Jain Journal 1967 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 92

APRIL, 1967
In later-day China, Confucianism had become a creed, but Confucius was never a religious leader in the usual sense. He himself was a religious man who took aesthetic pleasure in religious rituals and who believed that somewhere in the universe there was a force on the side of the right. But he was rational and empirical and never a believer in supernaturalism. It was largely due to his influence that the Chinese philosophy has given little attention to metaphysics, epistemology and logic. Humanity is pretty high in his view. "Virtue is to love men", said he. He looked on humanity as one large family. The state, according to him, should be a cooperative enterprise and to make it a vessel of human welfare he suggested that the king should take such men as were virtuous and able. But these he would not leave to chance. Hence his emphasis on the suitable education of the administrators. He also stressed upon the need of educating the common man for two reasons which may hold even now. First, since ability does not depend on birth, education alone can ensure that the most capable get opportunity to develop; and second, since, according to him, the state is a cooperative enterprise, a citizen can play a more effective role if he is educated. In the 19th century some political philosophers suggested that education must precede universal enfranchisement; but Confucius had done it long before the Christian era.
Confucius was indeed a scholar who had read many books but it is doubtful if he wrote any, though the Chinese tradition attributes to him the authorship of a great number of books. The difference between the ideas of Confucius and later-day Confucianism is already very great. Yet it must be admitted that he not only influenced the Chinese statecraft during and after his life-time, he even left a lasting influence on the Chinese culture and philosophy.
Gautama Buddha
217
It has been said of Gautama Buddha that no other man among men was so god-less while so god-like. This is indeed true. Gautama Buddha is worshipped like a god not only by the millions of the Buddhists, even in the Hindu pantheon he has been given the place of the ninth incarnation. But above all, he is the first world-renowned figure in the records of India. It is no accident that the nation should be known first through the fame of a holy man.
Siddhartha who was later to become the Buddha or the Enlightened was born about the year 560 B.C. His father Suddhodhana was the