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Lord Mahāvira's Religious Contemporaries and Sects
175
The exposition of the Eightfold Path is said to be the Buddha's first discourse. It is also widely known as the Middle Path (madhyama pratipat) as it keeps clear of the two extreme ways of life, one being that of ease and luxury and the other of rigorous asceticism. This path allowed a monk to live a life of moderate comfort, with the bare requirements of food, clothing and residence, but with the wind intent on achieving the goal.
The second discourse, which is said to have been delivered by the Buddha, strikes the keynote of his teachings, viz., that the five constituents which make a being are without a self (anātma), impermanent (anitya), and are not desirable (dukkha). He who realizes the absence of soul or substance in the constituents knows that he does not exist as an individual and as such there can be no relationship between himself and the objects around him. There is nothing in this world to make him happy or sad and so he is free (vimukta), he is an arhatperfect. ASCETICS OF THE BRAHMANICAL SECTS
The Brahmanical ascetics were probably divided into two classes, i.c., the one retiring to the forests Vänaprasthins and then passing to the stage of Sannjäsa, and the other consisting of the Tavasa, the Geruya or Parivrājaka etc. The Jatakas most probably depict the life of the Vanaprasthins and the Sannjäsins, but there is no line of demarcation drawn between the two. It is only in the Dharmastra literature of a later period that a clear distinction is made between the two stages of life. Now the question is : how far does the account of the Jåtalas correspond with that of the Dharmasaira. According to the BardhaJana-Dharmasūtra, to cite one example, one could renounce the world aftcr thc student life, or after being a houscholder, or from the forest. Apastamba and Vasishịha allow one to have the option of becoming an ascetic after the completion of ile Brahmcharia singe or after becoming a houscholdcr.. Thus we find the Bralımanical sources supporting the Buddhist account. 1. Ba Di. S, 11, 10.2-6; Snr:, XIV, 273. 2. Spr., II, 155; XIV, 10, 46.
