convinced that the felt presence of love has the power to ward off all evil mental states. Nagasena agrees heartily:

Yes! The practice of love is productive
of all virtuous conditions of mind
both in good and in evil ones.
To all beings whatsoever,
who are in the bonds of conscious existence,
is this practice of love of great advantage,
and therefore ought it to be sedulously cultivated.8

The king asks Nagasena whether virtue or vice is more powerful. The karma from vice seems to be effectively punished, this balancing in fact causes it to die away rather quickly; while virtue because of its grandeur lasts for a long time. Because virtue is rarely rewarded immediately as vice is often so punished, the results of virtue usually are received more abundantly in the lives to come. Also according to Nagasena vice only affects the doer, while virtue overspreads the whole world of gods and people. By giving the individual no peace the remorse from wrong-doing leads more quickly to the eradication of that evil.

Finally at the end of their discussions King Milinda ordered a building constructed for Nagasena and the monks, turned his kingdom over to his son, abandoned the household life to become homeless, grew in insight, and eventually became an arhat himself.

Community (Sangha)
After the Buddha's death in 483 BC, the first Buddhist Council was led by Mahakassapa during which Ananda recited the discourses on the doctrine and Upali the rules of the discipline. These were then memorized and became the first two baskets of the Pitaka, the Sutta and Vinaya. Buddhism added abstinence from intoxicants to the four cardinal rules of abstaining from violence, stealing, lying, and sexual misconduct.

At Buddhist gatherings the Pratimokshasutra was recited, followed by confessions of monks who felt they had violated any of it. The four offenses that led to expulsion were having sexual intercourse, taking what was not given, taking of a human life or persuading anyone to commit suicide, and falsely boasting of supernatural attainments. The thirteen offenses deserving suspension included sexual misdemeanors, harming living beings by building a hut, falsely accusing another monk of a major offense, persisting in causing divisions in the community, and refusing to move when admonished by other monks. Other minor violations were eating between meals, attending secular entertainment, using unguents and jewelry, using high or luxurious beds, and handling money.

A century after the death of the Buddha the monks of Vaishali relaxed the rules on ten minor points, leading to contributions of money to the monks. These were protested by the elder Yasa, who organized a council to condemn the changed rules. The easterners from Vaishali became known as Mahasanghikas, and the traditional westerners Theravada. According to tradition Theravada soon divided into eleven sects and Mahasanghikas into seven. Thus Buddhism was administered locally, though a monk could reside in any monastery irrespective of sect.

In the third century BC the Emperor Ashoka tried to unite the Buddhists, but he was stricken with remorse when his minister beheaded monks refusing to comply. Advised by the most learned monk of the time, Moggaliputta Tissa, all monks who did not follow the Theravada were dismissed from the community, and refutations of heretical views were published in the Kathavatthu of the Abhidamma basket. The number of sects was reduced, but others later denied that Ashoka ever held such a council. Regardless of whether that council was held, the support of Ashoka for Buddhism greatly expanded its influence so that it was even adopted and promoted by Greek rulers such as Menander.

The deification of the Buddha by the non-Theravadins led to the ideal of the Bodhisattva or future Buddha instead of the mere arhat. Bodhisattvas are enlightened persons, who postpone their own nirvana in order to help save all sentient creatures. This along with the conception of the pure mind (vijnana) eventually led to the "Greater Vehicle" or Mahayana Buddhism.

According to Edward Conze the earliest part of the Prajnaparamita Sutra is from about the first century BC.9 It explains that the Bodhisattva comprehending the truth does not retire into the blessed rest but dwells in wisdom to help others. In this wisdom one finds that all truths are empty. The Bodhisattva, assured of future Buddhahood by previous Buddhas, whether absorbed in trance or not, knows the essential original nature. Seeing everything and everyone as illusion, the Bodhisattva is not attached to anything, while guiding all beings to nirvana. The world is transcended in this practice of wisdom, the highest perfection. Later during the Christian era this form of Buddhism was to spread into China and throughout Asia.

Among the major religions Buddhism is unusual, like Jainism, in that it did not originally believe in God, though it recognized gods and goddesses and heavens and hells. Less stringent and more popular than the ascetic Jainism, it's emphasis on ethical behavior and the quest for enlightenment appealed to both those who renounced the world and laypeople. Though it also offered excellent individual models of ethical behavior and friendly attitudes, except in its religious community it was unable to convert society as a whole to its way of nonviolence any more than Jainism could.

Nevertheless in my opinion both Jainism and Buddhism even more provided outstanding examples of supremely ethical attitudes and actions. They were not afraid to criticize the priestly corruptions of Brahminism nor the violent ambitions of the ruling class (Kshatriyas). Mahavira and the Buddha were great teachers and leaders, and the non-theistic religions they founded nourished and enriched the spiritual tradition of India and encouraged ethical behavior among its people.

Perhaps the greatest contribution they both made was to make nonviolence a noble path in a culture where the word for noble (Aryan) had stood for racism based on color and the violent conquest of India. Their devotion to truthfulness and their ability to live simple lives with few material possessions as well as their chastity kept their lives relatively pure and free of entanglements and exploitation. Though surely not without their individual imperfections and occasional schisms, the good contributed to the world by these teachings and the lives of their best followers must have been substantial.

Notes
1. Samyutta Nikaya 5:420 tr. Sanderson Beck.
2. Thomas, Edward J., The Life of the Buddha, p. 88.
3. Maha Parinibbana Suttanta 6:7 (156).
4. Brahma-Jala Sutta 1:9 (4).
5. Dhammapada 2:1-3 tr. Sanderson Beck.
6. Ibid. 18:17-19.
7. Ibid. 25:20-22.
8. The Questions of King Milinda tr. T. W. Rhys Davids, 4:4:16.
9. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary tr. Edward Conze, p. x.


Copyright © 1998-2004 by Sanderson Beck
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Contents
Vedas and Upanishads
Mahavira and Jainism
Buddha and Buddhism
Political and Social Ethics
Hindu Philosophy
Literature of India
India 30 BC to 1300
Delhi Sultans and Rajas 1300-1526
Mughal Empire 1526-1707
Marathas and the English Company 1707-1800
British India 1800-1848
British India's Wars 1848-1881
India's Renaissance 1881-1905
India's Freedom Struggle 1905-1918
Gandhi and India 1919-1941
Tibet, Nepal, and Ceylon 1800-1941
Southeast Asia to 1875
Pacific Islands to 1875
Summary and Evaluation
Bibliography
Chronological Index

BUDDHA'S FIRST SERMON
DHAMMAPADA (PATH OF TRUTH)

BECK index

BECK index
                                                    Political and Social Ethics of India
Magadhan Ascendancy
Alexander's Invasion of India
Mauryan Empire, Ashoka and Sri Lanka
Dharma Sutras
Laws of Manu
Artha Shastra
Kama Sutra
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So far most of our knowledge about the ethics of ancient India has come to us from the religious writings of the Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, Jainism, and Buddhism. These are the oldest sources, as there were no significant historians of ancient India except for the Greek and Roman accounts of Alexander's conquests. Later we shall see what epic poetry revealed about Indian civilization. This chapter will review what we do know about the history of ancient India and then examine the writings about dharma (law, duty), politics, and pleasure.

As we learned from the Vedas, ancient India was ruled by kings and councils of prominent men in varying degrees of monarchy and republican influence. Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador to India shortly after Alexander's death, wrote a book on India stating that monarchies were dissolved and democratic governments were set up in the cities. Jainism and Buddhism flourished particularly in the independent clans. According to Buddhist texts, in the sixth century BC there were sixteen major states in northern India of which Magadha, Kosala, and Vatsa were the most powerful. Our last chapter recounted how Kosala massacred the Shakya clan; after the Buddha's death, Kosala also took over Kashi.

Vatsa was a prosperous country known for its fine cotton; its capital was Kaushambi. Their heroic king, Udayana, was descended from the Kurus of Bharata and was the subject of several poems and dramas. He was captured by the cruel king Pradyota of Avanti, but he contrived to escape with the help of Pradyota's daughter. Interested in Buddhism, Udayana was converted by Pindola, but not before he had tortured Pindola with brown ants while in a drunken rage.

Magadhan Ascendancy
Magadha rose to imperial power during the long reigns of Bimbisara (c. 544-491) and his son Ajatashatru (c. 491-460); their relations with the Buddha have been told. Only fifteen years old when he was anointed king by his father, Bimbisara conquered Anga, which had defeated his father. His son was installed in its powerful capital at Champa, and his diplomatic and matrimonial relations with Pradyota of Avanti also enhanced his power with the annexation of Kashi. The Magadha empire included republican communities such as Rajakumara. Villages had their own assemblies under their local chiefs called Gramakas. Their administrations were divided into executive, judicial, and military functions. Bimbisara was friendly to both Jainism and Buddhism and suspended tolls at the river ferries for all ascetics after the Buddha was once stopped at the Ganga River for lack of money.

After the death of Bimbisara at the hands of his son, Ajatashatru, the widowed princess of Kosala also died of grief, causing King Prasenajit to revoke the gift of Kashi and triggering a war between Kosala and Magadha. Ajatashatru was trapped by an ambush and captured with his army; but in a peace treaty he, his army, and Kashi were restored to Magadha, and he married Prasenajit's daughter.

Jain and Buddhist accounts differ slightly as to the cause of Ajatashatru's war with the Licchavi republic, but precious gems figured in both accounts. This conflict would determine the fate of eastern India and drew the attention of the Buddha, who suggested to the democratic Licchavis that they strengthen themselves by holding full and frequent assemblies while maintaining internal concord and efficient administration honoring elders, institutions, shrines, saints, and women.

However, Ajatashatru sent a minister, who for three years worked to undermine the unity of the Licchavis at Vaishali. To launch his attack across the Ganga River Ajatashatru had to build a fort at a new capital called Pataliputra, which the Buddha prophesied would become a great center of commerce. Torn by disagreements the Licchavis were easily defeated once the fort was constructed. Jain texts tell how Ajatashatru used two new weapons - a catapult and a covered chariot with swinging mace that has been compared to modern tanks.

Approaching the Buddha's assembly of monks to ask forgiveness for ending the life of his father, Ajatashatru could not understand how at night it could be so quiet near an assembly of more than a thousand people and exclaimed, "Would that my son Udayi Bhadda might have such calm as this assembly of the brothers has!"1 This conversation with the Buddha was a turning point in the life of Ajatashatru, and after the Buddha's death the chief disciple, Mahakassapa, entrusted the bulk of the relics to Ajatashatru. The king also repaired the facilities at Rajagriha used by the Buddhists and sponsored the first Buddhist council by providing clothing, food, residences, and medicine for about five hundred monks and elders.

According to Buddhist texts the four kings, who ruled Magadha after Ajatashatru, all killed their fathers, though Jain texts claim that his first successor was an adherent of their religion who was assassinated by his political rival, Palaka, the son of the Avanti king Pradyota, who had become powerful by conquering Kaushambi. Finally the people rose up against being ruled by murderers and elected Sishunaga king of Magadha; he destroyed the power of the Pradyotas and took over Avanti as well as Vatsa and Kosala. His son, Kalashoka, succeeded to a powerful empire, but he was murdered by a low-caste barber named Ugrasena, who founded the Nanda dynasty, which ended the traditional Kshatriyas' rule by exterminating their principalities. The last king of the Nandas was overthrown shortly after Alexander's Greek invaders left India in 326 BC because he was hated by his people for his wickedness, miserliness, and low origin.

Alexander's Invasion of India
Alexander's Conquest of the Persian Empire
Although the Persians extended their rule over the western edge of India under Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, the only major threat of foreign conquest came when Alexander of Macedonia invaded India in 326 BC. According to Greek historians, "None of the Indians ever marched out of their own country for war, being actuated by a respect for justice."2 Arrian also added that all the inhabitants were free, since no Indian was a slave, though he did describe seven castes as the naked wise men, farmers, animal herders, artisans, warriors, supervisors, and royal officials. Tillers of the soil were so respected that even when a war raged nearby, they plowed and gathered their crops in peace.

After conquering Bactria Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush mountains. Taking advantage of rivalries between kingdoms, Alexander gained in advance the allegiance of Shashigupta and eventually Ambhi, king of Taxila. Alexander sent Hephaestion and Perdiccas with half his forces through the Khyber Pass, and they laid siege to the Astenoi for thirty days before their king Astes fell fighting. Alexander also met opposition from the free peoples, and in one of these skirmishes he was wounded while scaling the walls. An Athenian quoted Homer that Ichor flows from the blessed gods, but the conqueror denied this divine implication, declaring flatly that it was blood. Because their glorious leader had been wounded, the Greeks massacred the entire population of that tribe. Forty thousand Aspasians were taken prisoner, and the 230,000 oxen captured indicates the prosperity of the area.

The Assakenoi resisted Alexander with tens of thousands of cavalry and infantry in a fortress at Massaga. After the king was killed, the army was led by his mother, Queen Cleophes, and included the local women. After several days of heroic fighting, Alexander offered these brave people their lives if the mercenaries would agree to join his army; the city capitulated. But not wanting to fight other Indians, the seven thousand mercenaries tried to run away from the camp and were slaughtered by Alexander's soldiers.

Next the town of Nysa surrendered, and the Greeks celebrated with Bacchic revels the taking of a town they thought was founded by Dionysus. Then Alexander delighted in taking the town of Aornus, because he heard that Heracles had failed to do so. These incidents indicate that the motive for these conquests was the glory of mythic renown, since there was no other known provocation or rationale for the invasion of another country so far from home except perhaps to steal their wealth or the propaganda they were spreading Greek culture.

King Ambhi of Taxila responded to Alexander's messengers with gifts and agreed to surrender his prosperous dominions with the following argument:

To what purpose should we make war upon one another,
if the design of your coming into these parts
be not to rob us of our water or our necessary food,
which are the only things
that wise men are indispensably obliged to fight for?
As for other riches and possessions,
as they are accounted in the eye of the world,
if I am better provided of them than you,
I am ready to let you share with me;
but if fortune has been more liberal to you than me,
I have no objection to be obliged to you.3

Alexander, not wanting to be outdone by this generosity, gave Ambhi even greater gifts, plus one thousand talents in money. However, a Macedonian military governor was appointed over Taxila, and Ambhi provided military support to help the Greeks fight his Indian enemies.

A naval officer named Onesicritus heard a lecture on ethics from the wise teachers, who received free food in the Taxila marketplace. They admired Alexander's love of wisdom even though he ruled a vast empire; they said he was the only philosopher in arms they had seen. They asked about Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, but they felt they paid too much attention to the customs and laws of their country, an illuminating insight from one of the earliest cross-cultural discussions. One of the naked sages, Calanus, refused to talk with Onesicritus because he would not strip off his clothes; but he did show Alexander an analogy of his government by trying to stand on a shriveled hide, which when trod on its edges would not stay flat; but when he stood in the middle, it did. This was similar to the point Dandamis had made when he had asked Onesicritus why Alexander had undertaken such a long journey. A young man named Pyrrho, who went on to found the skeptical school of Greek philosophy, also talked with these sages, causing his entire outlook to change.

Alexander tried to negotiate with the other two major Indian kings, Abhisara and Poros. Abhisara sent gifts and promised to submit, but Poros said that he would meet Alexander on the field of battle. Alexander drafted five thousand Indian troops into his infantry, had a bridge of boats built to cross the Indus River, and met Poros on the banks of the Jhelum River, which his soldiers were finally able to sneak across at night to avoid confrontation with the elephants of Poros. This strategic battle fought in the rainy season was won by Alexander using flanking movements around the elephants. Thousands were slain, and after receiving nine wounds himself King Poros surrendered. When Alexander asked the defeated king what treatment he wanted to receive, Poros asked only to be treated in a kingly way. Winning Alexander's respect and friendship, Poros was granted the rule over his own people and later additional territory equal to his own that Alexander also annexed.

Alexander took Sangala by storm, killing 17,000 Indians and capturing 70,000, while only one hundred of his own men were killed, though more than twelve hundred were wounded. Once again Alexander offered to spare independent Indians; but when they fled, about five hundred were caught and killed. He ordered Sangala razed to the ground. He could see no end to war as long as some were hostile to his conquering. Alexander was enthusiastic when he learned of prosperous farmland on the other side of the Hyphasis River, but that July Alexander's officers and soldiers, seeing the vast plains that stretched to the east, refused to invade any further, having already traveled 11,000 miles in seven years. When Alexander could not persuade them to follow him, he had to admit that the omens had changed. Arranging for Arsaces to pay tribute to the king of Abhisara, he left his conquered territory under this king Ambhi and Poros, then planned his voyage back to the sea.

