Charlotte Krause her Life and Literature

SR No.: 001785
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shreeprakash Pandey
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 674
Language: English, Hindi, Gujarati
Classification: Book_English, Biography, & Articles
File Size: 11 MB

Page 67

22
Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
proved them to be a blessing to people, by their spirit of practical humanity. Buddhism could maintain its sway in India as long as it was strong enough to withstand the influences of Hinduism. In the course of centuries, however, it came to amalgamate mythological and other ideas of Hinduism in a rising degree, whereas, on the other hand, its clergy, turning worldly and indifferent to spiritual interest, omitted to display and propagating activity and religious zeal whatsoever. So it appears only natural if finally Buddhism was absorbed by re-awakening Hinduism, under the influence of Sankarācārya and other reformers and that of the enthusiasm of their followers.
Buddhism is divided into numerous branches, the teachings of which greatly differ from one another as well as from the true doctrine of the Buddha. Its two main branches are the ancient Hīnayāna and later Mahāyāna. Mahāyāna, i.e., 'the Great Vehicle', which is said to have risen at the time of Kaniska, claims to be able to lead a greater number of people to Salvation than the former, the ‘Small Vehicle', as its adversaries called it. It advises people to strive after knowledge and its propagation, for the benefit of their fellow-creatures, rather than to try for personal Nirvāṇa only, and, thereby lays, consequently, more stress on laymen-discipline than on monastic prescriptions. Much later, at the time, when Śāktism had become a powerful part of Hindu religion, a third branch split off, the so-called 'Vajrayāna' or 'Mantrayāna', in which pantheistic ideas and a new ritual, full of Śāktic practices, prevailed.
The earliest school of Hinayāna is the 'Sthavira school'. which still flourished in Ceylon. Another Hinayāna school is that of the Sarvāstivādīs, who believe in the reality not only of the present ‘Dharmas', but also of the past and future ones. They flourished in Northern India many centuries ago. Besides these two, the Hinayāna also comprised a Sautrāntika school, which infers the reality of the world from the fact of its being perceived, just as Descartes inferred the reality of the Ego from its mental activity. It comprised, moreover, a school of Skandhavādis, who flourished at Hiuen