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BUDDHA NOT A SOCIALIST. Buddha is said to have answered a king thus: “If a slave or servant of the king puts on the yellow garment, and lives as a monk without reproach in thought, word, and deed, wouldest thou then say, Well then, let this man still be my slave and servant, to stand in my presence, bow before me, take upon himself to perform my behests, live to minister to my enjoyments, speak deferentially, hang upon my word ?” And the king answers, "No, sire; I should bow before him, stand before him, invité him to sit down, give him what he needed in the way of clothing, food, shelter, and of medicine when he is ill, and I should assure him of protection, watch and ward, as is becoming." And this treatment, it is inferred, is what Buddha approved.
Prof. Oldenberg strongly combats the idea that Buddha was specially a social reformer, who broke the chains of caste, and raised the poor and humble to his Buddha not a spiritual kingdom. There is no notion in his socialist. teaching of upsetting the established order of things and supplanting it by a new one. "Buddha's spirit was a stranger to that enthusiasm, without which no one can pose as the champion of the oppressed against the oppressor. Let the state and society remain what they are; the religious man who as a monk has renounced the world, has no part in its cares and occupations. Caste has no value for him, for everything earthly has ceased to affect his interests; but it never occurs to him to exercise his influence for its abolition or for the mitigation of the severity of its rules for those who have lagged behind in worldly surroundings." It is scarcely even true that Buddha practically presented an equal front to all classes of people. Those who were among his early chosen adherents were almost exclusively drawn from the upper classes, nobles, Brahmans, merchants, educated persons. We find in early Buddhist works such phrases as these: “Truly not undesired by the Exalted One is such an interview with such noble youths." "The goodwill of such a respected and well-known person towards this doctrine and ordinance is of the highest importance." Scarcely can an isolated story be found of the reception
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