Having built a fleet of a thousand boats and expropriating another eight hundred, in November 326 BC Alexander began the voyage down the rivers to the sea. Hearing of opposition at the confluence of the Jhelum and the Chenab, Alexander marched his army forty-eight miles across the desert to attack the Mallians by surprise. Alexander led the attack personally, and the Greeks killed about five thousand Indians. Impatient with the slowness of those climbing the ladders into the enemy fort, Alexander jumped down into the fort almost alone where he was shot by an arrow through his breastplate into his ribs. Fighting until he fainted from loss of blood, he was then protected by bodyguards, and the arrow was eventually removed. Alexander recovered, but in revenge all the Indians in the fort were massacred, including the women and children.

Other independent cities of Brahmins revolted; 80,000 Indians were slain by the Greeks, and many captives were auctioned as slaves. After this bloody detour Alexander and his men returned to their ships and sailed down the Indus to the sea and returned to Babylon. On his boat Alexander questioned ten of the naked sages he captured for persuading Sabbas to revolt. Known for their pertinent answers to questions, Alexander threatened to kill those who gave inadequate responses. According to Plutarch these philosophers declared that the cunningest animal is the one people have not found out, that to be most loved one must be very powerful without making oneself too much feared, and that a decent person ought to live until death appears more desirable than life.

Alexander had entered India with an army of 120,000 with 15,000 horses but returned with not much more than a quarter of them, mostly because of disease and famine. Although this conquest did open up communication between the Greeks and the Indians, it seems to me that this could have been done much better without all the killing and plunder.

Alexander's Conquest of the Persian Empire
Mauryan Empire, Ashoka and Sri Lanka
Alexander's conquests affected only the westernmost portion of India, as most of the empire of the Nandas remained intact. However, within a year or two of Alexander's departure this great empire was overthrown, not by the Greeks but by Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty. According to Greek historians the young Chandragupta met Alexander, angered him, and was ordered to be killed but fled. A Pali work describes how Chandragupta and his minister Chanakya recruited an army from the disaffected people of the Punjab who had resisted Alexander and then overthrew the existing government of India.

The Greek satraps Nicanor and Philippus were killed; when Alexander's empire was divided up after his death in 323 BC, the Indus valley had already been lost to Chandragupta; Eudemus left India in 317 BC. Seleucus, the ruler of the eastern portion of the Greek empire, encountered Chandragupta in 305 BC and had to cede the Hindu Kush mountain area for 500 elephants, which enabled him to defeat Antigonus at Ipsus.

Megasthenes was sent as the Greek ambassador to the court at Pataliputra, where he wrote a book on India. A royal road of more than a thousand miles connected the northwest territory with this capital. Megasthenes described how this vast empire was ruled by Chandragupta, who conducted public business and judged causes throughout his waking day. Provinces were ruled by governors and viceroys and the Emperor himself with the help of his council. An intelligence system, which included courtesans, reported to the king. Irrigation was regulated, and the army had more than 600,000 men; but they were outnumbered by the farmers, whose work was respected even in wartime.

Literary legends portray Chanakya as the genius behind the throne and the author of Kautilya's Arthashastra. Jain tradition claims that in the last days of his life Chandragupta was converted and joined their migration led by Bhadrabahu. Chandgragupta ruled for a quarter of a century and was succeeded by his son Bindusara, who ruled for about 27 years. According to a Tibetan source, Chanakya also helped Bindusara destroy sixteen towns and master all the territory between the eastern and western seas. Bindusara corresponded with the Syrian king Antiochus I, offering to buy wine, figs, and a sophist; but Greek law prohibited the selling of a sophist. Bindusara appointed his son Ashoka viceroy of Avanti, and about 273 BC Ashoka became emperor of India.

Buddhist texts portray Ashoka consolidating his empire by killing ninety-nine of his brothers; but some consider this an exaggeration to set off the contrast after his conversion because some of his rock edicts indicate loving care of his brothers. With a sense of his historic mission Ashoka had these rock edicts and stone pillars carved all over India with descriptions of his intentions and actions. These tell a remarkable story of the philosopher king H. G. Wells called the greatest of kings.

Ashoka admitted in Rock Edict 13 that eight years after his consecration as king when "Kalinga was conquered, 150,000 people were deported, 100,000 were killed, and many times that number died."4 Yet after that, he was converted to justice (dharma), loved it, and taught it. With great remorse Ashoka transformed himself and attempted to transform his kingdom and the world, though he warned offenders that they might be executed if they disobey. Eliminating capital punishment was not one of his reforms, although he did often delay executions. Ashoka expressed his main concern for the next world.

Ashoka renounced the violence of war, stating that he would have to bear all that could be borne. He refused to conquer weaker and smaller states, allowing even forest tribes an equal sovereignty. He wanted all people to enjoy the benefits of non-injury, self-control, fair conduct, and gentleness. As a benevolent monarch he declared all people his children and expressed his desire that all his children obtain welfare and happiness both in this world and the next. He thus engaged in preaching but also worked hard to serve his people. Instead of organizing military expeditions, he sent out peace missions throughout his kingdom and beyond to teach virtue and conversion to a moral life by love.

In another rock edict Ashoka said he had been an open follower of the Buddha for two and a half years. He abolished royal hunting and animal sacrifices in the capital, reducing the palace's killing of animals for food from several thousand a day to two peacocks and an occasional deer, and he promised to eliminate even those three. He banned sports involving the killing of animals and cruel animal fighting. In the 26th year of his reign he restricted the killing and injury of parrots, wild geese, bats, ants, tortoises, squirrels, porcupines, lizards, rhinos, pigeons, and all quadrupeds that were neither used nor eaten.

Ashoka provided medicinal plants for people and animals to neighboring kings as well as throughout his own kingdom, seeing no more important work than acting for the welfare of the whole world. He appointed governors who would serve the happiness and welfare of the people, and he insisted on justice and consistent punishments. He commanded that reports be made to him at any hour of the day and at any place, so intent was he in working for the good of all. To protect people and beasts Ashoka had trees planted and shelters built at regular intervals along the roads. Mango groves were planted, and wells were dug.

Although he followed Buddhist dharma, Ashoka respected all the religious sects and also encouraged his people to do so by guarding their speech in neither praising one's own sect nor blaming other sects except in moderation. He believed that whoever praises one's own sect and disparages another's does one's own sect the greatest possible harm. "Therefore concord alone is meritorious, that they should both hear and obey each other's morals (dharma)."5 He wanted all sects to be full of learning and teach virtue, and he promoted the essence of all religions, their unity in practice, their coming together in religious assemblies, and learning the scriptures of different religions.

Ashoka's emphasis was on ethical action rather than ritual and ceremonies, which he found of little use. The ceremonies of dharma that he found useful were "the good treatment of slaves and servants, respect for elders, self-mastery in one's relations with living beings, gifts to Brahmins and ascetics, and so on."6 For thirty-seven years Ashoka ruled a large empire that included most of India except the southern tip. Yet his efforts were to bring justice and virtue to the whole world. Thanks to his rock edicts and human memory, his admirable intentions will never be forgotten.

Little is known of Ashoka's successors, but it took about fifty years before the Mauryan dynasty came to an end about 187 BC with the assassination of Brihadratha by his general Pushyamitra and the invasion of the Bactrian Greeks. Pushyamitra was able to drive out the Greeks and ruled for about 36 years, but Buddhists complained that he was a cruel persecutor of their religion who offered gold coins for the killing of monks. The Shunga kings ruled for more than a century and were followed by the Kanvas, whose dynasty in Magadha lasted 45 years and was overthrown in 30 BC. By this point the empire was broken up, and little is known of this history except of some of the Greek rulers in Bactria, such as Demetrius II who conquered the Punjab and northwest India between 180 and 165 BC, Eucratides who was murdered by his son about 150 BC, and Menander who ruled for about 25 years in the late second century BC and was said to have become a follower of the Buddha.

Ashoka recognized three neighboring kingdoms in southern India as Chola, Pandya, and Chera, where the Tamil language was spoken. Legends indicate Dravidian and Aryan tribes coming in from the northwest; Agastya was said to have brought farmers from the homeland of Krishna. The Chola ascendancy over the Tamil states began in the first century BC when King Karikala escaped from prison and eventually defeated the combined forces of the Pandya and Chola kings with the help of eleven minor chieftains. King Karikala also invaded the island of Sri Lanka and removed 12,000 inhabitants to work building a fortification at the seaport Puhar. He also had irrigation channels built there at the River Kaveri.

A Buddhist monastery at Mahavihara recorded in the Mahavamsa the early history of Sri Lanka. The pre-Dravidian aborigines were called Nagas and Yakshas. About the fourth century BC they were colonized by people from Bengal led by Vijaya, who had been banished by his father for evil conduct; he invaded the island with seven hundred men followed by the importation of a thousand families and many maidens. A century later King Devanampiya Tissa sent an embassy to Emperor Ashoka, who sent back envoys to consecrate this king. Ashoka's brother Mahendra went to Sri Lanka to convert them to Buddhism, and a branch of the Bodhi tree was planted in the capital Anuradhapura. Devanampiya Tissa ruled Sri Lanka for forty years until about 210 BC, and he was succeeded by his three brothers. Then two brothers from southern India named Sena and Guttika usurped the throne and ruled for twenty years.

The noble Elara from Chola overcame Asela and ruled the island for many years with justice for friends and enemies. Legend records that he even had his own son executed for accidentally running over a calf and killing it. Elara introduced their tradition of the bell of justice. However, he was considered a Tamil usurper, and after fifteen years of war he was defeated and killed by King Dutthagamani (r. 161-137 BC), who battled thirty-two chiefs to establish a united kingdom in Sri Lanka. He was succeeded by his brother Saddhatissa (r. 137-119 BC). Upon his death his younger son Thulatthana was chosen king by counselors and Buddhist monks, but the elder son Lanjatissa defeated the younger brother and held the throne for ten years. He was succeeded by his younger brother Khallatanaga, who was killed by rebels after ruling for six years. The rebel king was soon killed by another brother Vattagamani, who married the widowed queen in 103 BC. However, the same year King Vattagamani faced a Tamil invasion and a rebellion by one of his governors. He tried to quell the rebellion by using the invaders, but then the seven invaders drove him out of the country. His queen and the Buddha's alms-bowl were taken back to India by two invaders while the other five invaders ruled Sri Lanka 103-89 BC. Vattagamani recovered his kingdom from the Tamil invasion in 89 BC and governed for twelve years during which the extensive Buddhist Tripitaka was written down along with the Atthakatha. Vattagamani was succeeded by two sons, but the second, Choranaga (r. 63-51 BC), had Buddhist sanctuaries destroyed. He and several succeeding kings were poisoned by his wife Anula; then she was killed by Kutkannatissa, who ruled for 22 years until about 20 BC.


Dharma Sutras
In ancient Indian culture political and social ethics were focused around the three goals of dharma (justice, duty, virtue), artha (success, prosperity), and kama (pleasure). The fourth goal of moksha (liberation) was considered the highest goal sought through spiritual and religious endeavor. Ways of attaining this spiritual release from the cycle of rebirth have been discussed in the chapters on the Upanishads, Jainism, and Buddhism, and will also be discussed in the next chapter on Hinduism.

The era of the sutras in Hindu culture slightly preceded the development of Jainism and Buddhism in the sixth century BC and lasted until the law codes began to become more formalized in the Laws of Manu starting around the 2nd century BC. Each school of the Brahmins had their own collection of duties with the Shrauta Sutras on the Vedic sacrifices, the Grihya Sutras on domestic ceremonies, and the Dharma Sutras on personal and social conduct. All of these follow the sacred traditions of the Aryan Vedas and distinguish the various duties, obligations, and privileges of the four castes. The Grihya Sutras delineate detailed rules for the householder in regard to marriage and household customs, manners, and rituals.

The Dharma Sutras cover broader areas of social customs and offer specific rules for almost every aspect of life. The four castes of the Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (rulers), Vaishyas (farmers and merchants), and Sudras (workers) were a strict hierarchy with each preceding caste superior by birth to the one following. The twice-born top three are ordained through initiation to study the Vedas and kindle the sacred fire, but the Sudras were only ordained to serve the other three superior castes. Brahmins were initiated in the eighth year after conception in the spring, Kshatriyas in the eleventh year in the summer, and Vaishyas in the twelfth in the autumn. The one initiating them became their teacher and must be served loyally according to strict rules. Initiates were not supposed to associate with those families that were not initiated called "slayers of Brahman."

Respect was to be shown to those in a superior caste and to those of the same caste venerable for their learning and virtue. Belief in the caste system was based on the idea of karma that those who act well in this life will be born in better circumstances or a higher caste next time, and those who do not fulfill their duties will be born in a lower caste and worse circumstances. Nevertheless this arbitrary system based on birth does tend to violate the principles of justice and equal opportunity for all.

The student phase of life was quite strict and celibate. These youths were not allowed to look at dancing, attend festivals or gambling halls, gossip, be indiscreet, talk with women unnecessarily, nor find any pleasure where one's teacher could be found. Students were to restrain their organs, be forgiving, modest, self-possessed, energetic, and free of anger and envy. The teacher was to love the youth as his own son and give him full attention in teaching the sacred knowledge without hiding anything in the law; teachers were not allowed to use students for their own purposes to the detriment of their studies except in times of distress.

The syllable Aum was chanted prior to studying the Vedas, and twelve years were considered necessary for the study of each of the four Vedas, although not everyone studied all four, as family traditions tended to focus on one of the Vedas. Meditation was practiced to gain wisdom and recognize the soul (atman) in all creatures as well as the eternal being within oneself. The eradication of faults such as anger, exultation, grumbling, covetousness, perplexity, doing injury, hypocrisy, lying, gluttony, calumny, envy, lust, secret hatred, and neglecting to control the senses or mind was accomplished by means of yoga. Detailed rules of penance are described for numerous offenses.

When adequate knowledge of the Veda has been gained by the student, he goes through a bathing ceremony and is henceforth known as a snataka. Rules for the snataka are detailed as are the duties of the householder after marriage. Rules of inheritance are defined, and funeral ceremonies are described. Beyond student and householder are two more stages of life available to spiritual seekers, who leave their home to become a chaste hermit in the forest, possibly to be followed by the final stage of renouncing everything as an ascetic (sannyasin) who must

live without a fire, without a house,
without pleasures, without protection.
Remaining silent and uttering speech only
on the occasion of the daily recitation of the Veda,
begging so much food only in the village
as will sustain his life,
he shall wander about neither caring for this world
nor for heaven."7

Such a person is clearly seeking spiritual liberation (moksha).

The beginnings of criminal and civil law are also outlined in the Dharma Sutras, but punishments are differentiated according to the perpetrator's caste and also the victim's. Neither capital nor corporal punishment were to be inflicted on Brahmins. A Brahmin might be exiled, but he was allowed to take his things. The Apastamba Sutra concludes with the idea that duties not taught in the text must be learned from women and men of all castes.

Laws of Manu
Based on earlier Dharma Sutras, the most influential and first great law code of the Hindus, the Laws of Manu, was written between the second century BC and the second century CE. The sage Manu begins by describing the creation from the divine self-existent reality, which can be perceived by the internal organ. The best of the created beings are those animated ones who subsist by their intelligence, and of those humans the best are the Brahmins who learn the Vedas and know God (Brahman). Manu declared the sacred law as it pertains to the four castes (varna meaning color).

Though action from a desire for rewards is not laudable, there is no exception in this world. The study of the Veda is based on the idea of action (karma) - that acts, sacrifices, and the keeping of vows and laws are kept on the belief that they will bear fruit. Those who obey the revealed laws and the sacred tradition gain fame in life and after death unsurpassable bliss. The sacred law comes from four sources: the Vedas, the sacred tradition, the customs of the virtuous, and one's own conscience. The Vedas represent the revealed truth (sruti), and on them are based the Sutras and these laws which define the sacred tradition (smriti). Thus study of the Vedas is still primary for the three castes who are initiated.

The best way to restrain oneself from sensual pleasures is by constant pursuit of knowledge. The student is to abstain from honey, meat, perfumes, garlands, spices, women, any acid, and from doing injury to living creatures. Students especially must watch out for women, because it is their nature to seduce men, and they can lead astray even a learned man, causing him to become a slave of desire and anger. Originally the castes and laws may not have been as rigid as they later became. With faith, says the Laws of Manu (2:238), one may receive pure learning even from a person of lower caste, the highest law from the lowest, and an excellent wife may come from a base family.

