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RELIGION
241 general impression among the people of the Buddha's time was that religion was needed for furthering the worldly interest only. It was from this impression that king Ajātasattu of Magadha was led to have interviews with the contemporary religious teachers for enlightenment on the question as to the possibility of the immediate fruit of religious life in the present existence. In the Sāmaññaphala and other suttas, we read that the contemporary religious teachers whom he waited upon gave answers that were not to the point. He then saw the Buddha who satisfied him with a relevant answer. The Buddha's arguments went to establish that religion, if rightly and earnestly, practised, was of immense service to men and women in the present world, its primary
function being to improve the personal, family, social, economio, moral, intellectual and spiritual status of them by showing them the path of deliverance from bondage in all its degrees and forms.
In corroboration of the drift of the Buddha's reply, we may note that Indian religions of the age encouraged various works of social piety, e.g., construotion of roads and bridges, planting of shade trees, excavation of tanks,
King of wells, laying out of fruit gardens,
Digha, 1, p. 60f.
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