Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c40.4

v2.c40.4

(i) Heavenly life hereafter: Aśoka repeatedly stressed upon the desirability of a happy life hereafter, and for that he advised his subjects to be virtuous, to make gifts and to earn merits, as these would bring about happiness in this as also in the next world.¹ There is no pessimistic vein in his teachings nor does he speak of the impermanence of worldly objects. Nowhere do we find in the Edicts any reference to the attainment of Nirvāṇa or the Absolute as the summum bonum of life. This shows that Aśoka espoused the religion of the laity and not that of the recluses, to whom heavenly existence was as much undesirable as worldly existence.