Many of the rules for students and snatakas follow those in the Dharma Sutras. There is the deeper belief that injustice practiced in this world may not bear fruit at once; but eventually it will cut off one's roots, and it may even fall on one's sons or grandsons, though one may prosper for a while through injustice. The following advice is given to the twice-born:

Let him always delight in truthfulness,
the sacred law, conduct worthy of an Aryan, and purity;
let him chastise his pupils according to the sacred law;
let him keep his speech, his arms,
and his belly under control.
Let him avoid wealth and desires,
if they are opposed to the sacred law,
and even lawful acts which may cause pain in the future
or are offensive to people.
Let him not be uselessly active with his hands and feet,
or with his eyes, nor crooked nor talk idly,
nor injure others by deeds or even think of it.8

Though one may be entitled to accept presents, one should not get attached to accepting them lest the divine light in one be extinguished. The Brahmin, who accepts gifts without performing austerities or studying the Veda, sinks like a boat made of stone.

Everyone is born single and dies the same way. Single, one enjoys virtue or sin, for in the next world neither father, mother, wife, nor sons stay to be one's companions; only spiritual merit alone remains. The persevering, gentle, and patient shun the company of the cruel, and doing no injury gains heavenly bliss by controlling one's organs and by liberality. To lie to the virtuous is the most sinful thing as it steals away one's own self. What is most salutary for the soul is to meditate constantly in solitude in order to attain supreme bliss.

Noninjury (ahimsa) is essential to this ethic. Those who injure beings in giving themselves pleasure never find happiness in life or death, but those who do not cause suffering to living creatures and desire the good of all obtain endless bliss.

Whoever does not injure any
attains without effort what one thinks of,
what one understands,
and what one fixes one's mind on.
Meat can never be obtained
without injury to living creatures,
and injury to sentient beings
is detrimental to heavenly bliss;
let one therefore shun meat.
Having well considered the origin of flesh
and the fettering and slaying of corporeal beings,
let one entirely abstain from eating flesh.9

In spite of these thoughts animals were still sacrificed.

Though where women are honored, the gods are pleased, females were to be subordinate to men throughout their lives - the child to her father, the woman to her husband, and after his death to her sons. They apparently believed that the child was completely determined by the seed of the man and that the womb was only like the soil of the field. Yet the law also held that what was sown in someone else's field belonged to the (owner of the) field.

A wife may accompany her husband in the third stage of life as a hermit in the forest. There one meditates and studies the Upanishads in order to attain complete union with the soul. After studying the Vedas, having sons, and offering sacrifices, in the fourth stage one may direct one's mind to the final liberation. The ascetic gives up all worldly things, bearing patiently hard words, anger, and curses without returning anger, drinking purified water, and uttering only speech purified by the truth. Abstaining from all sensual enjoyments, one sits alone delighting in the soul. In deep meditation indifferent to all objects one may recognize the supreme soul that is present in all organisms.

The ten-fold law of all four stages of life is contentment, forgiveness, self-control, non-stealing, purification, control of the organs, wisdom, knowledge, truthfulness, and abstention from anger. The Kshatriya, whose highest model is the king, has the sacred duty to protect everyone and must also act as judge, prescribing proper punishment for those who commit wrongs. If the king did not punish those who needed it, the stronger would roast the weaker. The king was to be just to his own subjects, chastise enemies, be honest with friends, and lenient toward Brahmins.

The main vices the king must watch out for come from the love of pleasure and wrath. Vice is to be feared more than death, because the vicious sink down while the one who dies free from vice ascends to heaven. Here we also find for perhaps the first time the atrocious belief that a warrior who fights hard in battle goes to heaven if killed. In spite of the concept of non-injury, warfare was still socially acceptable. However, the wise king arranges everything so that no ally or neutral or foe may injure him, and this is considered the sum of political wisdom. Foes may be conquered by conciliation, by gifts, and by creating dissension, but never by fighting.

Civil and ceremonial laws fall into the following eighteen categories: non-payment of debts, deposit and pledge, sale without ownership, concerns among partners, resumption of gifts, non-payment of wages, non-performance of agreements, rescission of sale and purchase, disputes between owner and servants, boundary disputes, assault, defamation, theft, robbery and violence, adultery, duties of husband and wife, inheritance partition, and gambling.

Justice violated destroys, but preserved justice preserves. Justice is the only friend one has after death, for everything else is lost. Yet the soul is the witness of the soul and the refuge of the soul. The wicked may think no one sees them, but the gods see them distinctly. Those who commit violence are considered the worst offenders, and the king who pardons the perpetrators of violence incurs hatred and quickly perishes.

The Laws of Manu are summarized as non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, purity, and control of the organs. The main duty of the Brahmin is to teach, the Kshatriya to protect, the Vaishya to trade, and the Sudra to serve. Penances are detailed but can be summarized as by confession, repentance, austerity, and by reciting (Vedas), or by liberality. In proportion as one confesses and loathes the wrong, one is freed from guilt; one is purified by stopping the sin and thinking, "I will do so no more." Austerities are to be repeated until one's conscience is satisfied.

Realizing what comes after death, one will always be good in thoughts, speech, and actions. Mental faults are coveting the property of others, thinking what is undesirable, and adhering to false doctrines. Wrong speech comes from untruth, detracting from the merits of others, abuse, and talking idly. Bad actions are taking what has not been given, injuring, and intercourse with another's wife.

The doctrine of reincarnation helps people to realize that the consequences of their actions may occur in another life. All actions are good (sattva), passionate (rajas), or dark (tamas). Goodness comes from knowledge, darkness from ignorance, and passion from love and hate. Goodness results in bliss, calm, and pure light; passion ever draws one towards pleasure and pain; and darkness leads to delusion, cowardice, and cruelty. The good in their next life are more divine; the passionate are human; and the dark more animalistic. Ultimately knowledge of the soul is the first science, because by self-knowledge immortality is attained.

Artha Shastra
The classic work on the goal of material success is the Artha Shastra by Kautilya, who is identified with Chanakya, the advisor of Chandragupta, first king of the Mauryan dynasty. This treatise is a collection of political, legal, and economic advice from earlier sources put together and commented on by Kautilya. Unfortunately it is another step down ethically from the Dharma Sutras and traditional law codes to a worldly strategy of how to enhance one's own kingdom often at the expense of others. The complete text of this work was discovered in 1905 and has been translated into English.

In the third chapter Kautilya repeated the traditional views of the Vedas, the caste system, the four stages of life, and lists the duties common to all as harmlessness, truthfulness, purity, freedom from spite, abstinence from cruelty, and forgiveness. However, he then goes on to analyze government as the art of punishment based on discipline. Kautilya saw his work as the science of politics, which deals with the means of acquiring and maintaining the Earth. The study of any science depends on the mental faculties of obedience, hearing, perception, memory, discrimination, inference, and deliberation.

Princes were to be celibate until they came of age at sixteen, at which time they were expected to marry; girls came of age at twelve. Restraining the senses depends upon abandoning lust, anger, greed, vanity, haughtiness, and overjoy. Kautilya begins to reveal his value system when he places wealth above charity and desire, because these two depend on wealth. He seemed to forget truthfulness and harmlessness when he recommended the institution of spies using fraud and duplicity.

Although Kautilya declared that the prince should be taught only justice (dharma) and wealth (artha) and that he should do what pleases his subjects, to his rational mind this may mean warfare and treachery against their enemies. After describing the villages, land, and forts, Kautilya goes on to delineate the duties of the chamberlain, the collector general, account keepers, and the superintendents of gold, storehouse, commerce, forest produce, armory, weights and measures, tolls, weaving, agriculture, liquor, slaughterhouse, prostitutes, ships, cows, horses, elephants, chariots, infantry, passports, pasture land, and the city.

Brahmins, ascetics, children, the aged, the afflicted, royal messengers, and pregnant women are to be given free passes to cross rivers. Diplomatic negotiation is to be carried out by praising the other's qualities, discussing mutual benefits, future prospects, and the identity of interests. Law is based on justice, evidence, history, and the edicts of kings; but for Kautilya the royal will is the most important, though the justice of the sacred law takes precedent over history when they disagree. Marriage cannot be dissolved by the husband or wife against the will of the other; but if there is mutual enmity, divorce may be obtained. Neighborhood elders may be consulted to settle disputes about fields.

Kautilya recommended cooperation with public projects and suggested, "The order of any person attempting to do a work beneficial to all shall be obeyed,"10 and those disobeying may be punished. The native Mlecchas, who were considered barbarians, may sell their offspring into slavery, but Aryans may not. A person who has voluntarily enslaved oneself and runs away is to be enslaved for life, and one who has been mortgaged into slavery is enslaved for life for running away twice. Violation of female servants, cooks, and nurses earns them their liberty at once. If a master fathers a child with a slave, both the child and the mother are to be recognized as free. Slaves can buy back their freedom for their sale price, and Aryans captured in war can also purchase their freedom.

Kautilya described the various punishments for offenses, which can include torture, mutilation, and capital punishment, though fines were most often applied. Verbal abuse was punished with a fine, whether it was true or false, and the penalties for assault were halved if the offense was due to carelessness, intoxication, or loss of sense. Fines generally varied according to the rank of the person and the seriousness of the offense. "No man shall have sexual intercourse with any woman against her will."11 Mercy was to be shown to pilgrims, ascetics doing penance, those suffering disease, hunger, thirst, or fatigue, rustic villagers, those suffering punishment, and paupers. People were to be honored for their learning, intelligence, courage, high birth, and magnificent works.

Revenues were to be collected like fruits, only when they were ripe; to try to collect revenue when unripe may injure the source and cause immense trouble. In addition to the usual services, artists, and musicians, the court also supported a foreteller of the future, a reader of omens, an astrologer, a reader of the Puranas, a story-teller, and a bard. Advisors are to tell the king what is good and pleasing but not what is bad; though when the king is ready to listen, he may be told secretly what is unpleasant but good.

For Kautilya the elements of sovereignty were the king, the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, the army and its ally, and the enemy. A good king was described as born of a high family, godly, virtuous, courageous, truthful, grateful, ambitious, enthusiastic, not addicted to procrastination, powerful in controlling neighbor kings, resolute, with a good assembly, having a taste for discipline, with a sharp intellect and memory, trained in various arts, dignified, with foresight, discerning the need for war, not haughty, free of passions and bad habits, and observing traditional customs.

The acquisition of wealth and its security was dependent on peace and industry. Kautilya defined three kinds of strength as the ability to deliberate being intellectual strength, a prosperous treasury being strength of sovereignty, and martial power being physical strength. The traditional six forms of state policy were peace, war, neutrality, marching (preparing), alliance, and the double policy of making peace with one and waging war against another. Although Kautilya was not reluctant to use warfare, at least he did recognize that if the situation is equal, peace is preferable, because war involves loss of power and wealth, traveling, and sin. Kautilya used rational calculations of self-interest in deciding whether to march against enemies.

In my opinion Kautilya is to be severely criticized for recommending the use of war as a political instrument in disregard of human welfare. His position can clearly be seen as a degeneration from his own teacher's more humane views in the following passage:

My teacher says that in an open war, both sides suffer
by sustaining a heavy loss of men and money;
and that even the king who wins a victory will appear
as defeated in consequence of the loss of men and money.
No, says Kautilya,
even at considerable loss of men and money,
the destruction of an enemy is desirable.12

Kautilya believed that peace, dependent on honesty or an oath, is more immutable in this world and the next than that based on security or a hostage, which is for this world only. Kautilya thought that he and those who know the interdependence of the six forms of policy can play at pleasure with kings bound round with chains skillfully devised by himself; but I would submit that those chains based on human violence and suffering bind such an advisor as well and cause untold misery.

Once again Kautilya valued wealth most of all, for with money one can buy treasure and an army. Kautilya, who has been compared to Machiavelli, believed that the skill of intrigue is more important than enthusiasm and power when invading another country. He coldly calculated whether the expected profit will outweigh the loss of trained men and diminution of gold and grains when deciding whether to march. By conciliation and gifts the conqueror should use corporations (mercenaries) against an enemy; but if they oppose him, he should sow seeds of dissension among them and secretly punish them. He may also use rewards for those who help him fulfill his promises to his people. Kautilya did believe the king should follow the will of the people.

Whoever acts against the will of the people
will also become unreliable.
He should adopt the same mode of life, the same dress,
language, and customs as those of the people.
He should follow the people in their faith
with which they celebrate their national, religious
and congregational festivals or amusements.12

He then went on to recommend that spies be used to persuade the local leaders of the hurt inflicted on enemies in contrast to the good treatment they receive from their conqueror. He advised the extensive use of spies even in the guise of ascetic holy men. Various descriptions of magical remedies and superstitions are based on traditional folklore. Though worldly wise, the ethics of Kautilya leaves much to be desired.

Kama Sutra
The fourth aim of life to be discussed is kama, which means pleasure. The main aspect of pleasure discussed in the Kama Shastra is sexual love. Like the Artha Shastra these ideas on erotic techniques and methods were passed down through an oral tradition from the ancients. The legendary founder is Nandi, Shiva's companion, and about the eighth century BC Shvetaketu known to us from the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, is said to have summarized them. This extensive work was passed down through the family of Babhru, and between the third and first centuries BC several authors wrote shorter works on different aspects of eroticism, including Suvarnanabha on erotic approaches, Ghotakamukha on the art of seducing girls, Gonardiya on the wife's duties and rights, Gonikaputra on relations with other men's women, Kuchamara on occult practices, and Dattaka who wrote on courtesans with the help of a famous courtesan of Pataliputra.

These were combined together in the oldest text we have today, the Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana, who probably lived in the fourth century CE. In style and language the Kama Sutra is considered quite similar to Kautilya's Artha Shastra. Famous as the world's oldest and the most detailed sex manual prior to our century, the Kama Sutra reveals the life-style and sexual morals of ancient India.

Vatsyayana declared that everyone in life must pursue three aims successively. Childhood is dedicated to acquiring knowledge and is a celibate phase; the erotic predominates in adulthood; and old age is dedicated to the practice of virtue (dharma) and spiritual liberation (moksha). Vatsyayana defined artha as material goods or wealth and said that it "consists of acquiring and increasing, within the limits of dharma, knowledge, land, gold, cattle, patrimony, crockery, furniture, friends, clothing, etc."14

Kama is the mental inclination toward the pleasures of the senses and is particularly connected to the erotic. Sexual behavior may be learned with the aid of this text and the counsel of worthy experts in the arts of pleasure. Nevertheless Vatsyayana acknowledged that money and social success are more important than love and that virtue is more important than success and fortune. With money one can realize the three aims of life, even in the case of prostitutes.

Since sex is natural to all animals why does it need to be studied? The preliminary acts between a man and a woman can benefit from rules of conduct. Among animals the female is driven by instinct with little consciousness during the sexual season. Although Vatsyayana said he is a fatalist, he recognized that success depends on human effort. The pursuit of pleasure must be coordinated with virtue and material goods. The lewd man is vain and scorned, and exaggerated emphasis on the sexual life can be self-destructive as well as ruining others. Nevertheless sexuality is essential to human survival. The one accomplished in wealth, love, and virtue attains the greatest happiness in this world and the next. The art of loving so pleasing to women, which allows children to be born, has been described by sages in sacred books.

The erotic science should be studied along with other subjects even before adolescence and after marriage with one's mate. A girl may learn from a woman who has had sexual experience. Vatsyayana listed 64 arts which include music, dance, drawing, carpets, flower bouquets, mosaics, bed arrangement, games, charms, garlands, ornaments, dressing, perfumes, jewelry, conjuring, magic, manicure, cooking, needlework, lacemaking, quoting, riddles, bookbinding, storytelling, basketmaking, woodwork, furnishing, gems, metals, stones, arboriculture, stockbreeding, teaching parrots, massage and hair care, sign language, foreign languages, decorating, observing omens, using memory, reciting, puns, poetry, cheating, disguise, manners, rules of success, and physical culture.

There are also 64 erotic arts from Panchala country. Prostitutes who are beautiful, intelligent, and well educated in these arts are honored in society and called courtesans. A man who is expert in the 64 arts is much appreciated by women. It is recommended that sexuality be satisfied within the caste, and marrying one's son to a virgin gained a good reputation, though Gandharva marriages based on mutual affection were generally considered the happiest. Exceptions to caste were made for prostitutes or widows, provided that it was only for pleasure. Young girls were also considered suitable for love affairs, and Gonikaputra recognized a consenting married woman as a fourth category.

