Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c5.s3.t4.10

c5.s3.t4.10

the main object of Nāgārjuna’s Kārikā is to establish the idea that things are relatively existent, and that the truth is one and realisable only within one’s own self, he takes up the chief dogma of the Hinayānic schools and tries to prove its hollowness from the new standpoint set up by him. Asaṅga, though of a much later date, does not allow the Hinayānic doctrines to pass unnoticed. He shows in his Sūtrālaṅkāra the inferiority of the Hinayānists in mental calibre and their unfitness to comprehend the truth. Vasubandhu likewise in his Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi pointedly indicates how the Hinayānists labour under misconceptions, the complete eradication of which is the aim of the Mahāyānists. Thus we see that though most of the works mentioned above belong to a time posterior to that with which we are here primarily concerned, they present us with materials illustrative of the conflict for ascendancy that was going on between the Hinayānists and the Mahāyānists.