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VII - THE GITĀ. AND THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE
827
When this similarity first came to the notice of Western scholars by the study of Buddhistic treatises, some Christian scholars began to say that Buddhists must have adopted these principles from the Asiatic Christian sect known as the 'Nestorian' sect. But such a thing is absolutely impossible; because, the founder of the Nestorian sect himself came into existence about 425 years after Christ, whereas Buddha was born about 500 years before Christ, that is to say, nearly 900 years before Nestor; and it has now been established beyond doubt from the stone inscriptions of Asoka that in his times, that is to say, at least 250 years before the Christian era, Buddism was followed to a very large extent in India and in the surrounding countries, and works containing the life of Buddha etc. had also been written. The ancientness of of the Buddhistic religion being in this way undoubtable, there remain only two possible conclusions regarding the similarity to be seen between the Christian and the Buddhistic religions, namely, that (1) this similarity must have arisen in the two places independently of each other, or that (2) these principles must have been taken by Christ or His disciples from Buddhism. Prof. Rhys-Davids says that this similarity has arisen as a result of the similarity between the circumstances of both Christ and Buddha, and that it has arisen in both the places naturally and independently * But any one will realise after a little consideration that this solution is not satisfactory; because, when anything comes into existence anywhere independently, it grows very gradually, and we can also see the course of the growth. For instance, we can logically show the gradual growth of the Jñāna-kānda out of the Karma-kānda, and also how the philosophy of Devotion, the Pātañjala-Yoga, and ultimately the Buddhistic religion grew gradually out of the Jñāna-kāņda, that is, from the Upanisads. But the renunciatory Esi or Christian religions have not grown in the same way from the Activistic Jewish book Buddha and Buddhism was published in 1900 in The World's Epoch Makers Series ; and in the tenth part of that book, about 50 similarities between the Buddhist and the Christian religions have been shown.
* See Buddhist Suttas, S. B. E. Series, VOL XI, p. 163. 27-28