An atrocious statement was made about a pair of lovers murdering the husband and taking his goods once the wife has fallen in love. The author also found nothing wrong with a poor man having a love affair to become rich. However, he must not show indifference to her, or she will ruin his reputation with accusations. Yet generally the seduction of another man's wife was considered an avoidable risk.

There follows detailed chapters on how to stimulate erotic desire, embraces, petting and caressing, scratching, biting, copulation, blows and sighs. Although a woman may be submissive or reticent, she is quick to learn the games of love. Vatsyayana declared that passion knows no rules nor place nor time, and variety fosters mutual attraction. "Whether they continue having sexual relations, or live chastely together, true love never decreases, even after one hundred years."15 Vatsyayana believed that suffering is not the Aryan way and is not suitable for respectable people. An educated man knows how to check the violence of his impulses and knows the limits of the girl's endurance. Amorous practices vary according to the place, the country, and the moment.

Oral sex is described but not recommended by some teachers as defiling of the face, though it was popular in some regions. Female and male homosexuality are both described. A man should respect the woman and consider her pure as a matter of principle even though she may appear guilty by her behavior. Since moral codes and local customs differ, one should behave according to one's own inclinations. Vatsyayana asked rhetorically, "Practiced according to his fantasy and in secret, who can know who, when, how, and why he does it?"16 After making love one should be affectionate so that a solid attachment may be established through friendly conversation.

Courting and seduction are discussed in chapters on how to relax the girl and on ways of obtaining the girl. Those who gain each other's trust end up becoming attached to one another out of habit. The totally trusting wife considers her husband a god and is completely devoted to him. She takes responsibility for the household. Widows may remarry and begin a new existence, and according to the ancient tradition an unsatisfied woman may leave her husband and choose another to her taste. Vatsyayana recognized the ethical marriage as the best and said that some men do not pursue adulterous relationships for reasons of ethics. The man who is educated in this erotic art cannot be deceived by his own wives, according to Vatsyayana. "Reasonable people, aware of the importance of virtue, money, and pleasure, as well as social convention, will not let themselves be led astray by passion."17

What is refreshing in this treatise is the openness to sexual pleasure and its naturalness without the shame and puritanical guilt so well developed in other cultures which have invaded modern India as well. The erotic is treated as an important aspect of human life and as the sacrament of marriage which unites the couple closer than anything else can, though relations outside of marriage are not forbidden. Instead of being burdened by inhibitions in ancient India people were encouraged to learn about their sexuality and develop the art of loving through education and practice. Only now in the late twentieth century does the world seem to be acknowledging the wisdom of these techniques and this highly skilled art.

Notes
1. Samanna-phala Suttanta 12 (Digha 1:50).
2. Arrian, Indica tr. E. J. Chinnock, 9.
3. Plutarch, Alexander, tr. J. Dryden, p. 569.
4. Sources of Indian Tradition ed. DeBary, p. 143.
5. The Age of the Nandas and Mauryas ed. Sastri, p. 236.
6. Sources of Indian Tradition ed. DeBary, p. 149.
7. Apastamba Dharma Sutra 2:9:21:10 in The Sacred Laws of the Aryas tr. Georg Bühler, Part 1, p. 154.
8. Laws of Manu tr. Georg Bühler, 4:175-177.
9. Ibid. 5:47-49.
10. Kautilya, Arthashastra tr. R. Shamasastry, 3:10:173, p. 199.
11. Ibid. 4:12:231, p. 261.
12. Ibid. 7:13:303-304, p. 335.
13. Ibid. 13:5:409, p. 438.
14. Vatsyayana Kama Sutra 1:2:9 in Danielou, p. 28.
15. Ibid. 2:5:43, p. 144.
16. Ibid. 2:9:45, p. 194.
17. Ibid. 7:2:53, p. 520.


Copyright © 1998-2004 by Sanderson Beck
This chapter has been published in the book INDIA & Southeast Asia to 1800.
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Contents
Vedas and Upanishads
Mahavira and Jainism
Buddha and Buddhism
Political and Social Ethics
Hindu Philosophy
Literature of India
India 30 BC to 1300
Delhi Sultans and Rajas 1300-1526
Mughal Empire 1526-1707
Marathas and the English Company 1707-1800
British India 1800-1848
British India's Wars 1848-1881
India's Renaissance 1881-1905
India's Freedom Struggle 1905-1918
Gandhi and India 1919-1941
Tibet, Nepal, and Ceylon 1800-1941
Southeast Asia to 1875
Pacific Islands to 1875
Summary and Evaluation
Bibliography
Chronological Index

BECK index

BECK index
                                             Hindu Philosophy
Nyaya and Vaishesika
Mimamsa and Vedanta
Samkhya and Yoga
Bhagavad-Gita
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In India there are six orthodox schools of philosophy which recognize the authority of the Vedas as divine revelation, and they generally function as pairs - Nyaya and Vaishesika, Mimamsa and Vedanta, and Samkhya and Yoga. Those who did not recognize this authority were the Jains, Buddhists, and materialists. Even in India, where spiritual ideas dominate the culture, there were some who were skeptical of those ideals and held to a materialist view of the world; they were called Carvaka, and their doctrine that this world is all that exists is called Lokayata.

The materialists did not believe in an afterlife and found sense perception to be the only source of knowledge, denying the validity of inference or general concepts. They focused on the senses and the four traditional elements of earth, water, fire, and air. Consciousness for the Carvaka is only a modification of these elements in the body. The soul is also identified with the body, and pleasure and pain are the central experiences of life, nature being indifferent to good and evil with virtue and vice being merely social conventions.

This worldly philosophy naturally ignored the goal of liberation (moksha) or simply believed that death as the end of life and consciousness was a liberation. However, they also tended to neglect the value of virtue or justice (dharma), placing all of their attention on the worldly aims of pleasure (kama) and wealth or power (artha).

Although Carvaka ideas are mentioned in some ancient writings, their own ancient writings were lost, and much of what we know of the early materialists is based on criticisms of other schools. However, a famous, ancient drama called The Rise of the Moon of Intellect (Prabodha-candrodaya) reveals some of the beliefs of this worldly movement. In this play Passion is personified and speaks to a materialist and one of his pupils.

Passion laughs at ignorant fools, who imagine that spirit is different from the body and reaps a reward in a future existence. This is like expecting trees to grow in air and produce fruit. Has anyone seen the soul separate from the body? Does not life come from the configuration of the body? Those who believe otherwise deceive themselves and others. Their ancient teacher Brihaspati affirmed the importance of the senses, maintaining that sustenance and love are the objects of human life.

For the materialists the Vedas are a cheat. If blessings are obtained through sacrifices and the victims ascend to heaven, why do not children sacrifice their parents? How can fasting, begging, penance, and exposure to the elements be compared to the ravishing embraces of women with large eyes and prominent breasts? The pleasures of life are no more to be avoided because they are mixed with pain than a prudent person would throw away unpeeled rice because it has a husk. Sacrifices, reciting the Vedas, and penance are merely ways that ignorant and weak men contrive to support themselves.

Yet upon analysis it was often found that the materialists' theory that no general inferences can be made contradicted their own views about the nature of the world. Nevertheless their hedonistic philosophy at times gave a humanistic criticism of the ethical contradictions of others. In the great epic Mahabharata a Carvaka is burned to death for preaching against the bloodshed of the great war and condemning Yudhishthira for killing thousands to regain his kingdom. They did criticize sacrifices and valued the arts as a means of pleasure. Hell they believed to be the pain experienced in this world, but all this ended in death. Like Epicureans, they found that pleasure could be maximized and pain minimized by detachment (vairagya). Immortality was only found in the fame one leaves behind for noble deeds performed.

Nyaya and Vaishesika
The Nyaya and Vaishesika schools are primarily analytic and are therefore more concerned with logic and epistemology than ethics. The word nyaya means that by which the mind is led to a conclusion. The Nyaya school formed about the fourth century BC with the Nyaya Sutras by Gautama. The first sentence declares that supreme happiness is attained by knowledge of the sixteen categories which are right knowledge, objects of knowledge, doubt, purpose, example, tenets, inference, confutation, ascertainment, discussion, sophistry, cavil, fallacy, quibble, futile rejoinder, and losing arguments. Knowledge comes from perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony. Objects of knowledge are self, body, sense organs, sense objects, intellect, mind, activity, defects, rebirth, fruit, pain, and release.

The soul is distinct from the sense organs and the mind, which it uses to make judgments with the aid of memory. Judgments and actions are transitory but produce karma, which causes the union of the soul with the body, the soul transmigrating from a dead body to another birth. Gautama recognized the soul as the cause of the body but also acknowledged parents and food as other causes as well.

Ethical concerns can be found in the discussion of the defects and the means of liberation. Gautama mentioned three categories of defects as attachment, aversion, and misconception. Vatsyayana, who wrote the first commentary on the Nyaya Sutras in the 4th century CE, explained that attachment can come from lust, jealousy, avarice, greed, and covetousness; aversion from anger, envy, malice, hatred, and resentment; and misconception from wrong apprehension, suspicion, pride, and negligence.

Gautama considered misconception the worst sin because without it attachment and aversion do not occur. By fruit Gautama referred to what is produced by activity and defects. These results of action (karma) may occur immediately or after a long interval. Release is defined as the absolute deliverance from pain. Release does not occur though because of debts, afflictions, and activities. However, when knowledge is attained, wrong notions and defects disappear, removing pain and bringing about release. Since false concepts are the cause of the chain of events that leads to pain, correct knowledge is the solution.

Even hatred of pain and attachment to pleasure can bind one. The activities of mind, speech, and body must be good and not bad but must also be performed without attachment. Selfishness is associated with false concepts, and virtuous actions emphasize the soul rather than the body and its senses. True knowledge comes from meditation, which is prepared for by good deeds. Gautama recommended practicing yoga in forests, caves, and on riverbanks. To attain final release the soul may be embellished by the restraints and observances of the internal discipline learned from yoga. Study and friendly discussion with those learned in knowledge is also suggested.

The Vaishesika philosophy is considered the oldest of the six orthodox schools and may even be pre-Buddhist. The Vaishesika Sutras by Kanada were written shortly before Gautama's Nyaya Sutras. The word vishesa means particularity, and this philosophy emphasizes the significance of individuals. Vaishesika recognizes three objects of experience as having real objective existence, namely substance, quality, and activity, and three products of intellectual discrimination which are generality, particularity, and combination.

The reality of the soul is inferred from the discernment that consciousness cannot be a property of the body, senses, or mind. However, the life of the soul's knowing, feeling, and willing is only found where the body is. Each soul experiences the consequences of its own actions, resulting in the differences between individuals, from which the plurality of souls is inferred. Even liberated souls maintain unique characteristics in the Vaishesika philosophy. The Vaishesika Sutra begins with the idea that virtue (dharma) is the means by which prosperity and salvation are attained, but it acknowledges the authority of the Vedas as the word of God that leads to this prosperity and salvation.

As with Nyaya the supreme good results from knowledge, in this case of the six predicables - substance, quality, activity, generality, particularity, and combination. In addition to the four traditional elements of earth, water, fire, and air, they name ether (akasha), time, space, soul, and mind as the only other substances. One need not fall back on the scriptures to know the existence of the soul, because the expression of "I" makes its reality clear. The qualities are color, taste, smell, touch, numbers, size, separation, conjunction and disjunction, priority and posteriority, understanding, pleasure and pain, desire and aversion, and volition. Activity is going up or down, contracting, expanding, and motion. Action (karma) is opposed by its effect, which is how it is neutralized. Individuals are only responsible for voluntary actions; actions from organic life are considered involuntary.

Worldly good is attained by ceremonial piety, but spiritual value is found by insight. The highest pleasure of the wise is found in independence from all agencies involving memory, desire, and reflection, and this knowledge results from peacefulness of mind, contentment, and virtue. Pleasure and pain result from the contact between soul, senses, the mind, and objects. When the mind becomes steady in the soul through yoga, pain can be prevented. Liberation (moksha) is not having any conjunction with the body and no potential for a body so that rebirth cannot take place. The traditional character of this school can be seen from the actions recommended for achieving merit.

Ablution, fast, abstinence (brahmacharya),
residence in the family of the preceptor,
life of retirement in the forest, sacrifice, gift,
oblation, directions, constellations, seasons,
and religious observances conduce to invisible fruit.1

Progress comes from virtue (dharma), but even this has consequences which neutralize it; for ultimate release cannot occur until even virtue is eradicated in selfless insight. So long as one is dominated by desire and aversion, virtue and its opposite are stored up, preventing liberation. When one realizes that all objects that seem either attractive or repulsive are merely compounds of atoms, their power over one ceases. True knowledge of the soul dispels self-interest in universal awareness. Each soul reaps the harvest of its deeds in this life or a future one, but with liberation it becomes absolutely free. The awareness of the seer is the vision of perfection which results from virtue.

Mimamsa and Vedanta
The Mimamsa philosophy is also very ancient, and the Mimamsa Sutra by Jaimini was written about the 4th century BC. This text begins with the subject of dharma, which the Vedas consider the means most conducive to the highest good. Dharma transcends sense perception, because the senses only perceive what exists in the present; dharma in the Mimamsa philosophy has a metaphysical reality that carries into the future.

The soul also transcends the body, senses, and mind, being omnipresent, eternal, and many. In Mimamsa the soul is the agent that causes all movement of the body. Like in Vaishesika, salvation occurs when the fruits of all good and bad actions are exhausted, and the generation of new effects is stopped. However, in Mimamsa Vedic prayers, rituals, and sacrifices are emphasized as the means of achieving this. Women as well as men were allowed to perform sacrifices, but Sudras were still forbidden. In the ancient Mimamsa philosophy the experience of happiness in heaven was the ultimate goal.

Mimamsa is based on the revelation in the Vedas, which are considered as eternal as the world. The metaphysics of this ethics even comes close to replacing God as the source of all action that governs the universe. Essentially everything is determined by character (dharma) or lack of it through the law of karma or action with its consequences. Not only is the soul as the agent of action real, but the action itself is a spiritual reality that transcends space and time, determining the nature of the universe. This unseen force is called apurva, which means something new, extraordinary, or unknown.

Thus dharma or action (karma) supports the universe. If it is ethically right, it produces enjoyment; if it is wrong, then suffering is experienced. This force (shakti) of dharma or karma is extraordinary and unseen. The universe, being eternal, is not created by this force, but it is shaped by it. A unity to this universal force is posited to control and guide individuals in a single cosmic harmony.

Yet humans are free and determine their own destiny by their actions. The karma from past actions does not limit free choices but is like capital that can be spent in various ways as it is resolved. The soul usually carries a mixture of good and evil consequences, and these may cancel each other. Obligations are actions which must be performed, or one gets demerit, though there is no merit for doing them. Prohibited actions if done also cause demerit, but if avoided likewise do not give merit. Optional actions may produce merit or demerit according to their consequences. Focusing primarily on the spiritual effects of rituals, the Mimamsa philosophy relies on the Dharma Sutras for guidance in worldly ethical questions.

The Vedanta school complements Mimamsa's focus on the Vedas and sacrifices by illuminating the knowledge of the Upanishads as the "end of the Vedas," which is what Vedanta means. The Vedanta Sutra, written between the 500 and 200 BC by Badarayana, is also called the Brahma Sutra since it discusses knowledge of Brahman (Spirit) and sometimes Shariraka Sutra because it concerns the embodiment of the unconditioned self. The Vedanta Sutra attempts to clarify the meaning of the Upanishads and is rather terse, but it has been made famous by the commentaries written by the great Vedanta philosophers of the middle ages - Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva.

If the way of action derives from the Mimamsa theory of karma, Vedanta suggests a way of knowledge by the soul of Spirit. The first chapter of the Vedanta Sutra describes Brahman as the central reality and creator of the world and the individual souls. The second chapter answers objections and explains the world's dependence on God and its evolution back into Brahman. The third chapter suggests ways of knowing Brahman, and the fourth chapter indicates the rewards or fruits of knowing this Spirit.

Badarayana is traditional in that he believed knowledge comes from scripture (sruti) and other authorities (smriti), though sruti as revelation is identified with perception and smriti as interpretation with inference. Scripture refers to the Vedas and smriti to the Bhagavad-Gita, Mahabharata, and Laws of Manu. Reason for Badarayana must conform to the Vedas, but it is nonetheless subordinate to intuitive knowledge, which can come from devotion and meditation. Brahman as Spirit is considered the light of the soul, which is also eternal, though Brahman is distinguished from the intelligent soul and the unintelligent material things.

