The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.82

c11.82

Yājnavalkya, as we have seen, abandons his wives and goes to live in the forest. Such “Forest-Hermits” (ὑλόβιοι) must have been common in India several centuries before Christ. Buddha criticises them, and declares himself as against their ascetic life and practices as a hindrance rather than a help to a life of perfect freedom from passions and desires, a life of true emancipation. He himself advocates moderation in all things, salvation included. He prefers the “middle of the road,” as both he and we say (the *media via*, or *madhyama-mārga*). About 300 b.c. a clever Greek by the name of Megasthenes was the ambassador of the Græco-Persian king Seleukos at the court of Chandragupta in the city of Pātaliputra (311–302 b.c.). Chandragupta—Sandrakottos or Sandrokyptos as the Greeks called him—had succeeded, after the death of Alexander the Great, in founding the great Indian empire of the Maurya dynasty, the largest empire known up to that time in India. Megasthenes wrote a work called *Indica* which contains much important information about the India of his day. He tells that these ascetics were indifferent to the good or evil that happens to man; that all being, in their opinion, is dreamlike illusion; that they regard the world as created and perishable; and believe that God who has created it pervades it completely. Considering the source, this is an uncommonly good description of the pessimistic pantheism of the Upanishads. Alexander the Great himself was much impressed with these "Sages of the Forest." He sent one Onesikritos to talk with them. After having been laughed at by the ascetics for his full dress of mantle, hat, and boots, and told to lie naked upon the stones if he would learn from them, he was finally initiated into the Hindu idea, to wit, that the best doctrine is that which removes not only sorrow but also joy from the soul of man.