Buddhism History 111

The Svetasvatara Upanishad

            The Svestasvatara Upanishad is the modern form of Hinduism that still holds some ideas of the ancient Upanishads. For example, the ancient Upanishads explain the Brahman is everything and everyone. “All this universe is in the truth Brahman. He is beginning and end and life of all”.  It also says that a man who has strong faith while living his faith will carry on past death. The Svetasvatara Upanishads explain that the life of Brahman is wheel. It goes from birth, death then rebirth. When an individual seeks Brahman that person is detached from the wheel and gains immortality, which I think means that the person will go on to the afterlife and remain there.  Once someone is gone from the wheel they lose their ignorance. But the only way to really be true from the wheel is if you really know the Lord.

 

Buddhism: Gotama’s Discovery

            Gotama Siddhartha is known as Buddha. Gotama was prince who was sheltered from the outside world it wasn’t until his charioteer took him from the palace where he explained the young prince’s questions. The charioteer explained old age and illness. It wasn’t until days later the charioteer then explained the meaning “to have gone forth” that the young prince then decides to shave off his head and live in the “homeless state” which refers to living in the forest. One day while in the forest meditating alone he thinks to himself: “One is born, grows old and dies, and falls from one state and springs up in another. And from suffering, moreover no one knows how to escape.” I believe Gotama started Buddhism as a way to escape from the sufferings of earth to another place. It’s different from the Upanishads because for them a person would have to find the Lord and worship him in order to break the wheel. I believe Buddhism was based more on a path you lived and followed. It’s similar because once you were on that path or once you found faith you would forever be with the Lord or one with peace.

 

Buddhism and Caste

            This is another Buddha story that tells of a confrontation between the priestly caste Buddha and Brahman.  A young Brahman goes to the Lord Gautama and ask him is it true that Brahman are the highest and purest of the caste. The Lord answers him by saying: Do you believe that? When we were all born from women. He goes on by saying that if you a man commits any type of sin does the punishment of his death depend on his social rank. After explaining to those logics to the young Brahman he closes by saying: “That all four classes are equally pure!” This is really no different from the ancient Upanishads because they believed that depending on how you lived and acted depend on your afterlife the same with modern Buddhism.