As in Mimamsa individuals are responsible for their own actions and thus determine their own happiness or suffering. The soul is affected by pleasure and pain, but the highest Lord is not. Injunctions and prohibitions exist because of the connection of the soul with the body. Ethical action helps the soul attain a body fit for knowledge of Brahman, which then may be attained through service, renunciation, and meditation. Meditation on the highest yields unity with the infinite and knowledge of Spirit (Brahman), enabling one to stop producing karma and end the cycle of karma and reincarnation.

Badarayana combined earlier views of Brahman as indeterminate intelligence and a definite personal Lord. While developing itself in the universe, Brahman is still transcendent. Though Brahman is in individual souls, it is not polluted by their defects. Human purpose comes through knowledge of Brahman, which also results in bliss and the nullification of works (karma). To obtain knowledge one must be calm and in control of the senses. Works can be combined with knowledge, but those performing them must not be overcome by passion. Knowledge may also be promoted through special acts such as prayer, devotion, and fasting. Meditation, though, should focus not on symbols of the soul but the reality. Through immobile meditation, thoughtfulness and concentration are increased, and meditation needs to be practiced up to death. By resolving karma through knowledge, oneness with Brahman is attained. At death the liberated soul is released from the body and does not return to another.

Samkhya and Yoga
Kapila, the legendary founder of the Samkhya school, is said to have been an incarnation of Vishnu or Agni; he probably lived during the seventh century BC at the time of the early Upanishads. Kapila was endowed with virtue, knowledge, renunciation, and supernatural power, and taking pity on humanity, he taught the Samkhya doctrine to the Brahmin Asuri, who is mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana as an expert in sacrificial rituals. The Samkhya knowledge of discerning the spirit from nature is explained in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad. The word samkhya means discriminating knowledge and came to mean number as an exact form of knowledge.

In Asvaghosha's Life of the Buddha (Buddhacarita), Siddartha is taught Samkhya ideas during his ascetic phase. Aradha described nature (prakriti) as consisting of the five subtle elements, the ego, intellect, the unmanifest, the external objects of the five senses, the five senses, the hands, feet, voice, anus, generative organ, and the mind. All of these make up the field which is to be known by the soul. Worldly existence is caused by ignorance, the merits and demerits of former actions, and desire. He then explained the problems of mistakes, egoism, confusion, fluctuation (thinking that mind and actions are the same as the "I"), indiscrimination (between the illumined and the unwise), false means (rituals and sacrifices), inordinate attachment, and gravitation (possessiveness). The wise must learn to distinguish the manifested from the unmanifested. When the prince asked how this is to be accomplished, Aradha explained the practice of yoga. Though an orthodox Hindu school, Samkhya did criticize the killing of animals in the sacrifices.

Samkhya ideas also appeared in the Mahabharata in the portions known as the Bhagavad-Gita and the Mokshadharma from book 12. In the latter the intellect (buddhi) controlled by the spirit (purusha) evolves the mind (manas), the senses, and then the gross elements. The three qualities found in all beings are goodness (sattva), passion (rajas), and darkness (tamas). Goodness brings pleasure, passion pain, and darkness apathy. The knower of the field is emphasized as the spirit (purusha) or soul (atman), and Samkhya and Yoga are considered two aspects (knowledge and practice) of the same philosophy. The standard 25 Samkhya principles are enumerated as the eight material principles and the sixteen modifications completed by the all-important spirit (purusha) or unmanifest knower of the field.

Ethically the Mokshadharma explains the Samkhya follower as:

Unselfish, without egotism, free from the pairs,
having cut off doubts, he is not angry and does not hate,
nor does he speak false words.
When reviled and beaten,
because of his kindness he has no bad thought;
he turns away from reprisal in word,
action, and thought, all three.
Alike to all beings, he draws near to Brahma (God).
He neither desires, nor is he without desire;
he limits himself to merely sustaining life.
Not covetous, unshaken, self-controlled;
not active, yet not neglecting religious duty;
his sense-organs are not drawn to many objects,
his desires are not widely scattered;
he is not harmful to any creature;
such a Samkhya-follower is released.2

In meditation the soul may be seen by the yoga of concentration and the Samkhya yoga of discriminating reason as well as the yoga of works. By knowing all the courses of the world one may turn away from the senses so that after leaving the body that one will be saved, according to the Samkhya view. Disciplined purity and compassion to all creatures are important; the weak may perish, but the strong get free. The field-knower governs all the strands of the material world. Making thought come to rest by meditation, perfected in knowledge and calm, one goes to the immortal place.

The elaborated Samkhya doctrine is attributed to Pancashikha, but the earliest Samkhya text is the Samkhya Karika from the second or third century CE by Ishvara Krishna. According to this text the three qualities of goodness (sattva), activity (rajas), and ignorance (tamas), whose natures are pleasure, pain, and delusion, serve the purpose of illumination, action, and restraint. The great principle of intellect (buddhi), which evolves the world, in its good (sattvic) form has virtue, wisdom, non-attachment, and lordly powers; but the reverse are its dark (tamasic) forms.

Yet it is the will that accomplishes the spirit's experiences and discriminates the subtle difference between nature (prakriti) and spirit (purusha). Uniting with the all-embracing power of nature, causes and effects lead to virtue and ascent to the higher planes or vice and descent to lower. Goodness comes from wisdom, bondage from the opposite. Attachment and activity lead to transmigration. Attainments come from correct reasoning, oral instruction by a teacher, study, the suppression of misery, intercourse with friends, and purity. Sattva predominates in the worlds above, tamas in those below, and rajas in the middle with the pain of decay and death.

Evolution from the will down to specific elements modifies nature and emancipates each spirit. Just as one undertakes action in the world to release the desire for satisfaction, so does the unevolved function for the liberation of the spirit. Thus spirit is never really bound or liberated nor does it transmigrate; only nature in its manifold forms is bound, migrates, or is liberated. The pure spirit, resting like a spectator, perceives nature which has ceased to be productive and by discriminating knowledge turns back from the dispositions. When virtue and other karma cease to function, the spirit of the individual remains invested with the body by past impressions; but when separation from the body comes, its purpose is fulfilled as it attains eternal and absolute independence.

The practice of yoga in India is very ancient, probably even pre-Aryan. Yoga is mentioned in several Upanishads, and its philosophy is described in the great epics, particularly in the Bhagavad-Gita portion of the Mahabharata. The classic text for what is called the royal (raja) yoga is Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, probably written in the second century BC, although scholarly estimates range from the fourth century BC to the fourth century CE. The word yoga has the same origin as the English word "yoke" and means union. In the Katha Upanishad the senses are to be controlled as spirited horses are by a yoke.

The raja yoga tersely described by Patanjali as having eight limbs is considered the psychological yoga. The Yoga Sutras begin with the idea that yoga (union) is the control of the modifications of consciousness; this enables the seer to stand in one's own form instead of identifying with the modifications. The five modifications are knowledge (perception, inference, and testimony), error (ideas not formed from reality), imagination (ideas without objects), sleep, and memory (experienced objects). These are controlled by practice and detachment. Practice requires constant attention for a long time, and detachment comes from getting free of the desire for experiences. Mastery of this comes from the spirit overcoming the qualities.

Meditation can be reasoning, discriminating, and joyful awareness of the unity of the universe and self or cessation by renunciation and constantly dissolving impressions, resulting in undifferentiated existence, bodilessness, absorption in the supreme, or faith, enthusiasm, memory, and wisdom. Intense practice brings the best results, or it may be achieved by surrendering to the Lord. The perfect spirit of the Lord is untouched by afflictions, actions, and their results; it is the infinite seed of omniscience beyond time, and its symbol is the sacred word. Constant practice of that brings cosmic consciousness and the absence of obstacles.

The obstacles that distract consciousness are disease, laziness, indecision, apathy, lethargy, craving sense-pleasure, erroneous perception, lack of concentration, and unstable attention. These distractions are accompanied by sorrow, worry, restlessness, and irregular breathing. Cultivating the feelings of friendship, compassion, joy, and equanimity toward those who are happy, suffering, worthy, and unworthy purifies consciousness, as does breathing in and out. Subtle vision modifies the higher consciousness by bringing the mind stability, as does the transcendent inner light, the awareness that controls passions, the analytical knowledge of dreams and sleep, and concentration according to choice.

The lessened modifications become transparent and transformed, and the memory is purified and empty so that objects shine without thought. The subtle elements become undefinable nature in the meditation with seed. Beyond discrimination the oversoul is blessed with direct truth, which is different from verbal inferences. This impression prevents all other impressions, and control of even this controls everything in seedless meditation.

The practice of yoga and meditation is enhanced by discipline, self-study, and surrender to the Lord in order to remove obstacles such as ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life. Obstacles result in action patterns that cause suffering in this life and the next, as virtue and vice bear the fruits of pleasure and pain; but concentration overcomes their effects. Future suffering can be avoided if the perceiver does not identify with the perceived. Discriminating undisturbed intelligence removes ignorance and suffering by the absence of identity and the freedom of the perceiver.

The practice of union proceeds through the eight steps of restraint, observances, posture, breath control, sublimation, attention, concentration, and meditation. The restraints are not injuring, lying, stealing, lusting, nor possessing and are called the universal great vows we have often seen before. The second step of observances involves cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self-study, and surrender to the Lord. Patanjali suggested that destructive instincts may be overcome by cultivating the opposites of greed, anger, or delusion. In confirming nonviolence the presence of hostility is relinquished. Not lying brings work and its fruits; not stealing brings riches; not lusting brings vigor; and from not possessing comes knowledge of past and future lives.

Cleanliness brings protection of one's body; goodness purified becomes serenity; and single-mindedness conquers the senses. Being content gains happiness. Discipline perfects the senses and destroys impurities. By self-study one may commune with the divine ideal, and meditation is successfully identifying with the Lord.

Stable and pleasant postures (asanas) release tension and transform thought. Regulating the inhalation and exhalation of the breath (pranayama) prepares the mind for attention. By withdrawing consciousness from its own objects, the senses are sublimated (pratyahara) and under control.

The last three steps of attention (dharana), concentration (dhyana), and meditation (samadhi) are the same as the last three steps of the Buddha's eightfold path. Attention is defined by Patanjali as the original focus of consciousness, concentration as continuing awareness there, and meditation as when that shines light alone in its own empty form. These three work as one in inner control leading to wisdom and are the psychological steps. As the control of destructive instincts and impressions evolves, the flow of consciousness becomes calm by habit, and oneness arises in meditation. As this oneness evolves, past and present become similar in the conscious awareness.

Patanjali then described various psychic abilities that can be attained from the practice of yoga. Supernatural powers may come from birth, drugs, chanting, discipline, or meditation. Yet he warned that worldly powers are obstacles to meditation. Only the knowledge of discriminating between goodness and spirit brings omnipotence and omniscience, and only from detachment to that is the seed of bondage destroyed in freedom. The soul of the discriminating perceiver is completely detached from emotion and mind so that with serene discrimination the consciousness can move toward freedom. Finally the evolution of transforming qualities fulfills its purpose and stops, cognized as a distinct transformation. Patanjali concluded,

Empty for the sake of spirit
the qualities return to nature.
Freedom is established in its own form,
or it is aware energy.3

This yoga text has been tremendously influential in India and beyond, and is in my opinion a very positive guide to spiritual liberation as well as being beneficial to ethical development.

Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad-Gita, which means The Song of the Lord, was written between the second century BC and the second century CE. It synthesized many ideas from the Samkhya philosophy and practice of yoga, but it is also claimed by Vedanta and Hindu philosophy in general as its greatest work on spirituality. The text is actually contained in Book 6 of the epic poem Mahabharata, which tells the story of the great civil war that may have occurred in India as early as about 1400 BC or as late as about 900 BC. These stories will be discussed in the next chapter, but the dramatic context for the dialog between the warrior Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna is the beginning of the actual battle between the rival ruling families, the Kauruvas and Pandavas.

The Bhagavad-Gita is narrated by the sage Sanjaya, who clairvoyantly perceives what is going on and relates it to the blind King Dhritarashtra. Krishna is an uncle and friend of the Pandavas, but remaining neutral he allowed one side to use his vassals in battle, while the Pandava Arjuna got to have him as charioteer, although he would not fight himself. By the time this was written, Krishna was considered an incarnation of the god Vishnu, the preserver, and he teaches Arjuna several kinds of yoga for achieving union with God. This is the earliest work that emphasized the religious worship of God through devotion to an avatar or incarnation of God which developed into the Vaishnavite faith in medieval Hinduism.

The poem begins with Dhritarashtra asking Sanjaya what is happening not only on the field of Kuru but also on the field of dharma (virtue, duty). Sanjaya describes how both armies are arrayed against each other blowing their conch horns to show their readiness to fight. Then Arjuna asks Krishna to position his chariot between the two armies, and there he sees many of his relatives on the other side, causing him to feel faint and consider not fighting.

Even though the others are killing, Arjuna does not think it would be worth it to do so, even for sovereignty of the three worlds, let alone an earthly kingdom. Evil would come to him, he says, if he should kill his relatives. How could this bring happiness? This family destruction is wrong and would destroy ancient family duties and bring on lawlessness, which would lead to corruption of the women and caste mixing. Why should he kill for greed of royal pleasures? It would be greater happiness for him to be killed unresisting and unarmed. Thus Arjuna's mind was overcome by sorrow.

Krishna, who is called the Lord, responds by upbraiding Arjuna for timidity and cowardice that would cause disgrace, urging him to stand up. Arjuna answers that it would be better to live by begging than be smeared with the blood of his noble teachers. He does not see what would remove this sorrow even if he were to win unrivaled prosperity and royal power. Once again Arjuna declares that he will not fight.

The Lord now tells Arjuna that he is grieving unnecessarily even though his words are wise. As he is eternal, so are the slain, and all will exist forever. No one can cause the destruction of the imperishable; though the bodies have an end, the infinite soul is indestructible and eternal. Like a person abandoning worn-out clothes takes new ones, so does the soul enter new bodies. Therefore he should not mourn, because death is certain for those born; but the soul is eternally inviolable.

According to Krishna Arjuna should look to his duty as a Kshatriya to battle; to avoid this duty would be evil. If he is killed, he will go to heaven; if he conquers, he will enjoy the Earth. Making pleasure and pain the same, gain and loss, victory and defeat, he should fight to avoid evil.

From the perspective of universal ethics I have to criticize this justification of the caste system and war mentality. While I agree that it is our duty to act courageously and not refuse to act out of cowardice, the principles of love, freedom, responsibility, health, justice, and others guide us by the all-important principle of not harming (ahimsa) which is violated in organized war to a maximum extent. The duty of a Kshatriya is to work for justice and protect lives, not to kill people. Mahatma Gandhi and others have shown us that we can stand up to wrong and refuse to capitulate to it without using violence, which merely multiplies the wrong and harm. I think it is especially important to criticize this error in one of the world's otherwise wisest books so that it cannot as easily be used as a justification for this violent behavior, which had not been purified out of Aryan culture in that time.

Krishna explains how to use the unified intuition of the Samkhya philosophy and Yoga practice to act without attachment to the fruits of action. Following the letter of the scripture and performing rituals does not avail. Staying in yoga with unified intuition and letting go of the fruit of action, one will be free of misery and the bondage of birth. When in meditation the intuition stands unmoving, union is attained.

Arjuna asks Krishna what such a person is like. When one gives up all desires in the mind and is satisfied in the soul by the soul, then one is steady in wisdom. In pain free of anxiety, in pleasure free of desire, the sage departs from passion, fear, and anger. Withdrawing from the senses, like a tortoise in its shell, one should sit unified with the Lord in the supreme with senses under control. From contemplating objects comes attachment, then desire, anger, delusion, memory wandering, and loss of intuition until one perishes. By eliminating lust and aversion while still engaging the objects of the senses, the self-governing attains tranquillity, clear thoughts, and steady intuition. The undisciplined have no intuition, no concentration, and no peace; but by giving up desires, longing, and possessiveness one attains the holy state of peace.

Once again Arjuna asks if intuition is better than action, why is he being urged to this terrible action. Krishna teaches that Samkhya knowledge and yoga action are to be performed but without attachment. To renounce action and then remember the senses is to be a deluded hypocrite. Maintaining the body requires action, and so controlled action is better than inaction. God-produced action originates in the imperishable God of the sacrifice. Observing what the world needs, one should act free of attachment. Even the Lord must act and set an example for others to act, or confusion would result.

All actions are performed by the qualities of nature; only the deluded self thinks the "I" is the doer. The deluded are attached to qualified actions, but the knower of the whole does not disturb fools. He should entrust all his actions to the Lord, meditating on the supreme soul and not complain. Even the wise act according to their own nature, and it is better to follow one's own duty than another's, which can be dangerous.

