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EPILOGUE
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§ 1. Tributes to the Buddha’s Greatness
The Buddha was born 2500 years ago.
What do modern thinkers and scientists say of him and his Dhamma? An anthology of their thoughts on the subject will be useful.
Prof. S. S. Raghavachar says :
“The period immediately antecedent to the life of the Buddha was one of the darkest ages in the history of India.
“It was intellectually a backward age. The thought of the time was characterised by an implicit veneration for the authority of the scriptures.
“Morally it was a dark age.
“Morality meant for the believing Hindus the correct performance of rites and ceremonies enjoined in the holy texts.
“The really ethical ideas like self-sacrifice or purity of will did not find appropriate positions in the moral consciousness of the time.”
Mr. R. J. Jackson says:
“The unique character of the Buddha’s teaching is shown forth in the study of Indian Religious thought.
“In the hymns of the Rig-Veda we see man’s thoughts turned outwards, away from himself, to the world of the gods.
12 “Buddhism directed man’s search inwards to the potentiality hidden within himself.
“In the Vedas we find prayer, praise and worship.
“In Buddhism for the first time we find training of the mind to make it act righteously.”
Winwood Reade says:
“It is when we open the book of nature, it is when we read the story of evolution through millions of years, written in blood and tears, it is when we study the laws regulating life, the laws productive of development, that we see plainly how illusive is the theory that God is love.
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