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50
THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
part concerned philosophy.
with
the
exposition
of Sankara's
6. BUDDHISM
The last non-Jaina system of philosophy considered by Gandhi is Buddhism. But here the exposition of the Buddhist philosophy is preceded by a summary narration of Buddha's life-story. The decision to include the biographical portion seems to have been a result of second thoughts but it has been well executed; for we are thereby assisted in forming a graphic idea of what it was in Buddha's life-activities that Gandhi admired most. In his exposition of the Buddhist philosophy Gandhi confines himself to Southern Buddhism (i.e., the Theravāda branch of Hīnayāna Buddhism). Now in the philosophical literature of Southern Buddhism much attention has been devoted to the ethico-religious problems and comparatively little to the metaphysical ones. The same is the case with Gandhi's account of the Buddhist philosophy. For we are here given an account of the fourfold 'noble truths', the seven 'jewels' of the Buddhist law, the Buddhist notion of nirvāna, the Buddhist understanding of the 'law of karna', and such other ethico-religious topics, but the doctrine of five skandha's (along with its corollary, the doctrine of 'no soul')--the only metaphysical doctrine considered—is introduced as a sort of side-issue while dealing with the first 'noble truth'. The only place where Gandhi pointedly raises objection against a Buddhist position is revealing. For he feels that Buddha's acceptance of the law of karma' is incompatible with the latter's denial of 'soul. Now irrespective of whether this objection of Gandhi is valid or not it is definitely indicative of his repeatedly asserted conviction that an ethics in order to be sound must be based on a sound metaphysics.
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