The University of Nalanda c16.17

c16.17

much aggrieved, when preachings were dinned into its ears from housetops that life is an unmixed evil and that *Nirvāṇa* or Salvation could not be achieved within a day, but only after the completion of a whole cycle of existences. The theory of *Nairātmya* or Non-Soul could hardly be imbibed even by the learned, when many other faiths preached against it so vehemently and when *Ātmavāda* (belief in Soul) appeared so natural to the human mind. The growth of divergent philosophies and views in Buddhism, since its inception, shows but one thing, namely, the eternal strivings of its exponents, to remove its shortcomings. To attract the literate as well as the illiterate, they tried many methods. And the outcome was the different and slightly divergent philosophies, *Śūnyavāda*, *Ālayavijñānavāda*, and others.