Of all the various teachers which arose during the fifth, sixth,
and seventh centuries B.C., none of them were able to rise to the
position of moral grandeur occupied by Gotama Buddha. The
efforts put forth by this great teacher seem to have been humane
rather than religious. In his time, especially in India, society
had become encysted beneath a crust of seemingly impenetrable
conservatism, while religion, or priestcraft, riveted the chains
by which the masses of the people were enslaved.
The mission of Buddha was to burst asunder the bonds of the
oppressed and to abolish all distinctions of caste. This was to
be accomplished through the awakening of the divine life in each
individual. The leading processes by which the lines of caste
were weakened were in direct opposition to the established order
of society. It was a blow at the old Brahminical social and
religious code which had grown up under the reign of
priest-craft.
Notwithstanding the sex prejudice which had come to prevail in
India, it was directly stated by Buddha that any man or woman who
became his disciple, who renounced the world and by abstinence
from the lower indulgences of sense proclaimed her or his
adherence to the higher principles of life, "at once lost either
the privilege of a high caste or the degradation of a low one."
Earthly distinctions were of no consequence. Rank depended not
on the outward circumstance of birth, but on the ability of the
individual to resist evil, or, upon his capacity to receive the
higher truths enunciated by the new sun or savior--Buddha.
In one of the canonical books he is represented as saying:
"Since the doctrine which I teach is completely pure, it makes no
distinction between noble and common, between rich and poor. It
is, for example, like water, which washes both noblemen and
common people, both rich and poor, both good and bad, and
purifies all without distinction. It may, to take another
illustration, be compared to fire, which consumes mountains,
rocks, and all great and small objects between heaven and earth.
Again, my doctrine is like heaven, inasmuch as there is room
within it without exception, for whomsoever it may be; for men
and women, for boys and girls, for rich and poor."[121]
[121] Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i.,
p. 216.
There is little doubt that the religion of Buddha was an attempt