Arjuna asks what compels a person to do harm. The Lord replies that desire and anger from the emotional quality are injurious. These obscure knowledge as smoke does fire. The senses must be restrained. Higher than the senses is the mind; higher than the mind is the intuition; and even higher is the soul.

Krishna says that he knows his past lives and that as an avatar he is born from age to age to protect the good and destroy evil-doers in order to establish justice. By trusting the Lord and being purified by disciplined knowledge many have attained the Lord. The ancient way of action is for liberation. The enlightened can see action in inaction and inaction in action. Independent action is without hope, possession, and envy. God is attained by contemplating the action of God. Action without desire is consumed in the fire of knowledge. Yogis practice sacrifice to the divine by restraining their senses, controlling the breath, and regulating food. Attaining knowledge works better than sacrificing material possessions.

Krishna does not see Samkhya and yoga as separate, but either practiced correctly yields the results of both. Though renunciation yoga can lead to the best, the yoga of action is even better. By putting actions in God, free of attachment, one is not affected by evil and attains peace. Unattached to external contacts, the soul, united to God, enjoys imperishable happiness, but delights from contact give birth to pain with a beginning and an end. Enduring the agitation brought on by desire and anger, the united one has inner happiness and light, attaining oneness with God. With sins wiped out and dualities dissolved, the self-controlled, attaining nirvana, rejoices in the welfare of all beings.

One should uplift the self by the soul, not lower the soul. The self may be the friend or enemy of the soul, depending on whether the self is mastered by the soul or not. The self-mastered is peaceful, steadfast, content with self-knowledge, detached from companions, and neutral toward enemies and friends with impartial intuition. Krishna recommends disciplined moderation in eating and sleeping, not either extreme. Seeing the soul in the soul, one is not disturbed even by heavy sorrow. Mastering the senses with the mind, the intuition may then quiet the mind, the soul making it stand still. When the mind wanders, one should master it by directing the will in the soul. The united soul observes the soul in all beings, seeing the Lord everywhere.

Arjuna confesses that his mind is unstable and hard to hold back. Krishna replies that no one doing good suffers misfortune but improves from life to life toward perfection. Persevering in mental control and cleansed of guilt, one goes toward the supreme goal. The mind, absorbed in the Lord practicing union, will know this completely; but deluded evil-doers, robbed by illusion, do not. Practicing union, one goes to the divine Spirit at death. The light path leads to liberation from rebirth with God, but the dark path brings return to reincarnation.

Krishna recommends a path of devotion to him as a way of supreme liberation and describes to Arjuna his extraordinary characteristics. Then Arjuna asks to see his divine form, and he is blessed with that overwhelming vision. When Arjuna asks Krishna who has the best knowledge of union, he replies that those who worship him with the greatest faith are most united, although those who worship the imperishable, unmanifest, and omnipresent also attain him.

Knowledge is better than practice, meditation superior to knowledge, and renunciation better than meditation. The yogi is a friend of all beings, free of ego, indifferent to pain and pleasure, patient, self-restrained, and devoted to God. Those who worship the immortal justice with faith and devotion are beloved by the Lord.

Next Krishna differentiates nature and spirit, the field from the knower of the field. The field is composed of the elements, ego, intuition, the senses and their objects, desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, and consciousness. Spirit is the cause situated in nature which experiences the qualities born of nature. Attachment to those qualities is what brings about birth.

The supreme spirit in this body is also said to be
the observer, allower, supporter, experiencer,
the great Lord and the supreme soul.
whoever thus knows spirit and nature
together with the qualities,
even in any stage of existence,
this one is not born again.4

Whoever perceives the same supreme Lord in all beings that never perishes goes to the supreme goal. The imperishable soul dwelling in the body free of qualities does not act and is not stained.

Krishna explains that the quality of goodness is bound by attachment to happiness and knowledge, the quality of emotion by attachment to desire and action, and the dark quality by ignorance, confusion, neglect, and laziness. Goodness works by knowledge, emotion by greed, effort, action, restlessness, and lust, and darkness by negligence and confusion. By transcending all three qualities the observer perceives and knows the highest and attains immortality.

Arjuna asks how this may be accomplished. The Lord answers that by sitting impartially one is not disturbed by the qualities; standing firm one does not waver, the same in pain and pleasure, self-reliant, equal to blame and praise, to friend and foe. In devotional union these qualities are transcended, making one fit for God realization. The endowment of the divine comes from fearlessness, purity, perseverance in knowledge of union, charity, restraint, sacrifice, spiritual study, austerity, straightforwardness, nonviolence, truth, no anger, renunciation, peace, no slander, compassion for creatures, no greed, kindness, modesty, no fickleness, vigor, patience, courage, no hatred, and no excessive pride.

Hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance lead to the demonic, who are untruthful, unstable, and godless. Attached to desire and accepting false notions, clinging to anxiety ending in death, with gratification of desire their highest aim, convinced that this is all and using the unjust means of wealth, they acquire property and slay enemies; but they are wrapped in a net of delusion, attached to desires, and fall into an unclean hell. Clinging to ego, force, insolence, desire, and anger the envious hate the soul in other bodies, and entering a demonic womb, are deluded in birth after birth. One should renounce desire, anger, and greed as the threefold gate of hell.

An example of the practical experience of the three qualities is how they are related to food.

Promoting life, goodness, strength, health,
happiness, and satisfaction,
flavorful, juicy, substantial, and hearty foods
are liked by the good.
Pungent, sour, salty, hot, spicy, dry, burnt foods
are wanted by the emotional,
causing pain, misery, and sickness.
Spoiled, tasteless, putrid, stale,
and what is rejected as well as the unclean
is the food liked by the ignorant.5

The austerity of the good is pure, virtuous, and nonviolent; the austerity of the emotional is hypocritical for honor and respect on Earth; and that of the dark is for the purpose of destroying another. The good gift is given freely at the proper time and place to a worthy person; the gift given for a reward or unwillingly is emotional; and the dark gift is given at the wrong place and time to the unworthy with contempt.

Action according to the three qualities is also described.

Liberated from attachment, not egotistical,
accompanied by courage and resolution,
unperturbed in success or failure,
the actor is called good.
Passionate, wishing to obtain the fruit of action, greedy,
violent-natured, impure, accompanied by joy and sorrow,
the actor is proclaimed to be emotional.
Undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, deceitful, dishonest,
lazy, depressed, and procrastinating,
the actor is called dark.6

Finally Krishna summarizes his teachings for attaining perfection and God, the highest state of knowledge.

United with cleansed intuition,
controlling the self with will,
and relinquishing, starting with sound, sense objects,
and rejecting passion and hatred,
living isolated, eating lightly,
controlling speech, body, and mind,
constantly intent on union meditation,
relying on detachment,
releasing ego, force, pride, desire, anger, possessiveness;
unselfish, peaceful, one is fit for oneness with God.

Becoming God, soul serene,
one does not grieve nor desire,
the same among all creatures,
one attains supreme devotion to me.
By devotion to me one realizes who and what I am in truth;
then knowing me in truth one enters immediately.
Performing all actions always trusting in me,
one attains by my grace the imperishable eternal home.
Surrendering consciously all actions in me, intent on me,
constantly be conscious of me relying on intuitive action.7

Thus Krishna offers himself as a refuge and guide toward liberation through knowledge and detachment from the fruits of action in one of the wisest and most inspiring books ever written.

Notes
1. Vaishesika Sutra tr. Nandalal Sinha, 6:2:2.
2. Mokshadharma in Mahabharata 12:295:33-36 quoted in Larson, G.
J., Classical Samkhya, p. 128.
3. Patanjali, Yoga Sutras (author's version), 4:34.
4. Bhagavad Gita (author's version), 13:22-23.
5. Ibid. 17:8-10.
6. Ibid. 18:26-28.
7. Ibid. 18:51-57.


Copyright © 1998-2004 by Sanderson Beck
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Contents
Vedas and Upanishads
Mahavira and Jainism
Buddha and Buddhism
Political and Social Ethics
Hindu Philosophy
Literature of India
India 30 BC to 1300
Delhi Sultans and Rajas 1300-1526
Mughal Empire 1526-1707
Marathas and the English Company 1707-1800
British India 1800-1848
British India's Wars 1848-1881
India's Renaissance 1881-1905
India's Freedom Struggle 1905-1918
Gandhi and India 1919-1941
Tibet, Nepal, and Ceylon 1800-1941
Southeast Asia to 1875
Pacific Islands to 1875
Summary and Evaluation
Bibliography
Chronological Index

BHAGAVAD-GITA (THE LORD'S SONG)
YOGA SUTRAS (UNION THREADS) by Patanjali

BECK index

BECK index
                                    Literature of India
Ramayana
Mahabharata
Jatakas
Panchatantra
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The greatest imaginative literature of ancient India can be found in the long epic poems, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Written over many centuries and not completed until sometime between the fourth century BC and the fourth century CE, they probably grew out of the story-telling of the traditional bards (sutas) who acted as charioteers to kings. Since its setting is more ancient, let us begin with the Ramayana.

Ramayana
The Ramayana is considered the first ornate poem and is attributed to the sage Valmiki. Its present form has seven books and about 24,000 slokas or verses, though the last book is an epilog written later as was probably most of the first book. Treatment of Rama as an immortal god, an incarnation of Vishnu, is mostly found in these later books. Nevertheless the entire poem is heroic, and Rama along with his wife Sita are superhuman in their virtue and perfection. For Indian culture they represent models of ideal behavior and attitudes.

The time period of the Ramayana has been estimated as between the twelfth and tenth centuries BC when the Kosalas and Videhas ruled northern India. A legend about the author Valmiki tells how he was a robber chief, who once waylaid two ascetics; they offered him spiritual wisdom in place of gold and silver, which they did not have. Won over by their ideas, Valmiki became a devotee of Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, and after meditating much on Rama and his virtues he was given a vision of his entire life.

Valmiki asked Narada, who was most heroic and virtuous, and was told of Rama as the most self-controlled, valiant and illustrious, the Lord of all. Narada declared that he is equal to Brahma, a protector of the people, supporter of the universe, subduer of those who violate the moral code, the inspirer of virtue in others, and one who grants grace to his devotees. Having told Valmiki the story of Rama, Narada asked permission to leave and ascended to heaven. Then the poet Valmiki put the story into verse based on the details he perceived in his meditative vision.

The story begins in Ayodhya, where Rama's father ruled as king in the tradition of Manu. The community was prosperous and happy, and the Brahmins understood the six systems of philosophy. Dasaratha's ministers were guided by the moral code and reason; it was a golden age, an age of truth (satya-yuga). According to the first book, Vishnu decided to incarnate in the sons of Dasaratha in order to destroy the cruel leader of the demons, Ravana, who through austerity had gained the boon of being invulnerable to all but man.

Dasaratha had more than one wife, and each of his four sons was born to a different mother, but clearly the greatest was the oldest, Rama, followed by Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. Taught by the sage Vishvamitra, Rama slays the demon Takaka and is given celestial weapons. Sita, who was mysteriously born in the furrow of a field, which is what her name means, was to be given in marriage to the one who could bend a certain bow. When Rama bent the bow, it broke in two; so Rama and Sita were married. Rama proves his valor and skill by stringing another bow and defeating Parasurama in combat. Sita communicated all her thoughts to Rama and could clearly read his mind, so dear were they to each other.

The second book begins by describing Rama's many virtues. The elderly King Dasaratha decides to hand over the rule of his kingdom to his illustrious eldest son, Rama; but on the day before his installation, Queen Kaikeyi, the mother of Bharata, is persuaded by her hunchback servant Manthara to ask the king for the two boons he owes her for having saved his life. Her son Bharata must be made regent, and Rama must go into exile in the forest for fourteen years.

While the people of Ayodhya are celebrating the expected coronation of Rama, he goes to the palace only to be commanded into exile by the king. Everyone who loves Rama is stricken with grief, but Rama allows himself no sign of emotion and willingly submits to the royal will. Lakshmana protests and wants to fight for Rama's rightful place, but Rama persuades him that they must obey their father out of duty and not use violence; what is right is more important than a mere kingdom. Rama also urges his mother, Kaushalya, to stay with her husband rather than follow him into the forest.

Sita, however, is able to convince Rama that it is her duty to be with her husband. Unable to persuade her to stay behind, Rama says he cannot abandon his wife. Sita gives away her possessions in preparation, and Rama is acclaimed by the people for his virtues of harmlessness, compassion, obedience, heroism, humility, and self-control. The king believes that he must have deprived countless beings of their offspring to have to suffer this separation from his beloved son.

Lakshmana accompanies Rama and Sita, and the emotional parting is ended by Rama's ordering the chariot-driver to hurry away. They cross the Ganges River and enter the wild forest. Rama sends the chariot-driver back to the court to tell them he will live as an ascetic, and so Kaikeyi should not be suspicious but enjoy supreme authority in the name of her son Bharata. Rama's small group is guided further into the forest by local leaders and sages.

Rama realizes that his mother must have done something in a former life to have her son taken away in this one, and Dasaratha tells how once while hunting he accidentally killed the son of two blind parents as he was getting water for them. Realizing the fruit of that action in his current sorrow, King Dasaratha soon dies of grief. Kaushalya reprimands Kaikeyi, saying that one who is ambitious is unaware like one who eats unripe fruit.

The counselors decide that Bharata should be made king. He has been living in Rajagriha with his grandparents, but a dream reveals the death of his father. Returning to Ayodhya, Bharata reproaches his mother Kaikeyi for her selfish plot to put him in Rama's rightful place, and he suggests that she commit suicide. Bharata consoles Kaushalya, and the funeral ceremonies are held amid much sorrow. Shatrughna wants to punish the hunchback woman, Manthara, but Bharata persuades him that Rama would not approve of such killing, or Bharata would have killed his own mother too.

Bharata decides to refuse the throne and offer it to Rama. Bharata crosses the Ganges and eventually finds Rama in the forest. When Lakshmana sees Bharata's army approaching, he fears the worst and is ready to fight; but Rama explains he only would want the throne to protect his brothers and would never fight against them. He correctly perceives that Bharata is coming to offer him the throne. When the four brothers are reunited, Bharata and Shatrughna allow their tears to fall.

Rama asks Bharata if he is fulfilling his royal duties, but Bharata says that as the oldest Rama ought to be king. However, Rama declares that the royal word of their father must be their law, and therefore Bharata must rule for fourteen years while Rama is in exile. Bharata begs Rama to return to Ayodhya, but Rama steadfastly refuses. Rama explains that morality is the soul of government, and that is how the people are upheld. The essence of duty is truth, and therefore he must keep his word to his father. Rama renounces the so-called duty of the warrior which is violent, saying it is injustice under the name of justice and the practice of the cruel, depraved, and ambitious who do evil. He prefers to live in the forest free of sin in peace, enjoying pure roots, fruit, and flowers.

Bharata asks for the golden sandals of Rama and is given them as a symbol of Rama's absent rule through Bharata. Celestial gifts are conferred on Sita as she declares her loyalty to her husband as her guru and master of her heart. She believes that obedience to one's Lord is the crowning discipline for a noble woman

In the third book Sita is carried off by the demon Viradha, but Rama and his brother get her back again by slaying the demon. In the forest the sages ask Rama for his protection, and he promises to deliver them from the oppression of the Titans. Sita implores her husband, however, not to attack the Titans, for there are three failings born of desire: uttering falsehood, associating with another's wife, and committing violence without provocation, the last of which is now showing itself in Rama. Sita pleads that the bearing of arms alters one's mind the way fire changes a piece of wood. She asks Rama to renounce all thought of slaying the Titans, pointing out that the practice of war and asceticism in the forest are opposed to each other. She begs him to honor the moral code as it relates to peace.

Rama replies that the sages are unable to enjoy a peaceful life in the forest because of the Titans, and he has promised to aid them if they ask for his help. A female demon Shurpanakha tries to seduce Rama and Lakshmana; but when she attacks Sita, Lakshmana cuts off her ears and nose. Shurpanakha complains to her brother Khara, and he sends demons, who are slain by Rama. Then Khara leads his army of demons against Rama, who destroys them and kills Khara.

Ravana, king of the demons, hears of their defeat and is persuaded by Shurpanakha to try to kill Rama so that he can wed Sita. The demon Maricha tries to dissuade Ravana, warning him against the sin of interfering with someone's wife. However, Maricha assumes the form of a fawn and is slain by Rama. Hearing his cry, Sita insists that Lakshmana go to assist him even though it is his duty to guard Sita. In a rare lapse of character in her excessive love for Rama, Sita accuses Lakshmana of caring more for her than his own brother. With Lakshmana out of the way, Ravana approaches Sita, who defies him. Nevertheless he abducts her by force and takes her to the island of Lanka. Ravana tries to make Sita his consort, but she refuses and is given to Titan women to be guarded.

