Identifier: indikacountrypeo00hursuoft (find matches)
Title: Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Hurst, J. F. (John Fletcher), 1834-1903
Subjects: Sri Lanka India
Publisher: New York, Harper
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
y. Keep steadfast watch over your own hearts. He whoholds fast to the law and discipline, and faints not, shall crossthe ocean of life, and make an end of sorrow. . . . The world isfast bound in fetters. I now give it deliverance, as a physicianwho brings heavenly medicine. .Keep your mind on my teach-ing. All other things change. This changes not. No moreshall I speak to you. I desire to depart. I desire the EternalBest (Nirvana). Thus lived and died the man who founded a religion, which,with all its absurdities, has the largest number of adherents in theworld professing any one faith. Its histoiy abounds in anoma- * Hunter, Brief History of the Indian People,1 pp. 65 ff. THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. U lies. One is that, having ruled India for centuries, it wras atlast expelled from the land which gave it birth, and its multi-tudes of disciples are to he found in (leylon, Tibet, -
Text Appearing After Image:
The doctrines of Buddha were few and simple. He found theBrahmanic caste in all its fulness and iron inflexibility. He did Dot teach disloyalty to the P.rahman priesthood, but respect for ^16 INDIRA. it. However, he declared that Brahmans are not mediators be-tween God and man, but that real caste consists in moral quality.Men are divided according to their merit. Salvation is open toall alike. We do not gain divine favor by offering sacrifices, butby living pure lives. Misery here, in this life, is the result of sinin a former life. We gather, or shall gather, only what we sow.The highest future joy is eternal calm. Self-control, kindness toall men, reverence for the life of all the brute creation, were thethree fundamental doctrines of practical Buddhism. When Buddha died, five hundred of his followers met in agreat cave near Patna and formed the First Council of Bud-dhism. Their object was to collect and formulate the great mas-ters teachings. They chanted his whole system, arrangi

Note About Images