History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.331

v7.c91.331

V. The observance of the high moral ideals inculcated by Gotama Buddha must have been found irksome by at least a great many of his followers, and particularly after his personal example ceased to exist In the Mahāparinibbānasutta (S. B. E. vol. XI. p 127) we are told that Subhadda, a barber who had been received in the Order in his old age, addressed the brethren, that deeply mourned and lamented on Buddha's nirvāṇa, as follows: "Weep not, neither lament We are well rid of the *Great Samana* We used to be annoyed by being told 'this becomes you, this beseems you not' But now we shall be able to do whatever we like; and what we do not like that we shall not have to do" Ordinary people could not be fed for long on mere repetition of the sermon on suffering being the lot of man, on monasticism, aversion to speculation and on promises of nirvāṇa which was hardly ever well defined By nirvāna Buddha probably meant extinction of egoism and desires, a state of bliss beyond understanding and not a complete annihilation or extinction But this last was the sense in which many understood it Buddha had an aversion to speculation and particularly to issues that were irrelevant to his purely moral approach and purpose. Several questions of a metaphysical or speculative character such as whether the world is permanent or not, whether it is finite or not, whether the soul is the same as the body or other than the body, whether the Tathāgata continues after death or not were left unanswered by Buddha (*vide* Majjhima Nikāya, discourse 63, Trenckner's ed vol. I.) Monasteries of Buddhist monks and nuns became in course of time centres of idleness, pleasures and immorality, and of debased practices like those of Vajrayāna Tāntricism. A well-known scholar like Rāhula Sānkrtyāyana, himself a Buddhist bhiksu, in a paper on 'Vajrayāna and the 84 Siddhas' contributed to the Journal Asiatique vol. 225 (1934) pp. 209-230 was constrained to say "The monasteries and temples were gorged with riches due to the pious offerings made by the multitudes. The life of the monk became more comfortable than that of the layman. The discipline weakened and many unfit persons entered the community.¹⁶⁵¹ The easy life associated with the culture of a sensual art under the cover of cultured paintings, meditation, gods and goddesses must have inclined the minds towards sensuality. Already from the Kathāvatthu1651a (XXIII. 1) we know that the Andhaka School was disposed to permit *Maithuna* (copulation) for a special object; it was introduced in the mystic cult Coming to the south, the practice of mantras, psychical practices, and a certain indulgence in the pleasures of sense were united; the Vajrayāna was complete"