In vain Rama and Lakshmana search for Sita, and Rama's sorrow turns to wrath. Eventually Rama is told what happened and where he can find Ravana. The fourth through the sixth books narrate the war against Ravana and the Titans by Rama and his allies in southern India who are referred to as monkeys. Their king Sugriva sends the powerful Hanuman to aid Rama. The monkeys search everywhere for Sita; only after they refuse to eat, does someone tell them where she is hidden. The monkeys are discouraged when they see the ocean; but Hanuman is able to fly over to Lanka and explore the enemy's territory.

Once again Ravana tries to woo Sita, but she refuses again and prophesies the destruction of the Titans. Hanuman finds Sita; she refuses to be rescued by him, though she gives him her jewel to take to Rama. Hanuman does considerable damage but is captured by the Titans. The Titan Bibishana pleads for Hanuman's life out of respect for messengers. Hanuman escapes and sets fire to Lanka, then returns and urges the monkeys to rescue Sita.

Bibishana advises Ravana to send back Sita to avoid the war, warning that being in the wrong, they are sure to be defeated by Rama. Ravana calls a council of war and is supported by flattering speeches. Bibishana is rebuffed by his brother Ravana and departs to the monkeys, who doubt his loyalty; but Rama accepts him as an ally, saying, "I shall never refuse to receive one who presents himself as a friend."1 Bibishana tells them of the strength and extent of Ravana's army.

The army of monkeys and Rama cross the sea to Lanka. Once again Ravana is advised, this time by his grandfather, the Titan Malyavan, to return Sita and make peace with Rama. Again Ravana closes his ears to this speech, relying on his power to overcome the exiled Rama. In the battle Rama and Lakshmana are struck down by Ravana's son, Indrajita, but they are revived by Garuda. Rama then defeats Ravana in battle but does not kill him. Ravana's brother Kumbhakarna is able to turn the monkeys back, but he is slain by Rama.

Using invisibility, Indrajita puts the monkey army out of action. Hanuman gets herbs from the Lord of the Mountains to heal the wounds of Rama and Lakshmana, and Lanka is set on fire again by the monkeys. Indrajita devises the stratagem of killing an apparition, which seemed to be Sita. When Rama hears the news that Sita has been slain, he falls to the ground like a tree whose roots have been severed. Lakshmana then delivers a despairing speech that virtue must not have its reward if such things could happen to the noble Rama. Bibishana, explaining that he is fighting against his brother because of the wrongs he has committed, helps Lakshmana to kill Indrajita.

Finally Rama and Ravana fight with magical weapons. Ravana flees; but later they fight again, and Ravana is killed. After the funeral and mourning for Ravana, Bibishana is installed as king of Lanka. Hanuman carries the news to Sita, who pleads for mercy toward her former captors now captured themselves. Sita quotes an ancient saying,

A superior being does not render evil for evil;
this is a maxim one should observe;
the ornament of a virtuous person is their conduct.
One should never harm the wicked or the good
or even criminals meriting death.
A noble soul will ever exercise compassion
even towards those who enjoy injuring others
or those of cruel deeds
when they are actually committing them;
who is without fault?2

Rama sends for Sita; but when they meet, he repudiates her because of suspicions based on her having lived in the house of another. He cannot believe that Ravana would not have enjoyed her ravishing beauty; so he tells her she may go where she pleases. Hearing this harsh speech from Rama, Sita weeps bitterly. Sita laments that she was always faithful to her husband in whatever was under her control. She accuses Rama of being worthless and to prove her innocence enters the flames of the sacrificial fire. Then Brahma reprimands Rama for acting like a man when he is really a god. After this divine speech Sita is restored from the extinguished pyre and given back to Rama by the fire god Agni, who declares her innocent. This ordeal by fire had to occur though, so that other people would know Sita's innocence.

Rama and Sita return to Ayodhya, where Rama is installed as king. In the later epilog (seventh book) a dark cloud still hangs over Sita, and people criticize Rama for taking her back. So she goes once more to live in the forest and is taken in by Valmiki, the author of the epic. Sita gives birth to twins, who are taught to recite the poem. Rama recognizes his sons as minstrels and asks Valmiki to return his wife; but unable to remove the people's suspicions, her heart broken, she asks the Earth to take her back, and her end mirrors her beginning. Finally death seeks out Rama, and he ascends to heaven.

This story which justifies the conquest of southern India and the island of Lanka nevertheless acknowledges the virtue of the dark-skinned southern peoples, who though referred to as monkeys are nonetheless on the side of good. The military hero Rama is divinized and becomes an object of worship as an incarnation of the Preserver Vishnu, and Sita is held up as the model of outstanding womanhood, exemplifying beauty, patience, loyalty, kindness, and mercy.

Mahabharata
The legendary author of the Mahabharata is Vyasa, who is also given credit for compiling the Vedas and writing the Puranas. The 24,000 couplets of the Bharata were gradually expanded to become over 100,000, making the Mahabharata the longest poem in the world and probably the work of many hands. Vyasa managed to portray himself in the poem as the progenitor of the two kings whose sons fight for the kingdom of Bharata, as his mother asks him to father sons on a widow and the wife of the celibate Bhishma and a third on a low-caste servant maid. Dhritarashtra is born blind because his mother closed her eyes, and Pandu is pale because his mother Ambika was pale with fear. Ironically the third, who is of low caste, Vidura, turns out to be the wisest, resembling the god Dharma (justice, virtue) even more than Yudhishthira, who is the son of Dharma.

Because of Dhritarashtra's blindness, Pandu was made king. One day while hunting Pandu shot a deer that was coupling with its mate and was cursed with the fate that if he ever mated with his wife, he would also die. So Pandu was celibate and practiced austerity in the forest along with his wives Kunti and Madri after they gave away their royal wealth to charity. Pandu asked Kunti to give him sons from a man equal or superior to him. Kunti had been given a mantra by which she could summon any god she desired to father children. She had already given birth to Karna, whose father was the sun; she had put him in a basket, and he, not knowing his parents, was raised by a charioteer. Then through Kunti, Dharma (Justice) became the father of Yudhishthira, Vayu (Wind) the father of Bhima, and the powerful Indra father of Arjuna. She told the mantra to Madri, who gave birth to Nakula and Sahadeva, twin sons of the Ashvins. However, Pandu made love to Madri and died, joined on his funeral pyre by Madri. Kunti raised the five Pandava sons, while the blind Dhritarashtra ruled the kingdom. Meanwhile the latter's wife gave birth to a hundred sons with Duryodhana the oldest. Vidura prophesied that Duryodhana would bring about destruction, but his warnings were ignored.

Duryodhana tried to kill Bhima but failed. Bhishma arranged for the Brahmin Drona to teach all the princes. Arjuna excelled in the martial arts and was given special attention by Drona. Karna was also a great warrior and became a friend and supporter of Duryodhana. For Drona's tutorial fee Karna, Duryodhana and his brothers captured King Drupada. Dhritarashtra declared the oldest and most honest Yudhishthira heir to his throne. So Duryodhana and his brothers planned to burn to death Kunti and her five sons, but the Pandavas discovered the plot and escaped through underground tunnels from the burning house.

Arjuna won a beautiful bride in Draupadi, but when he told his mother he had a gift for her, she said that he must share it with all his brothers. Since the mother's word could not be broken, all five brothers married Draupadi, a practice forbidden by the Vedas. Both Bhishma and Drona advised Dhritarashtra to give the Pandavas a share in the kingdom with his own sons. The Pandavas were given the city of Indraprastha, from where they could rule their half of the kingdom. Accidentally breaking in on his brother Yudhishthira with their wife, Arjuna had to go into exile for twelve years and practice chastity (brahmacharya). But the maiden Ulupi persuaded Arjuna that his celibacy only related to his wife Draupadi, and he eventually married Krishna's sister Subhadra, who gave birth to their son Abhimanyu. Draupadi also had a son by each of her five husbands, while Arjuna's efforts gained him divine weapons from Indra.

Krishna, who later was made into a god, urged Yudhisthira and his brothers to attack Jarasandha, who had captured some kings. Bhima defeated Jarasandha in single combat, and Krishna released the imprisoned kings. Then Yudhishthira sent his four brothers in the four directions to conquer India. Krishna is criticized by Sishupala for killing women and cattle, but Krishna slices off Sishupala's head with a discus.

To win the Pandavas' territory Duryodhana invites Yudhishthira to the palace to play dice with the skilled dice-cheater Shakuni. Yudhishthira's weakness for gambling causes him to lose everything he owns and even his four brothers, himself, and finally their wife. When Draupadi is summoned, she is in retreat because of her monthly period. She is dressed only in a single blood-stained garment, but she is dragged by the hair into the hall by Dushasana. Draupadi questions what right her husband had to stake her when he had already lost his own freedom. Nonetheless she is insulted by Duryodhana and his brothers, who try to disrobe her; a miracle is performed by Krishna so that the cloth pulled from her body never ends. (In the past Draupadi had bandaged the wounded Krishna.) Spared this ultimate humiliation, Draupadi is given three boons by King Dhritarashtra and asks only for the return of Yudhishthira and his four brothers. Finally they decide to play one more dice game for the kingdom, the loser of which will have to go into exile for twelve years and be in hiding without being discovered for one year after that. Once again Yudhishthira loses, and the Pandavas depart for the forest. Vidura pleads with his brother to allow the Pandava sons to return, or else ruin will result; but once again he is ignored.

In the forest Yudhishthira learns the value of forgiveness. Draupadi is a model and devoted wife to the brothers. Of the many stories there is one in which each of the brothers drinks water and dies at a river before answering a question, but Yudhishthira wisely answers all the questions and brings his brothers back to life. Nonviolence is considered the highest duty.

During the thirteenth year they take on disguises and live in Virata's kingdom. A general tries to molest Draupadi, but he is killed by Bhima. After this dangerous year is completed, Krishna is sent as an envoy to ask for the Pandavas' half of the kingdom. When this is refused, everyone prepares for the great war. Krishna offers one side his army and the other himself, though he will not fight. His army fights with Duryodhana, and Krishna becomes the charioteer for Arjuna.

As the war is about to start, Arjuna refuses to fight his cousins; but in the Bhagavad-Gita Krishna encourages him to fight as a warrior and teaches him about yoga and non-attachment to the fruits of action. Arjuna then decides to fight, and Yudhishthira approaches both Bhishma and Drona, asking for their blessings, although they are on the opposite side. After eight days of battles Yudhishthira also wants to stop fighting and retire to the forest; but Krishna tells him to ask Bhishma how he can be killed, because Bhishma has control over his own death. Shikhandin, reincarnation of the woman Amba, who had been rejected by Bhishma and swore to kill him, is able to attack Bhishma because he will not fight a woman. Tired of all the killing, Bhishma wants to die, and he is mortally wounded by Arjuna's arrows.

Drona is given command of Duryodhana's armies. He is practically invincible, but he is discouraged by the lie that his son is dead. Yudhishthira, who is known for his truthfulness, says that Ashvatthaman is dead after Bhima kills an elephant with that name; but the intent is clearly to mislead Drona. Drona lays down his weapons, and his head is cut off by Dhrishtadyumna. In a family quarrel Arjuna is on the verge of killing Yudhishthira, but Krishna intervenes and says that nonviolence (ahimsa) is even more important than truthfulness. Truth is the highest virtue; but when life is in danger, even lying is permitted. Karna has sworn to kill Arjuna; but he is killed by Arjuna after his chariot gets stuck in the mud. The rules of fair fighting are increasingly being ignored.

On the eighteenth day of the war Duryodhana is wounded in the legs by Bhima even though this was also a violation of the rules they agreed on before the war. Krishna responds to Duryodhana's taunts by reminding him that the dice game was crooked, how Draupadi had been insulted, and how Arjuna's son Abhimanyu had been killed. All of Gandhari's sons have been killed, but the five Pandavas have miraculously survived a war that was supposed to have had millions of warriors involved. In revenge Ashvatthaman violates another rule of war by attacking the Pandava camp at night and kills all of Draupadi's sons. In anger Arjuna readies the weapons that could destroy the three worlds of heaven, Earth, and hell; but the sages Narada and Vyasa appear to dissuade him from this use of omnicidal weapons.

Most of the rest of the poem after the great war is probably stories and ideas added later. Vidura explains that the story of the man enjoying a few drops of honey while in a well caught between a carnivore and a monstrous snake, hanging by a vine eaten away by rats is told by the knowers of liberation to suggest serenity in the midst of troubles.

The long twelfth book called Peace (Shanti) has been discussed in relation to Samkhya philosophy. Bhishma, before he dies, gives his teachings. Ironically the nine duties common to the four castes seem to have been much violated by the characters in this poem; they are: controlling anger, truthfulness, justice, forgiveness, having lawful children, purity, avoidance of quarrels, simplicity, and looking after dependents. According to Bhishma the duty of the warrior (Kshatriya) is to protect the people. Truth is the highest duty but must not be spoken if the truth actually covers a lie. From desire comes greed and wrong-doing, wrath, and lust, producing confusion, deception, egoism, showing-off, malice, revenge, shamelessness, pride, mistrust, adultery, lies, gluttony, and violence.

Vidura believes that justice (dharma) is more important than profit (artha) or pleasure (kama) ; but Krishna argues that profit is first because action is what matters in the world. However, Yudhishthira chooses liberation (moksha) as best. Bhishma says that nothing sees like knowledge; nothing purifies like truth; nothing delights like giving; and nothing enslaves like desire. By being poor, one has no enemies, but the rich are in the jaws of death; he chose poverty because it had more virtues. Giving up a little brings happiness, while giving up a lot brings supreme peace. Before Bhishma dies, the preceptor of the gods, Brihaspati, appears and explains that compassion is most virtuous because such a person looks at everyone as if they were one's own self. He teaches them the golden rule that one should never do to another what one would not want another to do to you; for when you hurt others, they turn and hurt you; but when you love others, they turn and love you. Brihaspati ascends to heaven, and Bhishma realizes that ahimsa (not hurting) is the highest religion, discipline, penance, sacrifice, happiness, truth, and merit.

Yudhishthira performs the kingly horse sacrifice and rules over a wide realm his family has subdued before he passes on the kingdom to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit and retires with his brothers to seek heaven. On their divine ascent each of the brothers dies because of his shortcomings, but Yudhishthira will not leave behind his faithful dog, who is allowed into heaven with him as a symbol of dharma. Yudhishthira is thus able to enter heaven alive where he finds Duryodhana. Narada explains that there are no enmities in heaven, but Yudhishthira asks to see his brothers. He is led to a stinky unpleasant place, but he prefers to be in hell with his brothers. This too is a test, and he is reunited with Draupadi, who was an incarnation of Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity. The author concludes that profit and pleasure come from virtue. Pleasure and pain are not eternal; only the soul is eternal.

This poetic story of a great war that probably took place in the late tenth century BC is filled with stories and situations that describe the culture of ancient India and has been an entertaining schoolbook for millions. Along with the virtues it also reveals the vices of the conquering and warlike Aryans and their racist caste system. Even the divine Krishna becomes a spokesperson for the warrior mentality, as a nearly apocalyptic disaster destroys millions and threatens their whole world. Still a heroic epic of military glory like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata contains much more real and well defined characters and portrays many aspects of life. If only humanity could learn from its negative lessons of violence and ambition, perhaps the peace of the sages could be found.

Jatakas
Ancient folktales of India come down to us primarily in two collections of stories, many of which are about animals. These are the Buddhist tales of the former lives of the Buddha known as the Jatakas and the Panchatantra. Many of the original stories probably predate the Buddha, but the Jatakas were organized into verses about the Buddha and placed into his biography starting about the fourth century BC, though the whole collection with its prose stories and commentaries was not completed for several centuries.

The Jataka tales always begin with an incident in the life of the Buddha, usually a sermon he is giving which he illustrates with a story from one of his previous lives. After the tale is told he often indicates who were the other characters in the story of their previous existence. In this way the law of karma, or the consequences of actions, is illustrated, and the deep patterns of different souls can be seen. The Buddha, who is referred to as the Bodhisattva in the stories since he is then a future Buddha, is usually the most heroic and wisest character. He is often an animal or a tree spirit and is frequently the leader of his group. He never seems to be a female, and in fact there is a strong bias against women in many stories. The Jatakas are primarily moral tales illustrating the wisdom and goodness of the Bodhisattva figure, and, with the exception of the prejudice against women, the ethical lessons are usually quite good.

