Buddhist Rationalism

The life of man is inter-twined with one form or other of religion from the beginnings of Civilisation which is coeval with the discovery of Agricul­ture. The fertile crescent along the riv­ers Euphretes and Tigris was believed to be the earliest centre of Agriculture, though it was possible that it began at various other places independently which may not belong to the same ep­och in the chronology of human civili­sation.

The religion during the pre-vedic period apparently was not much different from primitive tribal religions in India. The Vedic period left the strong­est imprint on human religious ideol­ogy and ethics spread well over a pe­riod of more than a thousand years; it culminated in the emergence of Upanishads which tended to be the abstract essences of religious thought.

Gautama, the Buddha, belonged to a period, when the efficacy of Vedic ­rituals was being subjected to rational­istic analysis by the philosophers of Sixth century B.C. The greatest difficulty that confronted them was that their seemingly rational thought itself was not strictly logical. Religion and logic were unrelated anywhere in the history of humanity.

`In general, religious Masters claimed divine authority for their theo­ries all over the world. The authentic­ity of their preachings was not to be questioned by an effort to correlate cause and effect with ordinary com­mon sense. The ways and modus op­erandi of the Omnipotent God are be­yond human comprehension.

Buddha was not very happy with such a state of affairs. Rationalism, freely employed as an effective tool in learning arts and crafts and any other skill is barred to enter the field of relig­ion. If man is endowed with a thinking brain, why should it be restrained to operate particularly in the field of religion?

Buddha developed a powerful logic and adduced it to his line of thought. Who ever argued with Bud­dha, was easily defeated. Man, is es­sentially a reasoning animal and the preachings of Buddha strikingly ap­pealed to an unprejudiced mind. Thus Buddha was the first person in the world who associated logic with relig­ion and Buddhists developed logic as a subject which was initially esoteric among the people for several centu­ries.

The complicated abstractions in some of the later Upanishads, were in­fluenced by Buddhist approach to­wards religion. But logic was not the strength of the Brahmins of 6th Cen­tury B.C. They believed what they be­lieved with strong convictions and faith; but they were not a match to counter the Buddhist line of thought which was essentially rationalistic. The Buddha always exhorted even his disciples to test his teachings with their conscience.

The Lord was once-standing with a begging bowl before a house holder Drona, who was a cultivator in north­ern Bihar. Drona ridiculed him with the comment that it is unbecoming for an able - bodied man to beg for his living. He said that Gautama failed to perform his duties as a prince and made himself a beggar. He proudly claimed that as a cultivator he himself was working hard to produce grain which feeds scores of people. Buddha with his perfect physique should do hard work like-wise for the good of his fellow beings. Nevertheless he offered grains with both his hands to Buddha.

Before receiving the alms, the Master asked “Drona, if I now refuse to receive the grain offered by you, to whom does it belong?” Somewhat taken aDrona quickly answered with displeasure, “of course it belongs to me”. “If such is the case, if I refuse to receive the harsh words spoken by you to whom should they belong”, he asked with a compassionate smile.

Drona was totally non-plussed to find words for a reply, but Buddha continued. “I cultivate the mind to produce permanent happiness not only to myself or a score or two but for the entire humanity. Yes! I am also a cultivator of a different product!”

It did not take long for Drona to realise the greatness of the Lord. He fell over his feet to become his disciple.

This minor incident in the life of Buddha is narrated above to illustrate the power of logic developed by the Master! Whoever came to attack, fi­nally fell over his feet and became his follower.

Buddha never claimed that he was preaching a separate faith. It was not viewed as a separate religion op­posed to Hinduism. It was also a vari­ety of Hinduism itself with a sound ra­tional basis, which appealed to every thinking person.

The efficacy of logic to propagate religious thoughts was realised by oth­ers very soon in India. The Upan­ishadic scholars learnt lessons in logic from Buddhist teachers to develop their Tarka Sastra, to club it with their Vedanta. The early Buddhist Masters did not need to have a separate logic as they believed that their doctrine had rationalism as its foundation.

In addition, Kindness towards fellow beings was a fundamental principle of Buddhism. In those days, the premonarchical tribal societies, trans­forming into Monarchies resorted to inhuman brutalities. Buddhism revolted against such thoughtless violence and appealed to cultivate senti­ments of compassion. Buddha was often referred to as compassionate Buddha.

Under equally brutal conditions in West Asia five and half centuries later, Christ sacrificed himself to in­duce compassion among humanity.

It is altogether a separate development that Buddhism had sev­eral ramifications, a few centuries later and degenerated into all types of illogi­calities that go in the name of religion. Were he to come alive a thousand years later Buddha would have been surprised to see what was passing off in his name of Buddhism in later Vajreyama cults. It is necessary to re­alise that religion and mysticism are inter-twined, as well in the long run. All of us believe what we like to believe and apply norms of logic to others’ religions. For an ordinary Hindu there is no logic in Christianity or Islam not realising that even his faith is illogical and if others attack it with logic it also has to fall flat.

Buddha, realised that the real character of man is couched in his ir­rational beliefs. Any subject acquired through rationalism is common to all in the same subject. Individual differ­ences creep in through the irrational dispositions only and that is charac­ter. Compassion was part of Buddhism for this basic reason. That is why Hin­duism believes that the essential na­ture of a person does not change by learning.

Western religious thoughts too, from the later medieval period on­wards do not treat Christianity as a basis for their theories. The more a person thinks, the less the faith that remains with him. But he can not be totally rational. It is like the horizon that appears to the naked eye, but evades your arrival there.

Buddhism therefore tried to cover up the irrational aspect of the human thought with notions of com­passion. Though Buddha employed logic to propagate his teachings, he realised its ultimate short-comings and resorted to compassion to fill up the void left in the religious thinking ulti­mately.

Krishnaji (J .K) reads a small passage from ‘Gospel of Buddha’. Each morning in meditation. He is indeed a devotee and the very sound of the name of Lord Buddha seems almost to make him tremble with a feeling of utmost worship.....He said “Whenever I see a picture of lord Buddha, I say to myself ‘I am going to like it’ –

-From a diary kept by one of Krishna murthy’s associates at pergine, Italy (dated September 14, 1924).

(Extract from Pupul Jayakar’s Biography of J.K)