The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s5.4

c5.s5.4

According to his analysis one should not overlook the fact that it was after all only a small percentage of the people (*nur ein kleiner Prozentsatz des Volkes*) that practised *Weltflucht* (retreat from the world) and entered the Order to achieve Nirvāṇa which could be attained only in the monastic class. The laity which believed in the Order did not think of giving up the worldly activities (*dachte nicht daran ihre weltlichen Beschäftigungen aufzugeben*) and the renunciation of secular life was not demanded from them (*es wurde nicht von ihr gefordert*). Lüders refers also to the Jaina communities of today in which, as he says, the laity consists mostly of the commercial people. It is just the richest class that belongs to the Jaina laity in the same manner as the old texts report of the composition of the Buddhist laity of yore. The attempt of Brāhmaṇism to establish an *Ausgleich* (balance) between the life in the world and the flight from the world has also demanded Lüders's attention. The relations between the first three *āśramas* (stages) of the social polity in which *tätiges Leben* (active life), the study of the Vedas and the establishment of the family are prescribed and the last stage which is characterized by the *Streben nach der Erlösung* (effort to achieve salvation) indicate this balancing of the two motives in Brāhmaṇism, says he (pp. 83, 87).