A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s7.36

v2.c19.s7.36

Even the death of Christ has been compared with Buddha's entrance into Nirvāṇa. Seydel has pointed out that both events are accompanied by an earthquake, while Edmunds goes so far as to emphasize the fact that Jesus and Buddha both die in the open-air!⁴ And yet the difference between the two religious texts is nowhere shown so clearly as here. What a vast difference between the Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sutta and the 27th chapter of St. Matthew! Here the heart-rending tragedy of a martyr and a victim of fanaticism, there the calm passing of a sage—a glorious Euthanasia. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, the earth opens and quakes, and the graves yawn in horror at the crime which was being committed; in the Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sutta the earth quakes in token of her jubilation that the complete Nirvāṇa of the Lord, a beautiful event, has taken place.