The History of Buddhist Thought c17.11

c17.11

The karma and the knowledge here spoken of is that required for the due performance of the sacrifice. Doubtless the idea of action as moral action already existed. Moral rules grow up inevitably in a society in accordance with the actual social conditions. But in India we find a wider conception than karma. It is dharma, thought of as a universal law of action. It appears in the Vedas expressed by *rta* “law”, the law that everything in the universe has a prescribed course, from the path of the sun to the duties of each individual according to his own caste. Law or dharma thus universalized the conception of karma. It naturally included ritual actions, involving both what we call religious injunctions as well as morality. But in the Upanishads we find a clear distinction arising between mere ritualism and ethical action. Brahma, after having created the castes, is said to have created dharma. “He further created a better form. That was dharma, the power of the power (*kshatra*) which is dharma. Therefore, there is nothing beyond dharma. Hence a weaker man prevails over a stronger as though by a king. Even so that which is dharma is truth. Therefore, of one who speaks truth they say he speaks dharma, or of one who speaks dharma they say he speaks truth. Both indeed are one and the same.”¹ And again: “According as one acts, according as one conducts himself, so does he become. He that does good becomes good; he that does evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous karma, bad by bad karma.”²