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THE BUDDHA AND HIS PREDECESSORS
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to familiarise a man with the life of a hermit, i.e., severing family ties, but without deserting his home. The object of the fourth stage was to enable a man to go in search of God and seek union with him.
The benefits of these stages were open only to the male members of the three superior classes. The first stage was not open to the Shudras and women. Equally the last stage was not open to the Shudras and women.
Such was the divine pattern of an ideal society called Chaturvarna. The Brahmins had idealised the rule and had realised the ideal without leaving any cracks or loopholes.
The fourth thesis of Brahmanic Philosophy was the doctrine of Karma. It was part of the thesis of transmigration of the soul. The Karma of the Brahmins was an answer to the question: “Where did the soul land on transmigration with his new body on new birth ?” The answer of the Brahmanic Philosophy was that it depended on a man’s deeds in his past life. In other words, it depended on his Karma.
The Buddha was strongly opposed to the first tenet of Brahmanism. He repudiated their thesis that the Vedas are infallible and their authority could never be questioned.
In his opinion, nothing was infallible and nothing could be final. Everything must be open to reexamination and reconsideration whenever grounds for re-examination and reconsideration arise.
Man must know the truth and real truth. To him freedom of thought was the most essential thing. And he was sure that freedom of thought was the only way to the discovery of truth.
Infallibility of the Vedas meant complete denial of freedom of thought.
For these reasons this thesis of the Brahmanic Philosophy was most obnoxious to him.
He was equally an opponent of the second thesis of the Brahmanic Philosophy. The Buddha did admit that there was any virtue in a sacrifice. But
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