History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s3.10

c7.s3.10

When, however, Buddhism with its noble laws of character declined, the masses felt that the moral code was unavailing without faith. From one extreme, the human mind always runs to the other. In the natural evolution of spiritual thought, the negative aspect changes till it takes a positive character. The Hindu reaction put faith in place of laws. Thus moral principles, self-dicipline, and introspection, the watch-words of Buddhism, were thrown into the back-ground, and faith in God became the motto and the catch-word of the Pouranik Ranaissance. The Hindu revivalists, in running to such an extreme, perhaps overdid their part. They preached that man, being essentially a creature of circumstances, could not at all depend on self-help. He needs divine grace at every step. Faith, they said, was the only thing to be sought for,—not only in order to attain salvation, but for the purpose of building up character. They went so far as to declare that it was not in the power of a human being to commit so many crimes in life as could not be expiated by uttering the name of God once in sincere faith!