The Devadhamma-Jataka (#6) is a good example. This story resembles that of Rama. The Bodhisattva is the eldest prince of Benares followed by Prince Moon and, when their mother died, Prince Sun, whose mother was given a boon by the king. This queen, being naturally wicked, plots against the others and demands that her son be made king for her boon. The Bodhisattva and Prince Moon go off to live in the forest, but they are joined by Prince Sun as well. A water-sprite imprisons Prince Sun and Prince Moon when they answer that what is truly godlike is the sun and moon and the four quarters of heaven; but the Bodhisattva wisely states that the godlike are the white-souled votaries of the Good who shrink from sin. The water-sprite offers him one of his brothers, and he chooses the youngest because the queen had asked for the kingdom for him; if he chose Prince Moon instead, no one would believe that Prince Sun had been devoured by a demon. Impressed by his wisdom, the demon returns both brothers, and the Bodhisattva explains that the demon is suffering the consequences of his evil deeds and is continuing the pattern. However, the demon is converted; when the father dies, the brothers return to Benares with the Bodhisattva as king, Prince Moon as viceroy, and Prince Sun as general. The tale ends with the usual conclusion that he lived correctly until he passed away to fare according to his deeds. Then the Buddha explains that the demon was the monk who had been hoarding extra clothes.

Devadatta is often cast as the villain in the tales. In the Mahilamukha-Jataka (#26) a follower of the Buddha is seduced into eating the luxurious food of Devadatta's schismatic group. The Buddha tells how in a past life he was an elephant named Damsel-face, who heard the evil talk of robbers and went on a rampage, killing everyone in sight until the Bodhisattva, the king's counselor, figures out that it was the influence of bad talk and advises the king to have Brahmins talk of goodness in the elephant's stall. The oldest part of the tale is usually the moral verse, which in this story runs thus:

Through hearing first the burglars wicked talk
Damsel-face ranged abroad to wound and kill;
Through hearing, later, wise men's lofty words
The noble elephant turned good once more.3

The Kulavaka-Jataka (#31) is an elaborate tale that shows the progression of several lives of a woman called in the first Highborn. The Bodhisattva does good and wins over friends, who keep the five commandments; but their good works clearing roads take away the graft of the headman, who accuses them of villainies. Condemned to be trampled by an elephant, the great beast flees from them, making the king think he has a spell. The Bodhisattva explains that their spell is not to destroy life, nor take what is not given, nor commit misconduct, nor lie, nor drink alcohol, and to be loving, show charity, level the roads, dig tanks, build a public hall, and so on. In the Bodhisattva's house are four women - Goodness, Thoughtful, Joy, and Highborn. In their next lives the first three from their good works have pleasant situations with Sakka (the Buddha again), but Highborn, not having performed any act of merit, is reborn as a crane. However, she is taught to keep the commandments and proves her worthiness to Sakka and then is reborn in the family of a potter. Once again she keeps the commandments and is reborn as the beautiful daughter of an Asura king. This story makes the important Buddhist point that it is one's actions not one's birth that determines the future.

The Mahasilava-Jataka (#51) shows how a good king can overcome a violent villain, who is an earlier incarnation of Devadatta. This minister is sent away from Benares for dealing treacherously in the king's harem. He persuades the king of Kosala to attack Benares, knowing that they will be rewarded with gifts and get off free. Sure enough when brought before King Goodness of Benares, he asks them why they made this raid; and hearing that they could not make a living, he gives them presents and warns them not to do it again. To prove the point other raiders are sent, and the result is the same. So the king of Kosala decides to attack Benares, but King Goodness refuses to fight and orders the city gates opened. Captured and buried alive up to the neck, King Goodness teaches his fellow captives to shout in order to frighten away the jackals, who come at night to eat them. No longer scared, the jackals come, but King Goodness bites the neck of the jackal leader and manages to get his hands free. They escape, and King Goodness wins the friendship of two ogres, who are fighting over a corpse by dividing it equally for them. Using their magical powers he miraculously appears in the royal bedchamber and wins over the king of Kosala, ending up with more ministers and a larger kingdom than before.

Often a prince, the Buddha did not always assume the kingship in his previous lives. In the Asadisa-Jataka (#181) Prince Peerless allows his younger brother to rule so that he can renounce the world. When a slander made his brother fear he wanted to take over the kingdom, he secretly returned as a hired archer, proving his skill by severing a mango branch with an arrow on its downward flight, directed by a second arrow that entered heaven and was caught by the deities. When his brother was surrounded by seven attacking kings, he sent for Prince Peerless, who shot an arrow with a message that landed in the golden dish where the seven kings were eating. Frightened he would kill them all, they fled. Thus without shedding even as much blood as a fly might drink, the situation was resolved. Then Prince Peerless renounced his lusts and the world to cultivate the faculties and attainments; when his life ended, he came to Brahma's heaven.

The Daddabha-Jataka (#322) is told against heretics who practice excessive austerities, the Buddha denying the merit of unnecessary suffering. In this story the Bodhisattva as a lion stops a panic started by a hare, who heard the sound of fruit falling and began running away, causing other hares to run in fear and eventually all the animals of the forest. By roaring the lion stops the panic and then investigates to find the harmless source of all the fear.

Jataka #330 compares desire to birds fighting over a piece of meat such that whichever bird picks up the meat suffers attack from other birds. In a second example a female slave anxiously awaits the coming of her lover; but when she gives up hope that he will come, she sleeps peacefully. He concludes that in this world and in the next there is no happiness greater than the bliss of meditation.

In many stories, such as the one in which the Bodhisattva solves nineteen problems (#546), the Buddha-to-be uses his intuitive intelligence to figure out and solve or explain difficult dilemmas, complicated problems, or mysteries. Some of these may be the earliest detective stories, and the message is always that justice and goodness prevail when the Bodhisattva is involved.

Panchatantra
Panchatantra means "five formulas" and is divided into five sections of stories illustrating them called "Loss of Friends," "Winning of Friends," "Crows and Owls," "Loss of Gains," and "Ill-considered Action." In these traditional Hindu animal tales the worldly values of wealth and pleasure are more prominent than in the Jatakas. The Panchatantra may have been written down as early as the second century BC, and numerous versions spread to Persia in the sixth century and to Europe during the middle ages. A German version in 1481, for example, was one of the earliest printed books.

The Panchatantra is considered a textbook for wise conduct in this world. The basic struggle for survival underlies the competition between animals, who are personified to portray different human traits, and these primordial instincts are often illustrated dramatically by some animals eating others. Thus the struggle for life is not only to find enough to eat but also to keep from being eaten by others. Nevertheless friendship between different creatures is a way to find peaceful co-existence and mutual benefit amidst the dangers. Finding that his three sons are hostile to the usual education, a king asks the Brahmin Vishnu-Sharman to teach them the art of practical life in a way they will understand. Vishnu-Sharman accomplishes this task by making the boys memorize the stories of the five books.

In the first book on the loss of friends, the king is represented by a lion named Rusty, who befriends a wounded bull called Lively. Most of the tales are told by two jackals named Cheek and Victor, who are the sons of royal counselors and out of a job. Victor persuades Rusty to give a safe conduct for him and Lively, who has been bellowing in the forest because of his wound. Victor sets himself up as a counselor and illustrates his advice to Lively with parables. The lion Rusty protects the bull Lively, and they become close friends, while the two jackals, Victor and Cheek, are suffering hunger along with other animals normally dependent on the king of beasts.

So Victor and Cheek counsel each other with stories how they can regain the lion's favor. They decide that Rusty has fallen into the vice of attachment that can manifest in drinking, women, hunting, scolding, gambling, greed, and cruelty. The other vices are deficiency, corruption, devastation, and mistaken policy. Deficiency can be in the king, counselor, people, fortress, treasure, punitive power, or friends. Corruption comes from restlessness. Devastation can be from fire, water, disease, plague, panic, famine, excessive rain, or an act of God. Mistaken policy occurs when the six political expedients of war, peace, change of base, entrenchment, alliance, and duplicity are not used correctly. By being captivated by Lively, Rusty is accused of falling into the deficiency of a "vegetarian morality" by ignoring his counselors. Victor tells how a crow killed a black snake, a crab killed a heron, and even a rabbit killed a lion by causing it to look down a well at its own image.

Then Victor tells how a weaver won the love of a princess by adopting the power of Vishnu to fly as Garuda. Gaining the king's ear, Victor tells Rusty that the bull Lively is planning to take over his kingdom; he warns him that no king should ever give his power over to a single counselor. Although Lively is not a carnivore, Victor argues that a bull is food, and he may egg on others like worms breeding in his excrement. A louse was living nicely in the king's bed until a flea stirred up trouble and caused a search that found the louse's hiding place. Having made Rusty suspicious of Lively, Victor next tells the bull that Rusty is planning to kill and eat him. Now Lively greatly fears the lion. Lively tells how a swan befriending an owl is shot by a hunter. Fearing he too will be eaten by Rusty, Lively tells the story of how a camel was eaten by a starving lion and a carnivorous leopard, jackal, and crow.

Self-knowledge and self-restraint are lacking when the stupid turtle opened its mouth to talk when being carried on a stick by helpful birds to a new home; falling to the ground the turtle's meat is cut to bits by knives. The approaches of three fishes are contrasted as Forethought and Ready-wit are adaptable and survive, but Fatalist cannot keep alive. An old gander's advice is at first ignored, causing the geese to be captured by a hunter; but when the gander tells them to play dead, they are thrown on the ground and can fly away. The jackals advise people to look to their own advantage; otherwise studying books is merely mental strain.

Finally when Rusty sees the bull approaching so warily, he springs at Lively, and they fight. Cheek reproaches Victor for causing this enmity and threatening the kingdom. Discerning counselors aim for conciliation and postpone harsh deeds. Power with intelligence can lead to peace if it is cultivated. A countermeasure is needed to avoid misfortune. Harsh comment may be needed when flattery can be treason. So Cheek tells some stories that show that cheating and lying eventually backfire. Wrong-mind's schemes for cheating Right-mind are eventually revealed, and he is punished. A pawnbroker claims that mice ate Naduk's iron balance-beam; so Naduk hides the pawnbroker's son, saying that a hawk must have carried him off. Since the boy is fifteen, this is as unbelievable as mice eating iron. So the magistrate orders the return of the balance beam, and Naduk tells them where the boy is hidden. Cheek tells two stories that indicate that an enemy may prove better than a friend, and that therefore right should be done and wrong avoided.

This causes Victor to slink away; but Rusty and Lively renew their battle, and the lion kills the bull. Rusty feels guilty, but Victor advises him to remain resolute, claiming that normal morality does not apply to kings. Cheek reprimands Victor for stirring up strife and causing the master to fight his own servant, for victory is not what the gods command. It is fools who fight; the wise find nonviolent ways. The truth must be spoken, for pleasant lies lead the royal mind astray. Several counselors ought to be consulted separately for independent views. A master should be mindful of human differences and not let his mind be taken astray by others' advice.

The second book on the winning of friends is more positive. These stories are mostly by four friends: Swift the crow, Gold the mouse, Slow the turtle, and Spot the deer. Swift tells how doves escaped from the cruel hunter's snare by flying up all together. The mouse Gold then chewed through the snare to free the doves, showing the value of friendship. Although crows usually eat mice, Gold is won over to friendship by Swift's worldly wisdom. Friendship involves taking and giving, listening and talking, dining and entertaining. Because of a drought the crow wants to visit his friend Slow the turtle, and Gold accompanies him riding on his back. Gold tells several stories to show that the brave and friendly can prosper, but the fatalistic slacker does not. The wealthy who are greedy may be miserable, while the contented beggar is rich.

No treasure equals charity;
Content is perfect wealth;
No gem compares with character;
No wish fulfilled, with health.4

Slow the turtle tells of the money troubles of a weaver. Then the crow, mouse, and turtle are joined by a deer named Spot, and they all become friends. Spot tells how mice, who were being trampled by elephants, persuaded them to stay away from their homes, and in return the mice gnawed the ropes to free the elephants when they were captured. One day Spot is missing, and Swift finds him caught in a trap. The crow flies back to get Gold, who gnaws the trap to free Spot. Slow the turtle made the mistake of joining them and was captured by the hunter. So Spot laid down by the water as though dead, and the crow pretended to peck at him. The hunter put down the turtle, who escaped into the water, while Spot dashed off into the forest, and Swift flew away. Thus free of all injury, the four friends lived in mutual affection and happiness.

The third book tells the story of the war between the crows and owls. The crows resent that the chief owl has been named king by the birds. Cloudy the crow-king consults his advisors, who each recommend one of the six strategies related to war and peace. Live-Again counsels peace with the powerful. Live-Well suggests war or else violence will come again. Live-Along recommends a change of base, a retreat followed by an invasion. Live-On dislikes all three of these approaches and advises entrenchment in a strong fort. Live-Long recommends an alliance. Finally Live-Strong counsels duplicity and plans a clever spy mission in which he appears to have been attacked by his king and is found by the owls. Diplomacy is demonstrated in a story in which a rabbit is a clever envoy to the elephants, but another rabbit and partridge died by confiding in a cat.

When the owls find Live-Strong wounded by the crows, they have to decide what to do with him. The owl-king Foe-Crusher asks his five advisors. Red-Eye says he should be killed as a dangerous enemy. Fierce-Eye says it is wrong to kill a suppliant, and Flame-Eye, Hook-nose, and Wall-Ear agree Live-Strong should not be killed. Live-Strong asks to be burned by fire so that he could be reborn as an owl to get back at Cloudy. Disregarding Red-Eye, the owl-king agrees to feed Live-Strong in his fortress, and the wily crow regains his strength. Red-Eye and his followers leave the fortress, and with Live-Strong's help the crows are able to attack and burn down the owls' refuge. The crafty advice of Live-Strong is victorious, and he declares that kingship requires prudence, self-sacrifice, and courage. Cloudy is amazed at the value of this political skill that leads to wealth, fame, and power.

The last two books are shorter. In "Loss of Gains" the wife of a crocodile talks her husband into killing a monkey, who has shared fruit with them so that she could eat his heart. The crocodile invites the monkey to his home but confesses his purpose on the way so that the monkey can pray. The monkey says he has another heart at home and convinces the crocodile to take him back. Further attempts to capture the monkey are vain, unlike the story where the jackal invites a donkey, who is eaten by a lion. The jackal then eats the heart and ears of the donkey, and the lion is annoyed; but the jackal explains that a donkey, who would return to the forest after being attacked by a lion once, obviously has no heart or ears.

In the last book on ill-considered action a merchant named Jewel dreams that a Jain monk appears, and he hits him on the head with a stick, whereupon the monk turns to gold. The dream actually occurs the next day. A barber witnesses it and tries to attack some Jain monks and is thrown in jail, showing that his action was ill-considered because not guided by a dream. Four treasure seekers find in turn copper, silver, and gold, the fourth expecting to find something better. Instead he must replace a man tortured by a wheel on his head.

The difference between scholarship and sense is revealed in the story of the lion-makers. Finding the carcass of a dead lion, one scholar assembles the skeleton, the second provides flesh and blood, and the third is going to give it life; but the non-scholar, having only sense, says not to bring a dangerous lion to life. So he climbs a tree, and the three scholars are killed by their ill-advised creation.

Greed and revenge are the themes of the tale of the unforgiving monkey, who gets back at the household of a king for using the monkey-fat to cure horses' burns by offering to take them to a lake, where he got a pearl necklace, when he knows they will be killed by the demon in the lake. Everything grows old, but one thing remains young forever - greed.

Although the tales of the Panchatantra emphasize the ambitious goals of wealth and power, their crafty lessons in entertaining stories do give people important lessons in survival and the ways of the fiercely competitive human and natural worlds.

Notes
1. The Ramayana of Valmiki 6:18, tr. Hari Prasad Shastri, Vol. 3, p. 40-41.
2. Ibid. 6:115, p. 331-332.
3. The Jatakas tr. Robert Chalmers, Vol. 1, p. 69.
4. Panchatantra tr. Arthur W. Ryder, p. 259.

Copyright © 1998-2004 by Sanderson Beck
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Contents
Vedas and Upanishads
Mahavira and Jainism
Buddha and Buddhism
Political and Social Ethics
Hindu Philosophy
Literature of India
India 30 BC to 1300
Delhi Sultans and Rajas 1300-1526
Mughal Empire 1526-1707
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