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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 6
tend to predetermine the way which new perception will emerge.! During the period under review society was actually swayed by the Upanisadic thought. At that time it was believed that women were responsible for the deviation on the part of men from the pious path of penance. Gautama Buddha from his very childhood seems to have taken that achievement as an ideal of life as is generally seen in the adolescent period.
In reality for the social psychologists the concept of attitude is of sovereign importance. Our attitude shape our perceptions and judgements of other persons, the influence what we learn and remember, they help to govern our political, economic, religious and other social actions." It may be added that Gautama Buddha's attitude towards women was formulated as a reaction against women on account of the fact that women in Kapilvastu, according to literary sources, are said to have been very succeptible to sex offers and this tendency was actually considered opposite to the ideals of self-coercion through which spiritual achievement was supposed to be gained.
Gautama Buddha when born as Siddhartha was observed by fortune tellers that he would be either a supreme king or a famous scholar ascetic. Siddhartha's attitude in his childhood, inquisitive temperament and his introvert personality led his father to an anxiety that he would one day leave the household. Suddhodana became overconscious and consequently arranged everything very skilfully, in order to keep Siddartha ignorant of what was going on in society. This proved fruitless. Psychologists hold that over-protective and worrying patterns in parents are sometimes the cause of a child's fecling of insecurity. The over-protective parent constantly cautions the child to be careful and to watch out". As a result the child develops a feeling that something will happen to him unless he practices exaggerated caution. The worrying parent on the other hand exposes the child to his adult troubles, The child is infected with the worries of his parent and becomes fearful
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2.
Devid Krech and Richard S. Crutchfield, Theory and Problems of Social Psychology, Asian Students Edn., New York, p. 171. Krech, Crutchfield and Livson, Elements of Psychology (A Brief Course), Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1970, p. 460. Jätaka, V., p. 413. (Cowell's edn. and translation) Dialogues of the Buddha, II, p. 105.
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