Comparative Study of Indian Science

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: C S Mallinath

Page 11

3
Buddha is said to have preached to his five disciples were the Four Truths viz., of Suffering, the Cause of Suffering, the Cessation of Suffering and the Way to the Cessation of Suffering. This last Truth is explained in this way :
"This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble Truth of the Way leading to the Annihilation of Suffering. That blessed Eight-fold Path is as follows- Right Faith, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Exertion, Right Tendency of the Mind, Right Meditation." (Mahavagga, 1., 6.)
These are the eight ways to the Nirvana. Who will fail to see that according to these principles of Buddhism, Practice is as essential to the attainment of Nirvana as Knowledge?
Hardly less prominent is the practical tone of Jainism. In reference to the Way of the Final Emancipation, Vadi-deva Suri distinctly says,
60
'The Emancipation of the Self which has acquired a male or female body, consists in the annihilation of all the Karmas through Right Knowledge and Conduct."
7. 57-Pramana-naya-tattvalokalamkara Thus while Right Conduct occupies a secondary place in the orthodox schools of Indian philosophy, in