Hinduism and Buddhism
...eeds are supposed to unite the “atman”, the innermost soul in every being, with the “Brahman”, the supreme reality underlying all life (Smith). The only reality is the Brahman, and selfhood is an illusion. The only way to release oneself from the karmic cycle in Hinduism is by worshipping the gods and performing the rituals correctly. The performance of karma and dharma properly plays an important role in the escape from the cycle (McDowell and Stewart). The performance of karma is determined by the level of the people in the society. There are four social levels in Hindu society: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras (Smith). The Sudras are the lowest members in the social level and work as servants and laborers. They are not permitted to study the Vedas and are prohibited from performing most rituals despite being Hindus (McDowell and Stewart). Hinduism believes that the people from the higher castes can be reborn in the lower caste or in other life forms if their karma in this lifetime is not good enough (Halverson). The whole ideology and the beliefs of Hinduism faced the greatest challenge during the lifetime of Siddhartha Gautam, who was called the “Buddha” after his enlightenment. During Buddha's time the caste system had dominated the society. Buddha rejected the caste system and insisted that enlightenment or nirvana could be attained by people of any caste (Carlson). He considered the caste system as a hindrance towards self revelation. Anyone could become free from the karmic cycle at once after attaining the Nirvana. He also rejected the Hindu concept of going through millions of life forms before getting free from the karmic cycle. Although Buddha didn’t deny the reincarnation of beings, he denied that a human could be reincarnated into lower caste or lower life forms. According to Buddha a human will reincarnate as a human and not as a cat or a rat, and one would not have to come back to the karmic cycle after attaining Nirvana. Buddhism thus evolved as a reform movement from Hinduism. Hinduism saw “sin” as an obstacle to attaining enlightenment, whereas Buddha saw “ignorance” as an obstacle (Cory). Buddha believed that the world is not “Maya” or illusion but everything was real. He denied the claims of the Brahmanas and the Upanishads that salvation could be attained through worshipping the idols of gods and through sacrifices. He explained that through the idol worshipping people get lost and do not strive hard to discover their own self. Thus people who indulge in idol worshipping would never find Nirvana. As a preacher of peace and harmony among god’s creations Buddha also argued that killing god’s one creation can not lead to the salvation of the other (Fisher). He explained that performing animal sacrifices would not lead to salvation. Instead people would move farther from achieving salvation because of those acts. Buddha also rejected the study of the Vedas because the language and content in the Vedas could not be read and understood by everyone. If Vedas really were a source of attaining salvation, the lower caste people and the illiterates would never be able to attain Nirvana. Therefore he suggested a more approachable way: the Noble Eightfold Path (Fisher). According to Buddha, true liberation can be gained through self-learning and self-discipline. Acting correctly and performing one’s duty correctly would result in Nirvana as suggested by Buddha (Fisher). The ancient Hindu way of acquiring knowledge was through a sage or a learned Brahmin. Buddha rejected this Hindu idea of learning with the help of a teacher. He suggested the people to understand the world by their’ own and experience everything by themselves. One’s self is his/her own teacher according to Buddha (Fisher). Buddha could not agree with Hindu concept of “atman”. He refused to believe that the atman was eternal and changed forms, and instead suggested that soul was “anatman” i.e. unchanging. According to Buddha, the soul once dead would not wander around and would not take another form. There is no eternal self according to Buddha (Fisher). He suggested that nothing is perman...